What more do you need?

A helm seat, and canvas enclosure would be nice.

Sorry, but when I see a boat like that it kinda makes me wonder if the mfg wasn't trying to appeal to a man's ego, ("Hey, honey, I bought us a boat with a flying bridge.") more than something that makes sense.

The "flying bridge" is too small to do much more than dock the boat or maybe spot fish in the water. To gain that you give up a LOT of what little cockpit space ther was. If one person is standing up there driving because there's no helm down below, he's basically out of the loop of conversation and all the rest of the fun that boating is all about.

No thanks. Give me function over ego any day.

I agree with GFC, needs more boat under it ...

This makes for a good fishing arrangement. Better view and out of the cockpit for more angling room. I would like to see at least a leaning post though.

-Lazy WM

Needs an enclosure and AT LEAST two seats of not more. That is just a waste of money.

The boat reminds me of an older Silverton, around 27 or 29 feet. They were a fishing boat, not a cruising boat. Big difference.

i agree with the others who posted. no seat, no room for others, no thanks. one of the reasons we bought our boat is for it's fly bridge. we wanted an extra entertainment area on the boat and i didn't want to be up there all alone driving everyone else around. for a boat its size, i've got extraordinary flybridge room. i can fit 6 american sized adult passengers plus an american sized adult captain up there very comfortably.

Our flybridge is a bit on the small side, but not that small. We can get 2 or 3 adults on ours, and that is about it.

Ours has the helm seat, a jump seat, and a recliner.

Part of it is the design of the helm. In later years, the flybridge was rearranged to hold 4 or 5 adults.

Seats and more room. We've looked at a few flybridge boats, but never pulled the trigger due to lack of room on the bridge. I love the look of a flybridge, but the added cockpit seating on a regular express cruiser makes more sense.

We have our aft deck setup for additional seating if needed.

It sure keeps the "too top heavy" and lots of instability that often comes with it on a too short and narrow a hull boat out of the picture.

that looks to be a late 70's-early 80's boat. And while it may not be the most comfy, there's room for a couple of guests to sit. And since there HAS to be some access to the space under the helm, there may be enough space for the captain to sit...

I love flybridges! I REALLY love mine, at 12' wide it's got plenty of party space!

My Sea Ray bridge boat had a 12' beam and a flybridge that seated six adults comfortably (and safely).

Skipjack sold a ton of their 20 and 24' flybridge boats and they weren't much larger than the one in the picture.

And they were pretty much just fishing boats.

There is a Chris Craft in our marina that has a shortie flybridge quite similar to Seabuddy's photo, although it does have two seats.

Are we talking about boats that, in order of placement, have the boat bottom, engines, full headroom in the main cabin, then the Fly Bridge...

... or like alot of smaller boats that locate the engines under the aft cockpit so they are not adding to the Fly Bridge floor height with the engines, etc... such that its the boat bottom, full height and headroom in the main cabin next, and then the Fly Bridge or...

...Less than 7' main cabin headroom?

...or some combo that positions the Fly Bridge such that it submurgies (sp) into, in back of, or front of, the main salon?

Flybridges are commonly found on both Aft Cabin and Convertible/Sedan style boats.

If you compare BToran's boat and mine, the boat's hull comes out of the same identical mold, but the upper half is a different mold.

His boat has the engines at the rear, under the aft cockpit, where mine has the engines mid-ships, under the salon.

This provides room in the aft cabin for my boat without it being overly high.

Inside, I have about 6'2" of head room in the salon, and I believe Bruce's boat is 6'3". But one spot in my boat, from the floor of the galley to the ceiling, is over 8ft high. That light bulb up there is a pain to change. In a cramped boat, its almost cathedral like.

To accommodate the different interior, the cabin in Bruce's boat is a bit longer, which gives him a slightly longer flybridge.

On the other hand, some of the "flybridge" boats (like mine) do not have a lower helm. But it was an option. So I think one distinction might be that a flybridge is a second helm, regardless of whether one actually exists on that particular model or not (Bruce has a lower helm, I think).

Some of the newer aft cabins have a flybridge I suppose, but it kind of melts into the aft porch. But those boats were never intended to have a lower helm, so I am not sure if I would call it a flybridge or not. An example of this boat is a Cruisers 395/415, of which there is one at our dock. If you take down all of the canvas (and if it didn't have a hard top), I suppose it looks like it has a flybridge.

So I suppose it depends on your thought as to what a flybridge is.

So your engine and his engines different locations within the hull (yours under the main salon and his under the cockpit out back) allow for about a 3' lower-to-the-water flybridge in the same hull, which lowers the center of gravity, which should allow for more weight up there per amount of tippy-ness.

Photo of a boat for sale.

Historic ad for Skipjack.

"Historic"?

I almost bought a new one years ago. I guess I'm getting old...

Skipjack's were also sold under the Wellcraft name for a few years.

I have a few of both the Skipjack and Wellcraft versions of factory brochures in my catalog/brochure collection.

Skippy recently brought back the 24' Open, which is the same hull as the flying bridge pictured above. It comes std with the diesel I/O. It starts out around $90K...

More their words than mine.

I do not remember Wellcraft sharing anything with Skipjack other than the hull of their Step-lift 20'.

I thought this was the Skipjack version.

Yeah, a few models.

They even used the same pics that you posted of the yellow flybridge in the Wellcraft brochure.

But it showed the Wellcraft stickers on the hull...

Yep, it is.

Wellcraft used a few of the Skippy models.

The pic of the 24 Open is a newer model than that of the yellow flybridge, and is the same mold as the new version sold today.

Check out the strakes on the hull...