Caymas 291 Review
Mention the name Earl Bentz, the founder of Caymas Boats, and people who know boating automatically think of freshwater fishing. After all, Bentz is a member of the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame and the founder of Stratos, Javelin, and Triton, boat builders that manufactured high-end, wood-free bass boats under his watch. That may seem like a pretty indirect path to the Caymas 291, a center console hybrid I tested recently in Fort Lauderdale, but it will soon make sense.
What many people don’t know is that Bentz has saltwater in his veins, having grown up near Charleston, South Carolina, where he started working at his uncle’s marine dealership. In 1975, he agreed to work at Hydra-Sports in Nashville, a builder of freshwater boats, but only if he could help develop saltwater boats for them. Even the name Caymas refers to a festival in the Cayman Islands, where he would take his family every year on spring break. There, his wife and three daughters went to the beach, and he went offshore fishing; it was everyone’s happy place.
In 2018, Bentz decided retirement wasn’t for him, so he founded Caymas Boats, which builds both salt- and freshwater boats. The Caymas 291 is the flagship of its Hybrid line, and it differs from the others in this lineup in a significant way: It lacks a forward casting deck. That adjustment gives anglers more room to fish offshore while enjoying the protection of the generous freeboard, which maxes out at 28 inches toward the bow and measures 26 inches in the aft fishing cockpit. A raised aft platform gives sight casters a height advantage.
At a Glance: Caymas 291
CAYMAS BOATS 291
- Comfortable offshore and in skinny water
- A lineage that spans decades and multiple builders
- Buyer’s choice of outboard brands
- Lack of a ski tow option for watersports
- Could get stuffy behind windshield without a vent
- Small head compartment
- Anglers looking for a two-in-one fishing platform
- Fishing families that need a degree of entertainment versatility
- Buyers who like the idea of a head but don’t need a cabin
Specifications
- LOA: 28 feet, 6 inches
- Beam: 9 feet, 6 inches
- Deadrise: 18.5 degrees
- Draft: 18 inches (engines up)
- Dry weight: 4,500 pounds
- Fuel: 200 gallons
- Maximum horsepower: 600
- Price: Consult a dealer
Power and Performance
- Engines: Twin Mercury Verado 300 hp outboards
- Cylinders: V8
- Displacement: 4.6L
- Dry weight: 600 pounds
- Top speed: 59.6 mph
- Best cruise: 34.7 mph @ 3500 rpm 18 gph = 1.93 mpg
- Time to plane: 3.7 seconds
- Time to 30 mph: 6.9 seconds
Features We Love
- Stepped V Ventilated Tunnel hull
- Bob’s Double Jac hydraulic jack plate
- One-piece stringer system
- U-shaped bow seating group
- Trapezoidal 328-quart fish box
- Two in-floor 130-quart fish boxes
- Chaise lounge for two
- 250-quart insulated cooler/storage compartment
- Elevated casting deck
- 35-gallon livewell
- Rigid Frigid cooler
- Pair of 19-inch chartplotter screens
- Glass windshield
- Upper station
- Lenco trim tabs
- Optional Seakeeper 1 gyrostabilizer
- Optional 18-foot Gemlux outriggers
Design and Construction
Startup companies usually have a difficult time finding experienced workers, but Bentz was fortunate. In 2005, he sold Triton to Brunswick, which owns companies such as Mercury Marine and Sea Ray. Brunswick eventually sold Triton to the White River Marine Group, part of Bass Pro Shops, in 2010, but Bentz stayed on as CEO. Shortly after the purchase, White River elected to consolidate its manufacturing by moving production from Ashland City, near Nashville, to its Ranger factory in Flippin, Arkansas.
When Bentz started Caymas in 2018, he purchased the former Triton facility in Tennessee and hired many of its former employees, some of whom had been with Bentz since the 1970s. Caymas spent an additional $30 million to expand and modernize the plant.
Michael Peters designed the Caymas 291. The marine industry veteran has designed more than 500 boats during his career, including models for Bertram, Chris-Craft, Hinkley, and Valhalla, to name a few. The 291 features a double Stepped V Ventilated Tunnel (SVVT) hull. That hull, combined with a Bob’s Double Jac hydraulic jack plate, can run in as little as 18 inches of water. As a result, this near 29-footer is as at home in the backcountry of the Everglades as in the indigo waters off the Continental Shelf.
Caymas builds the hull, deck, and one-piece stringer system using a vinylester resin vacuum infusion system that pulls the resin into the bagged, vacuumed part, saturates the hand-laid fiberglass, and then extracts the excess. The Zero-flex, one-piece stringer is bonded into place using Crestafix B39 adhesive putty, which makes the bond stronger than its surrounding structure, and then the stringer is glassed in place. Most builders either bond the stringer grid or fiberglass it in, but few do both. The transom is built from a Tri-core composite, with no wood.
Caymas 291 Bow
Although the Caymas 291 is primarily designed as a fishing boat, it also caters to recreational boaters with features such as the U-shaped bow seating group, rather than a forward casting platform like on its other hybrids. The bowrider seatbacks are well-padded, offer a comfortable recline angle, and are removable. An optional table helps turn the bow into a social gathering spot.
Two dry storage compartments reside under the seats. They are accessed with a paddle latch that doesn’t require anyone to remove the padded seat bottom.
They stay fully open on their own, making it easy to load gear. Caymas set a giant trapezoidal 328-quart fish box into the foredeck between the seating group. It features a Gemlux slam-latch, so you don’t have to reach down and twist or untwist the dog to use it. Caymas uses this latch on other hatches, including the two on the in-floor 130-quart fish boxes and on the livewells.
A chaise lounge for two sits in front of the console. Underneath its contoured seat bottom is a 250-quart insulated cooler/storage compartment with a paddle latch that facilitates one-handed operation. (Seeing a trend, here?)
Stern
Our test boat did not lack rod holders at the stern. Caymas mounted four in the center and set two into the gunwales on both sides. The elevated casting deck features a pronounced raised lip to keep anglers from strolling over the edge if they become too focused on making the perfect presentation. The transom bench seat’s flip-up backrest doesn’t wobble around when you step on it when it’s not in use.
A standard 35-gallon livewell is set into the starboard side of the deck, and buyers have the option to plumb the matching compartment to port as an additional livewell.
A pair of platformettes angle outward, and the one to starboard has a four-step boarding ladder set into a recessed pocket to allow dockside boarders to stand on it. The easiest pathway for boarding from a dock is through the optional portside tuna/dive door, the inside of which features a spot to secure a collapsible boarding ladder.
Caymas 291 Cockpit
To create room for the rear casting deck, Peters borrowed space from the aft cockpit, which measures 26 inches deep and 91 inches wide, making it a bit tight for anglers who fish there in rougher conditions. Kudos, though, to the designers for adding a grab rail on the back of the leaning post. Anglers who like to stand when running to the fishing grounds have something to hang onto.
On the back of the leaning post is convenient tackle storage, and buyers can add a cutting board to make it a bait prep station. Four more rod holders are on the back of the helm seats. Add those to the seven on the hardtop, the six on the sides of the chaise lounge, and the eight at the stern, and you have 25 to choose from. Buyers can add six more to the gunwales, which is almost enough.
To keep everyone refreshed, add the optional Rigid Frigid cooler that slides out from underneath the helm seats. Owners can also choose a Yeti 65 cooler if they prefer.
Helm
The compact helm leaves a generous 22-inch walkway on its perimeter, making it easy for anglers to follow a rampaging fish all the way around the boat.
The dash is just wide enough for a pair of 19-inch chartplotter screens, and all of the accessory switches are back-lit push buttons.
A glass windshield that connects to the relatively narrow hardtop protects the crew. Side windows provide additional spray protection. Our test boat was upgraded with an optional Release Marine teak base for the twin throttles.
Standard helm seating on the Caymas 291 is a simple leaning post, but our boat included the Llebroc fiberglass seat option.
Caymas 291 Upper Station
Buyers who want to maximize this boat’s fishing potential should add the upper station. Its elevated view atop the hardtop will allow the driver to spot weed lines, birds, and free-swimming fish. It’s also useful for spotting fish inshore and finding the deepest path to run in shallow water.
Head
Caymas created just enough room inside the console to add a porcelain head with a dockside pumpout. It feels a little tight with only 66 inches of headroom.
Power Options
Unlike Triton, which maintained a strong historical relationship with Mercury, Caymas isn’t tied to one manufacturer. Buyers can choose Mercury, Yamaha, or Suzuki outboards.
Mercury engine choices peak with twin 4.6L V8 300 Verados or twin Mercury Racing R300s. The maximum power with Suzuki is twin DF250s, and Yamaha power tops the list with twin F350s. Entry-level power for Yamaha and Suzuki is dual in-line four-cylinder 200s, which seems too low for this boat. It’s a choice that will certainly hurt the boat’s resale value.
Our test boat had twin Mercury Verado 300s, which felt like the proper amount of power.
Caymas 291 Performance and Fuel Economy
With a pair of Mercury 300 Verado outboards, the Caymas 291 felt dialed in. Because this boat is designed to run in shallow water, despite its 28-foot, 6-inch length, you need enough horsepower to get it on plane quickly to avoid dragging the outboards’ skegs. That wasn’t a problem for this boat.
A moderate deadrise—18.5 degrees on the Caymas 291—helps a boat get going quicker than a deep-V hull. A tunnel, though, can sometimes slow down holeshots because the tunnel’s void has to fill with water before the props bite properly. Apparently, the tunnel isn’t wide or deep enough to adversely affect the Caymas 291’s acceleration. It reached plane in 3.7 seconds, and I never lost the horizon during acceleration. The 291 reached 30 mph in 6.9 seconds, which is quick for a 4,500-pound hull.
Buyers can add Zip Wake Pro trim tabs, which automatically control side-to-side roll and the bow’s up and down motion to help it run level at the proper attitude. They also adjust the amount of heel in turns. Holeshots are better with this dynamic boat control system, too, as it keeps the bow down for quick launches. Our test boat had standard 14-inch-by-14-inch Lenco trim tabs, but I never touched them; the boat ran level during our sea trial.
Twin-stepped hulls are designed to stretch fuel economy by introducing air under the hull to reduce drag, and the Peters design worked as advertised. At a comfortable cruise speed of about 35 mph, the engines got nearly 2 mpg at 3500 rpm. Top speed reached 59.6 mph. Other independent tests with a pair of Yamaha F350s topped 62 mph.
Handling
The seas running through the Port Everglades Inlet in Fort Lauderdale were lumpy and flattened out to 2-footers offshore. I expected a rougher ride given the boat’s relatively flat 18.5-degree deadrise, but the transit was surprisingly smooth. When it launched off the odd 3-footer while cruising fast, the landing revealed how solid the hull is. Nothing rattled.
At more moderate speeds, it carved tight turns and exhibited no bow steering. Even though most hybrids are fair-weather boats, the Caymas 291 has enough length, freeboard, and stability to give drivers the confidence to head offshore.
Who Is the Caymas 291 For?
The Caymas 291 checks many boxes for potential buyers. Unlike smaller hybrids, it features enough seating and room to take up to 12 passengers for a day on the water. While it skews mostly to the fishing side, it also functions well as a fun-in-the-sun day boat.
With a beam of 9 feet, 6 inches, it’s narrow enough and light enough to tow easily without having to jump through too many regulatory hoops.
Trick It Out
White gelcoat is standard, but buyers can choose from 11 hull color choices, including six different shades of blue.
An optional Seakeeper 1 gyrostabilizer mounts beneath the leaning post and all but eliminates side-to-side rolling at anchor, when drifting, or trolling.
Offshore anglers should add 18-foot Gemlux outriggers, max out the available rod holders, and add a 36-volt Minn Kota trolling motor.
If you know you’re going to take the boat on the road often, add the custom Sport Trail trailer option.
Challenges
I didn’t see an option to add a filler sectional for the bow seating group. That would turn it into a sunning area with cushions in place and create a casting platform with the cushions stowed. The front-of-the-console chaise lounge has a tall, well-padded backrest, but I think it sits too upright for total comfort.
While the full-size windshield provides good protection, it could use a vent to provide ventilation on steamy days.
Recreational boaters would likely appreciate a ski tow option, and anglers might want an option for lithium-ion batteries for the trolling motor.
Caymas 291 Conclusions
The Caymas 291 is an all-around performer for owners looking to fish or boat more recreationally. It’s a premium boat that is priced accordingly. While the Caymas website has a build-a-boat section for choosing options, only a dealer can reveal the price. I found one listed on the Boatmart marketplace for $463,828 (that has since sold). It was loaded with optional features such as the Release Marine Teak seating and helm upgrade, along with twin, custom-painted Mercury Racing 300s.
For a lot of buyers, this is two or three boats in one, making it more of a deal than the price would suggest.
Caymas Boats For Sale
Alan Jones
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