You’ve had your heart set on a bowrider for a while now. You love the forward seating and the compact size. If possible, you’d love a mid-sized bowrider that’s about 20 feet or under. Which is the best boat in this category?
We recommend the VR4 bowrider by Bayliner as the best bowrider under 20 feet. This impressive boat is 18 feet, 10 inches long, making it just the perfect size for bringing a group of friends or family and enjoying the open water.
If you’re unfamiliar with Bayliner’s VR4 bowrider, this is the article for you. In it, we’ll cover all the features and specs of the bowrider, touching on what makes the VR4 such a winning boat. We’ll even suggest a few other bowriders that are at or under the 20-foot mark. Keep reading!
An Introduction to the Best Bowrider Under 20 Feet: The Bayliner VR4
Bayliner is a recreational boat manufacturer that’s the biggest of its kind. Orin Edson founded the company in 1957, and it’s grown rapidly in the decades since. By 1987, Brunswick Corporation bought Bayliner from Edson to the tune of $425 million. Brunswick Corporation was once called the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company and worked in areas like marketing, manufacturing, and development.
Today, Bayliner has dealers in more than 60 countries, with over 400 dealers available to sell the brand’s wake sports vehicles, deck boats, center consoles, and bowriders. In Mexico, you can find Bayliner facilities in Tamaulipas and Reynosa. The US facilities are in Washington (Arlington) and Tennessee (Dandridge and Knoxville).
Specs
With that bit of background out of the way, let’s take a closer look at the Bayliner VR4 bowrider, shall we? As mentioned, the overall length of the VR4 is 18 feet, 10 inches. It’s a tidy, small boat that won’t feel too constricting among your friends and family. You can fit seven people onboard with ease.
The VR4 has a beam length of seven feet, six inches, and a deadrise of 19 degrees. Its draft is estimated to be two feet, 10 inches. The max available horsepower OB is 150 HP, and the max available horsepower I/O is 200 HP. The fuel capacity for the VR4 is 33 gallons.
This Bayliner bowrider weighs approximately 2,822 pounds when outfitted with the standard engine.
Features
Bayliner calls the VR4 “nimble,” a descriptor that quite aptly captures the essence of this bowrider. As part of the VR Series, the VR4 has a lengthy and rich pedigree. It’s designed to include all the latest evolutionary features in the VR Series, such as Bayliner’s AftAdvantage and BeamForward designs.
With AftAdvantage, you get an extra seating area in the rear that you can adjust, so it becomes the running surface’s aft-most point. This opens up more space for your swim platform so you can make wonderful summertime memories with your favorite people aboard the VR4. Your cockpit will feel so spacious that you’ll hardly believe you’re captaining a bowrider under 20 feet.
With BeamForward, the positioning of the full beam is more forward than on other bowriders, and the gunnels are higher as well. This increases your capacity and provides greater comfort aboard the boat. You’ll have more storage under your seats and more legroom for each of your passengers as well. That will make your VR4 the boat to be on.
These features afford you the space to use your bowrider your way, such as changing the seating configuration, removing or readjusting the backrests, and adding sun pad cushion inserts for a nice, comfy sunbathing nook.
When the boating season comes to an end, you won’t have to question where you’ll put your VR4. It’s small enough that you can easily store it in your garage. This saves you money on boat storage since you don’t have to pay a cent! You can also check on your bowrider anytime, maintaining it throughout the year, so it’s ready to run come the spring.
If you often struggle with launching a bigger boat, the VR4 from Bayliner will put those problems behind you. Its lightweight, portable size makes launching simple. That gives you more time on the water and less wasted struggling with a trailer.
Here are some fishing features included with the VR4:
- Trolling motor bracket with a plug that runs on 12 volts
- Bow casting seat and platform
- Lowrance HOOK2 4X fish finder
- Rear bench seat with its own aerated livewell beneath it
Bayliner paid close attention to its seating with these features:
- Bow filler cushion
- Bow wind block
- Aft filler cushion
- Supersport seating
The cockpit of the VR4 makes sitting, dining, and relaxing a luxurious experience with:
- Cockpit table
- Gray or teak cockpit flooring mat
- AM/FM stereo at 120 watts with an MP3 player; the whole thing is waterproof
- In-floor wakeboard and ski storage
- Helm seating that swivels 180 degrees
- A glove box
- Fuel fill with an integrated vent
- Four mooring cleats
- Six grab handles
- Six cup holders
- Two standard speakers
The standard engine of the VR4 is a Mercury FourStroke EFI Outboard that runs at 115 HP. Within the engine compartment are:
- A blower (12 volts)
- Bilge pump (1,200 gallons per hour)
- Battery switch
The deck and hull are outfitted with:
- A swim platform, complete with a telescoping ladder
- A sport windshield with an opening center panel
- Fiberglass floor liner
- Navigation lights, each 12 volts
- Three transom and bow eyes
Here are some other features to enjoy with the Bayliner VR4 bowrider:
- Interior and exterior lighting, including rear underwater lights and LED docking lights
- Digital depth indicator and a high-altitude prop
- A six-foot Bimini top with a boot
- A wakeboard rack, an Xtreme tower with its own Bimini top, and a ski tow pylon for watersports lovers
- Hydraulic steering
- Deck windshield with side wings and an opening center panel
Pricing
The cost of your VR4 depends on the features you add, but the base price starts at around $31,000.
Bayliner gives you many options for customizing your bowrider to your liking. Right away, you can choose from chestnut or graphite interior colors as well as the hull colors, with hues like gray, white, black, and navy blue available.
Depending on what other changes you want to make to your boat, the price of the VR4 will increase. Here are the extra options along with their costs:
- Lowrance HOOK2 4X fish finder: $250
- Trolling motor bracket: $325
- Aerated livewell: $750
- Premium graphics: $180
- Digital depth indicator: $315
- Glass dash screen that shows engine data: $1,845
- Swim platforms: $330
- Cockpit flooring: $975
- Snap-in seagrass woven floor covering: $560
- Exterior lighting package: $575
- Interior lighting package: $95
- Dual bow speakers: $80
- Bimini top: $690
- Windshield with side wings and an opening center panel: $290
- Supersport seating: $1,075
- Cockpit table: $295
- Xtreme watersports tower: $2,760
- Power steering: $995
Those features are an abbreviated list of extras, so you can see how it can get expensive quickly. If you want a different engine than the Mercury FourStroke, you have to pay for that as well. Here are your engine options and their costs:
- MerCruiser 4.5-liter MPI Sterndrive at 200 HP: $2,780
- MerCruiser ECT 4.5-liter MPI Sterndrive at 200 HP: $2,850
- Mercury FourStroke EFI Outboard at 150 HP: $4,995
- Mercury Pro XS XL Outboard at 150 HP: $575
- Mercury FourStroke EFI CommandThrust Outboard at 115 HP: $430
Which Other Bowriders Under 20 Feet Might You Consider?
It’s always good to have options. That’s why we’d like to recommend a few more bowriders that are 20 feet or under for your consideration.
MasterCraft X20
Seattle-based MasterCraft produces the X20, a beloved bowrider with a 98-inch beam, 47-gallon fuel capacity, and an overall weight of 4,800 pounds. Able to accommodate 12 people, the hefty X20 can also carry 1,595 pounds with ease.
The Gen 2 Surf System makes turning, handling, and maneuvering the bowrider feels extraordinarily natural. Bonus storage room and convertible transom seats are other great features, as are these:
- A twin-tip design that opens up the bow
- A touchscreen captain’s dashboard for optimal control
- Under-seat storage
- An Igloo cooler than can hold 36 quarts and is built right into the boat
- Coffin storage on the other side of the boat for 10 cubic feet of extra storage
Bayliner 170
If you’d prefer to stick with Bayliner, their 170 bowrider is 17 feet, six inches. It can hold six passengers, and it has a max engine power of 130 HP.
The transom swim ladder telescopes for easy access into and out of the water. All upholstery is Bayliner premium. Within the cockpit, you’ll find two bucket seats, an extensive freeboard, and a broad aft bench for your comfort and convenience.
Conclusion
If you want a bowrider that’s a beast but still under 20 feet, we recommend Bayliner’s VR4. It’s fairly priced, dependable, and it can fit more passengers than you think. Bayliner made great use of every square inch of space, from under-seat livewells to hidden storage, fold-down features, and more. Maybe the Bayliner VR4 will be your next bowrider!
