Aluminum boat manufacturers sometimes slap a few seats into the rear of a boat
and call it a family fishing boat. Tracker’s Targa 185 Sport seems, instead, to give equal weight
to family and fishing. The front is definitely designed for fishing, with seat pedestals, a
19-gallon aerated livewell, and a 55-pound thrust Minn Kota trolling motor mounted on the bow. A
Lowrance X37 fishfinder is standard, as is a center-line rod locker for nine rods and an aft
11-gallon livewell. But here’s where the family comes in. The 185 Sport has a sporty-looking
helm station and four bucket seats that swivel and slide. There are also two jump seats on the
36-inch-by-69-inch aft platform. Add to that a rear ladder, deep cockpit freeboard and a nifty
two-tier gunwale, and you have a boat that any family will love. Power ranges from the 90-hp
Mercury 4-stroke EFI ($22,395) to the 150-hp XL OptiMax ($27,615). Boating World tests the boat
with the 135-hp XL Mercury OptiMax and records a top end of 42.9 mph. The ride is good in flat
water but gets a little lively when the 185 hits some chop at speed.
