Starcraft Renegade 178 DC Review

The Starcraft Renegade 178 DC puts pro features into a versatile fishing boat that anyone can afford.

While most anglers would love a fully rigged tournament boat, not many welcome the high price tag that often goes along with it. That’s to say nothing of the added expense of having to buy a large truck to tow it. Enter the Starcraft Renegade 178 DC, a versatile multi-species fishing rig that offers a great balance between advanced features and old-fashioned value.

The Starcraft Renegade 178 DC stretches 18 feet, five inches in overall length, boasts a generous 92-inch beam, and rides on Starcraft’s legendary Power-Trac reverse-chine hull design. It’s a proven platform that provides an effective balance between the easy planning of a traditional modified-V hull and the rough water comfort of a deep-V design. The interior layout follows a proven footprint with a large, raised casting deck in the bow and a full-depth main cockpit with a smaller raised deck spanning its open stern. It’s a tried-and-true formula that works very well.

The Renegade’s spacious bow deck offers plenty of room for two anglers to fish without bumping elbows.

The raised bow deck is finished in durable marine vinyl, a flooring that wears like iron and dries much faster than old-style carpet. The front deck has a raised pad for mounting an electric motor, with the electrical connection and a trim switch for the main engine in an adjacent panel. There’s a storage compartment in the deck for bulky gear, as well as an 18-gallon live well with a bait bucket. Down the center line, an in-floor rod locker with six individual tubes is accessed through a panel that lifts between the consoles.

A large rod locker in the bow deck protects six rods in individual tubes.

The main cockpit also features tough vinyl flooring, making the entire boat a cinch to clean at the end of the day. Plenty of freeboard in the cockpit provides added comfort when fishing in larger swells, while creating enough room to accommodate a top-loading rod locker in each gunnel as well. There’s also an oversized storage locker in the main cockpit floor.

In-gunnel rod lockers are surprisingly deep, providing useful storage space that’s easily accessed.

The Renegade comes with Starcraft’s Integrated Gunnel Track System (IGTS) as standard equipment, making it easy to mount rod holders, downriggers or other accessories anywhere in the boat without having to drill any holes.

The helm console offers plenty of space for a big flush-mount, touch-screen display. A neat row of illuminated toggle switches for electrical equipment like lights and the live well pumps sit to the right of the wheel, along with a 12-volt accessory outlet and twin USB outlets. To the left of the wheel, there’s a standard AM/FM stereo that streams music directly from your phone via Bluetooth.

The helm is all business, with space for a flush-mounted MDF to the right of the sport steering wheel.

The equally spacious passenger console provides a cavernous glove box up top for storing valuables safely out of harm’s way, plus a pair of drink holders and a useful grab handle.

Across the stern, the Renegade features a second raised casting deck that houses further storage in its base, plus a second 25-gallon live well. Two live wells? Absolutely –they let anglers keep their catches separate if they compete in the occasional weekend tournament, or allow one well to be used for bait while the other stores the catch.

It’s an optional upgrade, but most buyers will probably want the available split bench seat that offers greater comfort to passengers. Folded forward when not in use, it extends the aft casting deck, almost doubling its size.

An available split bench seat option across the stern gives the Starcraft Renegade 178 DC even greater versatility by providing a full-width bench seat when you need to carry passengers, and folding down to create an even larger rear casting deck when you don’t.

Running on Starcraft’s Power-Trac hull, the Renegade 178 DC planes easily and reaches top speeds of over 45 mph with an Evinrude 150 G2 on the transom.

The Starcraft Renegade 178 DC is rated to handle outboards of up to 150 horsepower. The Evinrude E-TEC 150 G2 bolted to our review boat ran like an absolute champion, planing easily, accelerating quickly and attaining a top speed of well over 45 mph. That’s truly outstanding performance for a recreational fishing boat that can seat up to seven people.

Starcraft Renegade 178 DC