2019 McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser review

It’s also following its own course. Where fellow Kiwi brand Stabicraft prides itself on boats battle-hardened for the extreme and savage environments that New Zealand’s spectacular coastline can throw at it, McLay takes a step back to focus as much on ease of ownership as it does seaworthiness.

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Each year the brand builds around more than 200 cuddy cabs, side and centre console boats, more general models that offer family-friendly comforts, and hardtops. It now even makes amphibious boats that drive out of the water onto land.

The boat we’re interested in is the McLay Gen2 Cruiser, a hard-topped, purpose-built fishing boat. It lands here bearing a reputation as a tough, well-built coastal hack with a focus on safety and handling – after all, the company’s proving ground just happens to be the South Pacific Ocean.

Our test boat is the McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser, the 7.1-metre entry-level hardtop in the three-model line-up that includes the mid-size 751 and the top-end 801.

Don’t go looking at the prices that McLay boats sell for in New Zealand; the ones landing here arrive with a much richer list of standard features compared with those sold to our cousins across the ditch.

Warragul Marine Centre is offering boat, motor and trailer packages for the McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser starting from $105,990. The default boat comes fitted with a Suzuki DF175A 175hp four-stroke in-line four-cylinder outboard engine and sitting on an electric-braked dual-axle Dunbier Supa Rolla drive-on trailer.

Standard boats include two sliding windows in the wheelhouse. There is also a single windscreen wiper with the option of adding a second, and as is Nyalic protective coating on the McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser’s exposed aluminium. Paint is an option, costing $3300 extra as tested.

The cabin is fully lined, and a transom-mounted bait board slides across to reveal a fish bin. Other standard kit includes a plumbed bait tank, LED navigation and cabin/wheelhouse lights, sliding wheelhouse windows, and in the non-bulkhead version, a pair of deluxe helm seats.

The owners of this boat have ticked the box for a fully lined rear aluminium bulkhead with drop down windows and locking door for an extra $5830. Spend another $1223 and the aluminium bi-fold door swaps out for a full-length glass version.

Our test boat also features the maximum-rated 250hp Suzuki four-stroke V6 outboard engine and a few added extras that round the price out to about $140,000.

McLay fits its boats with Savwinch drum winches, but Warragul Marine swaps out the packages arriving here to a locally made Lone Star. The anchor hanging off our test boat’s bowsprit was upgraded from galvanised to stainless steel.

If you really love your fishing, you can even have the boat delivered with a davit to haul cray pots and the like.

The McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser is an aluminium plate boat built in New Zealand. The smallest of the three-model Gen2 Cruiser range, it is built using marine grade aluminium that is 5mm thick for the hull bottom and reverse chines, and 4mm thick for the sides, topsides and wheelhouse.

The keel is also fitted with an extra 10mm of reinforcement along its waterline.

The floor is aluminium, but uses 4mm thick checkerplate and is incorporated into a subfloor flotation tank. Stacked side pockets in the Gen2 Cruiser mean it does not have buoyancy foam filling the space under the gunnels (other McLay models do) so it only meets basic, not level, flotation standards.

All flat surfaces are sanded, and the entire boat is coated in Nyalic, a surface application developed for the US space program, to help protect the aluminium from oxidation. Australian-delivered boats come with a spray can of it so owners can recoat any scratches or dings.

The McLay’s superstructure has few screws and no rivets visible. When screws are used to attach fittings in the wheelhouse, attention to detail appears to be a high priority; all the crosses in the Phillips heads on our test boat align perfectly.

The hull of the McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser is built with an 18-degree variable deadrise at the portofino-styled transom, with plumb sides making it wide at the waterline for increased stability particularly at rest. The Gen2 boats, launched in 2017, also use a revised sheer line that opens up more internal space than the first generation of the boat.

At the rear, transducers and Lectrotab trim tabs mount onto to separate brackets welded to either side of the transom so that no holes need to be drilled. A neat trick is a hydraulically locked tube mounted in the transom that feeds wiring outside to the level of the plate.

The McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser is a wheelhouse-equipped fishing boat with a large, clutter-free cockpit boasting 800mm of internal freeboard. Its 7.0 metre-plus length makes it very well suited to offshore expeditions.

By default, seating is available for four people, with two fixed seats for skipper and co-pilot inside the wheelhouse, and a pair of jump seats that back onto the bulkhead outside it.

The external seats, which on our test boat sit over a storage box to port and a two-burner gas stove to starboard, are protected from the elements by the wheelhouse sides and an extended roof.

If you regularly cart extra bodies, a fold-up bench hanging off the transom is available.

Forward of the wheelhouse is an angled deck that forms the roof of a good-sized cabin with windows letting in plenty of natural light. The fully lined cabin has no exposed aluminium and includes a 1.6-metre V-berth with an optional electric-flush head mounted in between the bunks.

The cabin has plenty of shelving running down the port side, and a hammock-style hanging shelf to starboard. A large hatch provides airflow and access to the bow. Infills turn the V-berth into a large bunk, and a pull-across curtain provides privacy.

Access is good, although head and shoulder room between the consoles is a little tight if you plan on accessing the space in rougher weather.

Head aft and the cockpit is nicely uncluttered. Anyone keen on fishing will notice a cockpit with about 2.2 metres of space from edge of the wheelhouse to the transom, a decent 800mm of internal freeboard and a stepped tumblehome rather than a solid edge on the gunnels that is kind to fishing rods and shorter anglers who might run out of room on a down-stroke.

Fishing rod holders are welded into the soft-touch Ultraron-surfaced topdecks, as are a pair of industrial strength-looking cleats that match the single one up on the bow. Two large, stacked pockets run down each side, with the top one lined and the lower one left in raw aluminium. A raw water washdown is mounted in the lower starboard pocket.

There’s a lot of unpainted aluminium in the cockpit. Our test boat was fitted with reed-style rubber flooring to help with grip, not to mention softening the zone’s reflective finish. It also indicates there are no underfloor storage options available.

The coamings lack bolsters, but the huge amount of internal freeboard and great all-around toe space means there’s no real pressure on your legs when working over the sides.

The transom has a dive door to port that’s a lift-out plate. It stows into a slot on the starboard transom when it needs to be out of the way. The step-through part of the transom doubles as a plumbed and aerated 55-litre live bait tank, complete with a window.

McLay offers an unusual option for the 701 Gen2 Cruiser’s transom; a pair of cages that mount on the duckboards. If you gamefish, this allows you to safely step outside the boat to chase a line around the outboard engine. If you dive, part of the cage drops down to become a ladder.

An alloy bait board with a drawer can slide across to reveal another large transom space that can be used for storage or even as a rubbish bin. You can use it as a fish bin, but aluminium is a heat sink so any ice slurries exposed to the metal won’t last long. There’s plenty of cockpit space to instead use a chilly bin; that's Kiwi for icebox.

To starboard, a sealed SOPAC hatch provides a watertight enclosure for the house and engine batteries and extra storage space.

The visibility of the bilge under the transom is good from anywhere in the cockpit, and access is easy. A 7500L/h bilge pump is standard.

Our McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser came with an optional flip-over beaching ladder fitted to the high railing running around the bow. It’s a great idea but is probably a rung short of being easy to use once the nose of the boat is laid up against the sand. We’re told a longer ladder is available.

The same goes for the rear boarding ladder, which flips up to fit neatly on the duckboard, but in doing so is a little short to be practical. Again, the smart option is there to go longer.

It's a small thing, but the fuel filler cap is located centrally on the transom so you don't have to remember which side it is on when pulling up at a petrol station.

Our test boat was fitted with an optional bulkhead and a fully rubber-sealed bi-fold door to provide a completely enclosed wheelhouse. Both the door and bulkhead are aluminium, and the weather protection the design affords is top-notch.

Inside there’s standard seating for two people with storage underneath, but if conditions are particularly dirty, another two people can stand between the seats and use overhead grab rails to hold on. Both sides of the console have angled footrests for comfort.

A purpose-made “door seat” cushion and backrest comes with the bulkhead option. If the trip is a long one, four people can sit comfortably.

The fully lined split console (it also provides access to the cabin) has a huge dash reaching forward to the leading edge of the two-pane wrap-around windscreen. The co-pilot has a big, deep and well-sealed glovebox flush-mounted in front of the seat.

On the skipper’s side, there’s enough room on the console to fit up to a 16-inch touchscreen – our test boat was fitted with a 12-inch Garmin unit.

Also mounted on the skipper’s dash are controls for the trim tabs and the Lone Star drum winch, a screen with Suzuki engine data, and a digital voltmeter with USB recharging ports.

Switchgear for lights and other electronics are mounted low on the vertical surface of the console. They’re a bit out of the way if you need to access them quickly.

Overhead, the brow of the wheelhouse is fitted with separate GME 27Mhz and VHF radios, and a Fusion audio system pumping out tunes via two speakers in the wheelhouse, and another two in the cockpit.

This is a relatively new hull for McLay that increases the internal volume while attempting to retain what the boat maker claims is its strong stability and handling.

We had a perfect day to test that out on a run from Victoria’s Port Welshpool to Refuge Cove on the eastern side of Wilsons Promontory. A strong northwesterly had whipped up the relatively shallow waters around the Singapore Deep creating choppy conditions for our trip out.

Our McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser test boat was fitted with the maximum-rated Suzuki DF250 250hp four-stroke outboard engine boasting the very latest in lean-burn technology.

Combined with the relative featherweight 1150kg hull, the Suzuki powerplant feels strong and lithe. The fly-by-wire throttle falls easily to hand, with the McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser leaping up out of the hole and onto the plane. A small criticism is the throttle’s sensitivity, which makes fine adjustments to speed fiddly.

The McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser felt comfortable in all the conditions a lumpy Corner Inlet threw at it. On an outgoing tide and with the nose trimmed down it skipped across the chop with the bow’s fine entry slicing easily through the water.

On the way back facing almost directly into the wind, even hard landings off the top of the swell were fairly fuss-free without the normal banging you’d expect from an aluminium-hulled boat, in part because of the fully lined cabin muting the sound.

The Seastar hydraulic steering is a little slow, but the upside is that it doesn’t feel heavy; rather, it’s very nicely weighted. The McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser corners surprisingly flat even when pushed hard, with the reversed chines gripping the water.

In fact, the boat’s cornering prowess was something of a problem for our photographer. Aiming for that classic hero shot of the boat banking steeply into a turn as it crossed our transom, the McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser would barely get any attitude as it tipped in, even with the outside trim tab cranked on.

A limitation of the boat, though, if you’re running wide is the size of that 225-litre fuel tank. Look through the specifications of Aussie-made 7.0-metre-plus plate boats and they’ll hold more than 100 litres more in their belly. McLay does offer a larger tank as an option.

Fuel use and performance was good considering the boat had four people onboard during testing, as well as an almost full tank of fuel.

Performance on test

Maximum range on 95% of 255L fuel tank: 177nm

Our Kiwi cousins have done well, as the McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser represents good value for what is a genuine 7.0-metre boat. Well equipped, comfy and capable in trying conditions, and with a strong list of fishing features for a small stretch over $100K on the water, it’s an attractive package.

The optional fully enclosed wheelhouse is extremely well integrated and user-friendly, and will only serve to extend the amount of time a McLay boat's owner spends out on the water.

Only a few minor things, such as the smallish fuel tank and undersized ladders, are lost in translation.

Specifications
Model: McLay 701 Gen2 Cruiser
Length overall: 7.1m
Beam: 2.32m
Draft: 0.7m (engine down)
Deadrise: 18 degrees
Weight: 1150kg hull only
Engine: 175hp (min), 250hp (max)
Engine weight: 350kg (max)

Priced from: $105,990 including lined cabin, dash and wheelhouse; dual deluxe swivelling helm seats; helm windscreen wiper; hardtop rocket launcher; Lone Star GX2 drum winch and SARCA anchor; 3mm Ultralon rubber surfaces on gunnels and transom; auxiliary outboard engine mount; Seastar hydraulic steering; walk-through transom door; plumbed live bait tank with window; bait board with drawer; transom fish bin; four coaming rod holders; Suzuki 175hp four-stroke outboard engine; Nyalic protective coating; and 12 months Victorian boat and trailer registration

Price as tested: $145,000 including bulkhead with drop-down windows; trim tabs; cockpit jump seats; raw water deck wash; hull paint; cabin storage hammock; electric-flush head; wheelhouse bulkhead and folding door; port windscreen wiper; 12-inch Garmin touchscreen fishfinder/chart plotter with 1kW transducer; GME radios; and a Suzuki 250hp four-stroke outboard engine

Supplied by: Warragul Marine Centre