A 7800 Weekender from AMM for exploring the outer limits

A round trip of 200 nautical miles pursuing his favourite fish called "reds" — aka saddletail sea perch (or large mouth nannygai), plus red emperor —is nothing unusual for Luke Doyle, a keen trailerboat fish from SE Queensland.

But after running deep-vee monohull fibreglass boats and powercats, the keen fisho will now voyage offshore in his special Australian Master Marine-designed and built plate-alloy boat, a Weekender 7800, powered by twin Suzuki 175 outboards.

Appropriately named Outer Limits, the big AMM trailerboat has been configured so Doyle, a successful earthworks business owner, can push the boundaries of his much-loved offshore fishing trips.

"You’re always pushing yourself to the Outer Limits, hence the compass [graphic on the hull side]. It gives a sense of direction and encourages you to always push to new boundaries to get to those outer reefs," he explains.

The compass rose was a creative idea from his wife Sammie, who "loves her fishing just as much as us boys."

FISHING FEATURES
Luke’s AMM Weekender boasts a string of firsts, the most significant of which is its commanding length of 7.8 metre length.

AMM has traditionally built Weekenders in 6.1, 6.4, 6.8, 7.0 and 7.4 metre lengths. The company used its Tournament series hull in a 7.8 metre version for this new big Weekender.

Obviously Doyle takes his fishing seriously. There are 40-rod holders, both up top for storage and on deck when fishing from Outer Limits.

"If there are four of us on the boat and we’ve all got a variety of rods, we have storage for them on the roof, then we have the rod holders around the bait station in the centre area for rigging up.

"That way you don’t have rods hanging over the side while rigging. It really gets the rods you are not using out of the way," Doyle says.

The front tackle station has been customised and tapered to allow a wider opening to the storage area below it. The back station is a big icebox as well as a tackle locker.

For  range, the AMM Weekender’s standard 240-litre underfloor fuel tank has been replaced with three 220-litre tanks with separate deck top fillers, giving a total of 660 litres for the twin 175hp outboards.

CRUISING COMFORTS
Outer Limits is built for fishing, but there’s plenty of room to have a bit of fun as well. That’s why they included the midge screens for camping at Wathumba Creek.

Of course, Wathumba Creek is a sheltered area on the western side of Fraser Island with no shortage of midges, those unwelcome biting insect.

The back station is a big icebox as well as a tackle locker. There isn’t a sink or fancy kitchen, as Doyle says he doesn’t need them. A portable cooker is all the luxury they use.

Other customised features include a solar panel and two underfloor deep-cycle storage batteries; a hardtop that has been extended 400mm; seat box eskies extended by 500mm which drain to the outside of the hull; rear facing Hella Seahawk LED light bars; forward facing Lightforce LED light bar; LED lighting under the gunnels, and underwater lighting on the transom.

For comfort, the cabin that is 150mm longer than usual, with two Hella oscillating cabin fans (for those summer nights), and water diverters to the side decks. There are extended side cabin clears, 12 volt and USB sockets, and extra side pocket storage.

A Lone Star Marine GX3 anchor drum winch allows push-button anchoring from the Reelax helm seats. There are stabiliser legs for low-tide beach anchorage, as well as a customised alloy trailer with stone guards.

Luke chose to supply his own selection of Simrad gear, an Evo2 12 inch MFD, S2009 sounder paired with a 1kW 265 LH transducer, structure scan and 4G radar.

Outer Limits includes a number of 'special build' items as well as the full catalogue of options.

STANDARD KIT
The Weekender series’ standard equipment includes a fully welded, plate-alloy self-draining floor, with self-draining scuppers, and elevated battery locker.

There are bow and side rails, boarding steps, a keel bar and keel cap; and bow sprit. The foot locker between the bunks improves cabin headroom, while the boat has polyurethane painting inside and out from the chines up, as well as the optional twin outboards pod with duckboard set up.

All of this bodes well for Doyle’s intended long-range trailerboat trips to some lesser-fished outer reefs and broken ground. Thankfully, there is also plenty of storage for those delicious red emperor.

PRICING
The Australian Master Marine Weekender 7800 with its comprehensive list of standard features and powered by a single 250hp Suzuki four-stroke engine is available from $104,895 on a galvanised trailer to suit.

Various levels of client-specific customisation are available with AMM expecting most purchasers to be in the $120,000 to $140,000 range.

Premium versions of the AMM Weekender 7800 with twin 175hp engines, on a trailer are priced around $145,000 depending on electronics packages.

An ultra-premium version with a twin 200hp Suzuki engine installation, a fully-ticked list of options and some additional customisation, runs to around $180,000 including an upgrade to a customised Australian Master Marine alloy trailer. The alloy trailer upgrade in that price cost $5500.

More at Australian Master Marine.