Ally Craft 475 Bowrider

Traditionally, we tend to see most bowriders constructed from fibreglass and used as pleasure or skiboats.

More often than not, you'll see a few of these cruising the waterways of the Gold Coast or Sydney Harbour or the south's popular waterski haunts, with a bevy of beautiful people in the lounge up front, enjoying the ride.

However, the general layout of a bowrider style craft has plenty to endear itself to a wide range of boat users.

Essentially a boat with a windscreen and helm and passenger consoles across its midsection and seating in the bow, it is in reality a very practical configuration.

Gold Coast (Qld) manufacturer, Ally Craft Boats, is the maker of the boat you see here - a relatively small bowrider of traditional pressed aluminium sheet construction. And if sales over the last few months are anything to go by, the market is well ready for this smaller, more affordable bowrider.

The 475 Bow Rider isn't anywhere near as flash as the larger luxury bowriders that US boaties love so much. Though at a price tag of just over $17,000 you'd hardly expect it to be so.

To gain acceptance in the marketplace, the 475 Bow Rider has been kept pretty basic, thus attracting a greater number of buyers. As with just about any boat, you can add extras and even change the layout somewhat to suit your specific requirements.

However, there's no doubting the basic factory boat is a good start.

The 475's windscreen runs roughly across the centre of the boat with the helm seat on one side and the passenger seat on the other. Both are low swivel seats and with the canopy up, you are pretty well restricted to driving in the seated position.

Access into the bow section is good, and in addition to the folding windscreen section, the Ally Craft design adds a 'door' to form a full bulkhead below the windscreen. This arrangement allows plenty of walk-through area but has the added advantage of sealing out most of the drafts when you're powering along on those brisk, still autumn mornings.

In the bow section, you will find a single pedestal seat in the middle. In good conditions this is a top spot to sit, with good clear views all around and that lovely sea breeze blowing straight at you.

However, once the sea chops up a little, you'll find the going a bit bumpy, as you would in just about every aluminium boat of this size.

Back behind the windscreen the going is much smoother, as you are located in the middle of the boat where the bumps are a lot softer.

The bow section not only provides a nice place to sit, it doubles up as a good position to fish, as there is little to get in your way. Lure casting and general bait fishing are both well suited to this spot.

Aside from a fishing area, it's also a good closed-in area where you can put the kids. Here they are right in front of you where you can see them, with high sides all around - it's like a floating playpen!

If I had a young family, I'd look at placing two small bench seats ahead of the helm and passenger consoles to sit a few extras - just an option you might like to consider.

Moving aft, there's a heap of storage space under the twin dashes. An esky and sports bag can slip in here - where your gear will be kept dry and in easy reach - and there's still plenty of room for your feet.

Those additional boating and fishing accessories can be kept in the side pockets and up on one of the transom shelves. In our test boat one of the transom shelves held the battery and oil bottle, while the other was left vacant for a tackle box or extra fuel tank.

The boat has good wide gunwales all the way around, so you have plenty of places to sit when the boat is at rest and you are fishing or having a bite to eat.

The 475's flat floor is fully-carpeted which reduces the glare within and softens the ride on the feet a little.

Fitted with a two-stroke 60hp Johnson, the boat cruised comfortably at 24mph at around 4000rpm. At these sort of revs you can expect excellent economy from the Johnno and most mid-sized engines.

We had all the basic safety gear and three aboard for the test run and the engine took it all in its stride. With the third person seated in the bow section, the ride was level on take-off and while travelling along.

Having said this, when the third person slips back behind the windscreen, you will find that if you hit the throttle hard from rest, the boat suffers from a bow-high attitude. It's much better to ease up onto the plane, then power up.

With the throttle maxed, the 475 recorded a top speed of 37mph - plenty fast enough for this style of boat.

Having a boat of this size and horsepower of my own in the past, I would estimate that consumption should be somewhere in the vicinity of 11lt/hr at fast cruise.

With the underfloor fuel tank holding 50lt of fuel, this sort of fuel consumption translates to a range of around 100km with a little spare. Add a small tote tank and there's plenty of fuel for most applications.

The 475 isn't too bad sitting at the helm amidships, but as I mentioned earlier, a choppy sea will make the ride a bit bouncy for those who are sitting up in the bow section of the boat.

When you are quartering the sea with 15kts-plus of wind blowing, don't expect to keep dry up here either, as a fair bit of spray is thrown up.

In behind the windscreen you can close the canopy and keep nice and dry, which is exactly what you will find yourself doing.

In summary, the 475 Bow Rider is a good all-round family pleasure boat for those who enjoy being out on the water and also do a little fishing.

It can be legally towed by most family four-cylinder vehicles and there is certainly no problem with launching and retrieving the boat on your own.

And like most well-built alloy craft, if it's well cared for, it's likely to offer good resale potential down the track.

At $17,090, it's good value and definitely worth a close look...