Bar Crusher 585HT Review

OVERVIEW
We arrived at the busy Bar Crusher factory, our head spinning like a lighthouse as we set our eyes on one cool new boat after another rolling of this Dandenong yard. Then we sat down for the best part of a typical blustery Melbourne day to talk plate-alloy boat building.

Bar Crusher has been busy, as we relayed in this resulting story titled

Plate-alloy fishing rigs are a big driver of today’s booming coastal trailerboat market. Hard tops models are especially popular, not only in the weather-challenged bay and inshore fisheries of our southern states, but also in diverse coastal regions right around Australia.

It’s almost like we’ve rediscovered our favourite Aussie-boat style here — a plate-alloy hard top — just like the pro fishers have been using for decades from Tassie to the Top End.

Of course, weather and sun protection in a small alloy fishing boat makes a lot of sense. A well-designed plate-alloy hard top doesn’t lose a lot of fishing space, either. But you get a more substantial enclosure than a bimini top and you’re not looking through foggy clears or copping spray in the face as you button the bow down and head offshore.

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT
Tested through the Melbourne factory, our 585HT was a loaded boat with everything you need to catch fish bar the tackle. The boat had a factory-fitted self-levelling trailer with Bar Catch for single-handed launch and retrieval. Incidentally, Bar Crusher puts plenty of effort into pairing its hulls and trailers for peace-of-mind towing.

Along with the upgraded 115hp Suzuki outboard, there was a Raymarine 9in MFD fitted in a nice clean dash, an Icom VHF radio overhead, a Stressfree windlass with chain and rope, and bunk infill. You can option the 585HT with a remote battery charger that lets you keep your boat on ‘showrepower’ at home so it’s fully charged. Impressively, all the rest of the key features come standard.

The boat comes with non-slip deck grip, a step-through transom, plumbed live bait tank, bait board and berley bucket, six robust cast-alloy rod holders, in-floor fish well, underfloor 110lt fuel tank (160lt upgrade available), fuel filter with clear inspection bowl, 2000gph bilge pump, twin batteries, LED lighting, 12V charging plug, SARCA anchoring system, folding rear seat, rear boarding ladder, and the custom trailer with Bar Catch.

As tested, our smart looking rig with a two-pack charcoal hull — painted in their own dedicated booth — cost $69,896 ready to roll out the door and down the ramp. That’s great value in the plate-alloy hard-top market.

DESIGN AND LAYOUT
Rolling down the road and the ramp, the 585HT looks great on the trailer. The boat wears its matching charcoal hat or alloy-lid well. The Hard Top includes a generous eight-rod rocket launcher.

We had four light sticks in an optional vertical rack in the cockpit. With accommodating full-length side pockets, you have a stack of rod, gaff and net storage aboard this baby Crusher.

The seat boxes contain removable tackle trays, and have fabricated foot rests so you can face aft when checking the lines. The cabin footwell is the logical spot for carrying a few big stacked Plano tackle boxes during the run to the grounds.

Fish storage has been maximised between the checker-plate floor and hull bottom. There's room to stash some whiting, flathead, bay snapper or small mahi mahi. But you’re going to need a bigger chiller bag and/or box for the big stuff. And this boat can easily work the offshore reefs for kings, trolling tuna waters, and chase marlin.

The live well had a decent pump and water flow to keep the yakkas and small slimies kicking, while the central cutting board drains overboard and has three rod holders that will be handy when rigging, baiting and even pitching your livie.

The bay snapper brigade may well add snapper racks. Either way, you can reach the berley pot without too much of a stretch.

Because all these fishing features are built in, the cockpit is clan and clutter-free. It’s all workman-like checker-plate flooring, with the decks and fishbox draining to the bilge. We’d probably tick the box for the optional saltwater deck wash if it were our boat.

Ergonomically, the 585HT is an easy boat to get around and you feel secure aboard. Full marks for all the rails around the hardtop for crew to hang on.

This would be a gun boat for couple of anglers but there’s room for up to four to ride aboard with sure footing and good handholds.

Meantime, the cabin has much-needed dry storage for safety gear under the bunks, which are pretty small by any measure. But there’s room with the infill to curl-up for a nanna nap, or for the kids to kick back, and there’s also seated headroom if you just need a little time out.

Catering for the dual-purpose family days is a standard-issue fold down rear lounge that tucks up flush when fishing. All told, the 585HT ticks plenty of boxes.

HULL AND ENGINEERING
Bar Crusher has created its own language and lexicon for the many features on its Aussie-built boats.

There’s a Rigideck checker-plate floor and so-called Game Lock coamings for comfortably leaning outboard.

The Waveslicer deep-vee hull has 21 degrees of deadrise, while the Quickflow water-ballast system holds some 200lt at rest.

Wiring, bilge access, fuel filter access, everything you need to access as an owner is at hand. The finish is also a cut above, from the welds to the paintjob and general upholstery.

Sub-floor, there’s a rigid box stringer system to prevent flex, with 4mm plate for the running surface with 3mm top sides add to the stiffness. The boat is built with long-term ease-of-use and operation in mind.

"We grew up with a 4.5m tinny that we used to take all over the place to fish in the bays and along the coast in better weather. We knew the shortcomings of what was out there in the marketplace," Peter Cleland, the owner of Bar Crusher, says.

“The boats are designed to take a flogging,” he adds. This is just as well, as we push ahead with the test off Carrum in less-than-ideal conditions.

ON THE WATER
After an easy short-handed launch, stability is the first thing you notice when stepping aboard. The 200lt (200kg) of water ballast keeps the chines in the water and reduces the righting moment.

The DOHC 16-valve 115hp Suzuki has a 2lt displacement, so there’s plenty of torque to jump the boat out of the hole and across a bar, with the same sized engine block extracting up to 150hp for some brands.

It was choppy, but the low-speed cruise of 3500rpm gave 15 knots (28kmh) without issue. At 4000rpm, the 585HT was in the cruising groove in the tough conditions, doing 20-21 knots (37-38kmh), burning 14-15lt/hr, delivering a safe range of about 145-150nm from 90 per cent of the standard 110lt tank.

While we were running down sea to achieve the efficiency, the better than 2.5km/lt is pretty good economy. From this point, our relatively lightweight 585HT began to launch. I clocked 23-24 knots (44kmh) at 4500rpm, then 26-27 knots (49kmh) at 5000rpm, but we couldn’t hit wide-open throttle — around 55000rpm — in the building seas. We’re not silly.

Of course, the idea with offshore fishing boats is to keep them in the water, to have their deep-vee hull carving the waves, and not to launch and pound. So, top speed on the day would mean nothing, but the 20 knots cruise was everything — it’s a good speed offshore than allows you to spot marine life, bait and birds, as much as not bruise bodies and break stuff.

Driving on my feet, there were decent views as the rain and spray peeled off the glass windscreen. Wipers are an option. The motion was good for plate-boat this size, with the hard top adding to the comfort, and just a bit of expected pitching between troughs. But you have to remind yourself it’s a 5.85m LOA boat with a considerably shorter waterline.

There was plenty of poke for bar crossings and a nice drive with standard hydraulic steering. The performance was predictable, the boat tracked straight, it didn’t bury its nose and not lift back up, and it shed the water.

Really, we were only constrained by the speed we could travel, but with gear and some intestinal fortitude we could have fished for bay snapper in the blow from this big little boat.

VERDICT
The hard top sure is a welcome addition on Bar Crusher’s 585 hull. The elevated comfort levels behind the full-depth safety glass windscreen and side panes boost confidence and, had I the chance, one’s ability to fish this boat in challenging conditions.

Thanks to the water-ballasting, the hull wears its hard top or hat without toppling over. It might be the smallest boat in the range, but it’s surefooted at rest for fishing and then again when underway. Still, I’d add trim tabs to this boat to offset uneven loads — like a 60kg yellowfin tuna in the deck corner.

Rated from a 90-115hp outboard, the new entry-level Hard Top includes Bar Crusher’s signature long-list of fishing features with a finish that’s mirrors the biggest-ticket boats in its fleet.

The price is keen, pretty much like the fishos who are likely to jump aboard this new baby Hard Top. And we didn’t feel like we’d been flogged.

Specifications: Bar Crusher 585HT
Price as Tested: $69,896 with upgraded 115hp Suzuki outboard, custom trailer, Raymarine 9in MFD, Icom VHF radio overhead, Stressfree windlass with chain and rope, bunk infill and more.
Price From: $58k as the base model with a 90hp on trailer.
LOA: 5.85m
Beam: 2.15m
Internal Freeboard: 0.73m
Length on trailer: 7.20m
Height on trailer: 3.05m
Bottom plates: 4.0mm
Side plates: 3.0mm
Transom Depth: 25in
Weight (boat only): 962kg
Fuel (std): 110 litres
Engine on test boat: Four-cylinder 115hp Suzuki 2.0L DOHC 16-valve
Recommended HP: 90-115hp
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