Cruise Craft 595 Explorer Hard Top Review

OVERVIEW
Celebrating its 71st birthday this year, Cruise Craft certainly commands respect. The long-serving fibreglass-boat builder based in Brisbane offers true-blue trailerboats with exceptional fit and finish. There’s a range of beautifully finished 5-7m models for fishers and their families. These are boats that are designed to assuage both user groups.

The Cruise Craft Outsiders have a walkaround cabin, but the Explorers like this 595 have a bigger cuddy pushed almost to the hull sides. That and the time-proven 20-degree all-round hull shape have provided the perfect platform for the addition of a Hard Top.

Hard Tops are all the rage right now and aluminium boats wear them easily, given their relative light weight and reduced impact to stability. But with fibreglass trailerboats, there’s a lot more at stake with a fully-moulded Hard Top.

Reducing weight up top, creating the necessary head height for comfort, safety and vision, and making a boat look good are all challenges, especially where Hard Tops are retrofitted to existing models that weren’t designed for the superstructure in the first place.

The upside of this predictable and stable 595 Explorer cuddy cabin platform is that it can carry some weight and bulk up top without toppling over. As Cruise Craft has gone all composite with its construction these days, the hardtop isn’t that heavy anyway.

But it does sit up quite tall to give you full headroom at the helm and, with safety-glass windscreen and sliding side panes, it’s a substantial addition that really evolves the 595 Explorer into something new and super premium.

While the 595 Explorer is the smallest Cruise Craft offered with a hard top, it creates such a complete enclosure that you can extend your boating season to all year round.

On Port Phillip Bay, in the snapper season, our test boat was rearing to go. But it would be just as accommodating on searing summer days on a Queensland sea thanks to the weather protection.

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT
One of the great things about Cruise Craft boats is that they are factory-paired, pre-rigged and tested for Yamaha outboards. That way, nothing is left to chance. You can just drive into a yard, hook one up, and head out.

That said, Cruise Craft has a national dealer network and boating markets differ depending on geography, fisheries and demographics. The big Victorian Cruise Craft dealer, Streaker Marine, knows its local market intimately.

Streaker Marine in Melbourne has done an exceptional job of optimising this premium 595 Explorer Hard Top rig for boating in southerly latitudes. There was a stack of good gear aboard and the boat was just exceptionally well presented.

The Yamaha F200 is a neat, lightweight, frugal four-cylinder outboard, enhanced by the addition of electric Lenco trim tabs (you want tabs on a hard-top boat) — and there was hydraulic steering, of course.

The test boat has an optional lockable sliding cabin door, a 9in Simrad to find the snapper, and a Stressfree windlass for push-button anchoring. The stainless rocket launcher, spreader lights, plumbed live-bait tank, fibreglass cutting board, and transom door are also going to be appreciated for fishing.

The optional padded coamings, flip-down transom lounge, and clip-in cockpit carpet add to the family comfort. The rig looked great rolling down to the ramp on its Easytow alloy custom drive-on trailer with alloy wheels, disc brakes and LED lights.

Mind you, you do pay a premium. The Cruise Craft 595 Explorer Hard Top as tested had a $128,290 package price. A plate-alloy fishing hard top might cost $30k less, but you won’t get this level of luxury and fibreglass finesse.

DESIGN AND LAYOUT
We tested the Cruise Craft 595 back in 2013. Internally, not a lot has changed, but materials like SeaDek foam flooring are being used these days to add to the already great finish. The stainless-steel work and upholstery remains to first-class Cruise Craft standards we have come to expect.

The cabin has a short twin-berth layout with a foot well of generous proportions that steps up to the cabin hatch. There’s room for a few anglers or kids to sit out of the weather and with infill you could curl up and crash for a while. Otherwise, the cuddy will be used primarily as a dry storage area.

With some wiggling you can get out the cabin hatch ok and tend the anchor, bow lines and access the foredeck. To reach the bow, you can also scoot around the side decks, with the vertical Hard Top grab rail and the bow rail offering support en route.

But with a Stressfree electric windlass, you’re going to be anchoring from the helm on this boat, say, chasing some snapper in 8-14m of water. These days, an electric anchor winch should be considered standard on a Hard Top boat. For offshore anchoring over deep reefs I’d use a side-deploy reef-pick system, with rope in a separate tub, and a dan buoy retriever.

This is also the kind of family boat that you will use to fore-and-aft anchor off a beach. So a second rear anchor line and plough is worth carrying aboard, too.

Meantime, the wiring and electronics’ installation was all neat and tidy, made more so by a moulded cover behind the helm. With the optional sliding lockable cabin door closed, the cabin rates as a self-contained weather-proof capsule for crew and gear.

The Cruise Craft bucket seats on stainless-steel frames accommodate twin pull-out ice boxes/eskies/tackle boxes below. This is a practical solution to boosting storage space on a small boat.

There are plenty of grab rails about, such as along the back of the bucket seats, but their open-ended design tends to catch on belts, clothes, camera straps, lines, and so on. I'd prefer to see the rail ends wrap back around and close off flush so they can't snag things.

There’s a lot of white moulded fibreglass under the hardtop but reflection didn’t seem to factor on the navigation gear or the windscreen.

The marine radios recess neatly overhead, while the split dash easily accommodated the 9in Simrad and it looks like a 12in-15in will fit without issue. There’s room to mount a second smaller MFD, with our test boat having the Yamaha Command Link 6YC on the rear dash tier that relayed all the engine data in clear LCD.

For all this, the cockpit still presents as a decent fishing and family activity centre without being compromised by the Hard Top. It's a really decent space on this 19-footer.

The logic of having full-length side pockets in the cockpit is irrefutable — why boatbuilders fit anything less I don’t know — and you can get a stack of gear in here, tuck your toes under when you lean outboard to fish, while the padded coamings and integrated grab rails add to the safety and comfort — 100 per cent right treatment!

Underfloor is mainly fuel tank, with a small aft fish well, but with the on-deck portable fish or ice boxes mounted under the helm seats, you have a superior way to keep the catch without putting fish blood through the bilge. The high cutting board over the transom drains into the engine well and, with the high-pressure raw-water wash, you can fish this beautiful boat and keep it nice and presentable for family days, too.

The live bait tank in the starboard corner passes for general recreational fishing duties but it isn’t a sportfishing tank for loading with big Bermi slimies. The internal liner is painted black so the occupants stress less in the dark, providing added contrast when the bait hits the water, but the tank hasn’t rounded corners or a huge volume. It’s fit for this boat’s general purpose.

The flip-down transom lounge adds to the family seating, while being unobtrusive when tucked up and fishing. However, once again, the open ended stainless legs could catch lines or traces or leaders. Everything else about the boat is clean and flush, so a bit of tweaking with the odd rail or chair lounge leg or swim ladder hinge wouldn’t be without reason.

As you see it, the 595 Explorer Hard Top is a great platform for four fishos or a family of four to hit the coastal waterways, big bays, harbours, islands and head offshore.

HULL AND ENGINEERING
Cruise Craft doesn't deviate from its proven hull foundation. The long-serving 20-degree moderate deep-vee hull with pronounced hard chines is renowned for its stability. It’s a family- and fishing-friendly hull.

Our test boat has the maximum horsepower, a 200hp Yamaha, which is an on-line four and the lightest DOHC four-stroke on the market. It’s a very smooth, quiet and agreeable outboard renowned for its fuel efficiency and reliability.

The wiring, engineering and plumbing were all done to high standards, with the bilge reasonably easily accessed under the transom. I do like an easily accessed bilge and auto pump for obvious reasons.

The boat had twin batteries, waterproof switch panels, LED lights, and nice accessible water-separating filter for the 190lt underfloor fuel tank.

With this Easytow alloy trailer and a 2.44m beam, the 595 Explorer Hard Top is a great looking rig that tips the scales at about 2100kg… it will tow like a dream.

ON THE WATER
As you can see from the images hereabouts, the ocean was dead flat. Port Phillip Bay was Albert Park Lake. But take this aboard — we have tested the Cruise Craft 20-degree moderate-deep-vee hulls extensively over many decades and they are predictable and safe. I’ve driven this 595 Explorer hull numerous times in the past. It's as predictable as you can imagine.

The 595 Explorer is not a high-speed point-and-shoot weapon, but a hull that you drive in the right slot and derive very good comfort. At the typical 18-22 knots cruise, sitting up on its planning plank, with the chines trapping and then squeezing the water away, the Cruise Craft represents trailerboat efficiency.

You can sit in the bucket seat — if you’re one of those who prefer to drive this way — or stand, as I much prefer doing, and enjoy the clear views while pushing the hull a bit harder. The vision is great in all directions.

With the inherent fibreglass noise-dampening, foam-filled stringers and hull, and Yamaha four-cylinder, it was remarkably quiet and comfortable — you’ll come away from long days on the water feeling refreshed and renewed rather than beaten and ruffled.

Some of the key figures from the dead-flat test day include:

>> 3000rpm, 14 knots (26km/h) and 17.2lt/hr minimum plane;
>> 3500rpm, 21.6 knots (40km/h), 21.3lt/hr level easy cruise;
>> 4000rpm, 24.8 knots (46km/h) for 30.3lt/hr and a range of about 260km for a super smooth cruise
>> 5000rpm, 33.5 knots (62km/h) for 51.4lt/hr
>> 5800rpm, 40.5 knots (75km/h) for 73.9lt/hr

I could have extracted a bit more performance, no doubt the engine was tight too, but the point of a boat like this is comfort. You have all the imputs at your fingertips to keep the boat on an even keel and for crafting your comfortable cruise. The Lenco trim tabs will be essential in strong cross winds, when the Hard Top will be even more of a sanctuary.

The ride comfort at moderate cruise speeds was a highlight, but so too the stability at rest for fishing and hanging out on the anchor. And for the most part, this Cruise Craft 595 Explorer Hard Top will be doing just that with its crew in a state of heightened comfort. Whether snapper fishing or trolling for marlin, it’s a fantastic fishing platform.

VERDICT
In recent years, Hard Tops have been the headline act. From Port Douglas to Port Phillip Bay, Hard Tops offer more weather protection so you can stay out longer and in greater comfort. The Cruise Craft 595 Explorer has been around a while, with our tests harking back to early 2013, but only now has it gained a Hard Top.

However you look at it, the 595 Explorer platform is a terrific Hard Top trailerboat — a view I held when I first cast eyes on the rig at the 2017 Melbourne Boat Show and on centre stage at the 50th Sydney International Boat Show.

On our test boat, the factory build quality was backed up by the first-rate dealer fitout. I don’t often heap praise like this, but this is an exceptional luxury Australian-made trailerboat at every stage of the way.

Cruise Craft builds its boat with pride and with all composite construction these days. You can’t knock what they’re doing. When you buy one, it’s almost like an heirloom that you’ll keep and hand down to future generations. The price premium is warranted and more kudos to the Hard Top.

Performance: Cruise Craft 595 Explorer Hard Top
With Yamaha F200
RPM, KMH, LT/HR
1000, 9.0, 3.0
1500, 12, 5.3
2000, 15, 9.1
2500, 19, 12.5
3000, 26, 17.2 (plane)
3500, 40, 21.3 (level cruise)
4000, 46, 30.3 (smooth cruise, 260km range)
4500, 53, 37.8
5000, 62, 51.4
5500, 71, 67.7
5800, 75, 73.9

Specifications: Cruise Craft 595 Explorer Hard Top
Price as Tested: $128,290 with Yamaha F200 and Easytow custom alloy trailer and options as listed above, plus more.
Priced From: About $110k
Hull Length: 5.95m
Beam: 2.44m
Length with Bow Sprit:6.35m
Length on Trailer: About 7.50m
Weight BMT: About 2100kg
Deadrise Transom: 20 degrees
Maximum HP: 200
Max No. Persons: 6
Transom Height: Extra Long
Recommended HP: 175-200hp
Engine on Test: Yamaha F200
Fuel Capacity: 190lt

Supplied by:
Streaker Marine
Address: 461 Mountain Hwy
Bayswater Victoria 3163
Ph: 03 9729 8288
More information from Cruise Craft