Markham Dominator 7000 Canyon Runner

It was mid January, the height of gamefishing season, when Sydney sportsfishing enthusiast Gary Bray took delivery of his brand-new 7.0m boat. Without delay, he was bound for his favourite fishing hole, following the GPS chartplotter, to a little kink in the 100-odd fathom line somewhere off Botany Bay.

A lure went over the side and quick as that a striped marlin reared its head and pounced on his offering. He dropped that feisty fish, but others haven't been so lucky. Some weeks later Bray blooded his new boat, actually he tagged a striped, and then he backed-up with a brace of nice blacks in the 80-100kg range from the Ulladulla Canyons on the NSW South Coast.

If there's one thing that can be said about Bray's new 7.0m sportsfisher it is this... The maxi trailerboat, which heads a range of boats fittingly called the Canyon Runner Series, has been sanctioned by the billfish fraternity. But there is much more that can be said about this smart boat after you've grasped the other end of the stick.

After you walk the layout, drive the boat offshore, and throw it about in ways you'd never considered before, the new Markham Dominator 7000 Canyon Runner has you gasping. If ever there was a cat to convert a dyed-in-the-wool monohull man, this is it.

Bray, a cat convert who has worked his way through monohulls and other aluminium cat designs before, has found the perfect maxi trailerboat for long-range fishing. It's got range, safety, comfort and a cockpit that will prove the undoing of many more marlin in seasons to come.

HOOKED ON HOOKEM
The Markham Dominator 7000 Canyon Runner is built by a champion of the catamaran concept. With more than 25 years' experience perfecting the asymmetric twin hull, Mark Hookem says his new Canyon Runner Series is the culmination of a lot of trial and error.

A professional boatbuilder who first got his hands dirty when he was 16, Hookem is now nearly 60 years of age. He began building clinker boats with Bruce Steber in Narrabeen (NSW). A design competition came along, he entered a small cat that he had developed from years of building sailing cats such as Tornados, and he won a trip to England. This is what led him to become a champion of the cat concept.

In subsequent years, Hookem, a qualified naval architect, has worked with hull magicians such as Ben Lexcen. It's from such encounters he learnt how to use the asymmetric cat hull shape. He stuck with the trailerboat market because, he says, its a field in which he can make the biggest improvements to safety.

Since he made the popular Markham Whalers in 1976, he rebuilt his boatbuilding business, retooled his operation, and rebadged his boats Dominators. Hookem's latest Canyon Runner Series spans three models from 5.6m to 7.0m, with the big cat arguably the best of the litter. The 7.0m is pitched at bluewater anglers looking for greater efficiency and safety in a roadworthy rig.

"The biggest thing we have done to make our cats work better is improve the displacement side of things. One of the benefits of the bigger, fatter sponsons on our boats is they support more weight. As a result, the boats suit four-stroke outboards really well," explains Hookem from his factory at Port Macquarie on the NSW North Coast.

"The fat sponsons we now use, which actually chock-up the tunnel of the boat, provide a lot of lift in the tail. You get tremendous pressure from the waterflow, like a venturi, with no spray out the sides of the hull. If you invert the hull and look at it on a table everything heads back down the tunnel. The whole thing is a tapered wedge which forces water through a very narrow aperture," he says.

Indeed, the first thing to strike me as unique about the Markham Dominator 7000 was the waterflow. Riding alongside in a camera boat, I couldn't help but notice there was virtually no spray being displaced sideways. If ever you were going to get wet on the water, I'd consider running alongside a catamaran in a low camera boat to be it. But, no.

The amount of lift generated by the water forced through the tunnel to a narrow outlet makes the Dominator run high and flat. Take it from me, the 7.0m is as dry as any cat you will set foot in. Yet, at the same time it is running with the sharp forefeet on the sponsons cutting the waves and smoothing the journey.

The other unique thing, a trait peculiar to all Dominator cats, is that the hulls lean into the turn like a monohull. Bray banked his new boat aggressively and it turned in a way I'd thought impossible for a cat. You can jack the hull on its length at high speed and it will snap around on the inner sponson and shoot back in the other direction.

There is none of that wallowing to the outer hull that you get in most cats during turns. Such is the result of 25 years of powercat design. With such manoeuvr-ability up your sleeve, you can make last-minute decisions when crossing bars or traversing busy waterways.

All his boats have positive foam buoyancy, using a type of closed-cell foam and self-draining decks. They also have the inherent advantages of cats such as stability, soft riding and a surfeit of cockpit space. All these things can be found on the Dominator 7000, which is why bluewater angler Bray parted with his hard-earned and took delivery of his new boat back in January.

Bray chimes in with his own reasons for choosing the Dominator 7000. Heading the list is the boat's safety margin for long-range work. His boat does over 36kmh on one 135hp Mercury motor. The boat is secure for the kids and comfortable enough for his wife. There is a chemical loo in the cabin, seating out of the weather and plenty of room to kick back and enjoy the simple pleasures of boating.

CANYON RUNNER
Beyond appeasing the family, Bray wanted a trailerable canyon runner with a big safety margin and the goods to attract big fish from the deep. He tows his boat with a Holden Suburban and plans to fish a bit more of the Ulladulla Canyons in coming seasons. His Dominator 7000 is indeed at home trolling on the deep blue.

Gamepoles, tagpoles and gaffs, stand-up fighting gear, teasers, downriggers, deep-water electronics, a chair and more grace the cockpit. But the thing that struck me was how all this critical equipment was stowed. Clips on the sides of his hull, under the coamings, carry the braid fighting gear, dedicated fasteners hold the big Witchdoctor teaser, cordlines sit in predetermined positions, sidepockets carry trick things like the Wave Walker teaser.

Pretty much everything on this boat except the aftermarket berley bucket, which slots onto slides on the aft platform safety rail, was fitted by Hookem. This says something about the boatbuilder's knowledge, not only of hydrodynamics, but of fishing-boat layout. There's not a lot you'd want to change, perhaps another support for the hardtop to button it right down, but that's about it.

CABIN & COCKPIT
Well-proportioned and pretty from all angles, the Markham Dominator 7000 has a maximum trailerable 2.5m beam. This is the same beam as the 6.2m model, meaning the 7.0m isn't quite so fat for its length. This, and the wide aft sponsons, must contribute to its turning ability.

Yet inside the handy cabin you can sleep across the upholstered mattress with plenty of room to spare. The bunk is about 2.4m long and, with the infill in place, wide enough for two people to bed down. There is no storage under the bunk, as Hookem prefers to retain the space for hull integrity. But there is a deep footwell on the port side and you almost have full headroom. Ordinarily, Bray has his chemical loo here for emergencies at sea.

If you want to escape the weather, you'll find headroom when seated on the bunk. There is plenty of light inside the cabin courtesy of windows and an opening companionway hatch. The cabin is lined with frontrunner, which will stop condensation should you decide to sleep over in summer.

Bray wasn't keen on the side-facing passenger bench seat at first, but since using his new boat he declares it the best seat in the house. While two people can sit on the bench opposite the skipper, it is perfect for one person to kick back, watch the lures, chat or catch forty winks.

Both the helm seat and this lounge are mounted on a raised moulded floor that's one-step up from the cockpit. The elevation provides a good view of the sea and wake, while stopping water from entering the cabin in the event you are swamped. In any case, remember the boat has positive foam flotation.

Nice mouldings are a hallmark of Dominator power catamarans. The 7.0m has a dedicated moulding for the fire-extinguisher, Reelax helm seat mounted on a storage and insulated icebox (three days before your ice melts), and a huge livebait tank behind the passenger's seat with plumbing and a scoop.

The livebait tank and icebox both drain overboard above the waterline, not into the bilge like many trailerboats. There is a built-in tackle box, underfloor fishwell for table fish, useful sidepockets, gaff and tagpole clips, fasteners for the rod buckets and harnesses under the coamings, battery boxes with those trick dry cell Odyssey batteries from the US, and a central chair that is usually removed as Bray prefers to fight on his feet.

The helm is a model of simplicity, with a Simrad colour CE32 chartplotter/sounder combo with C-Map, a Simrad EQ32 sounder with 50/200MHz transducer linked to both through-hull and transom-mounted transducers, and the latest Mercury multifunction engine gauges with digital data readouts. An autopilot was the only thing wanting and coming soon.

Few hardtops, even those on glossy imports, are as pretty as this one. The moulded top includes a facia for mounting the marine radios, a switchpanel or two, and the mandatory marine stereo. Clears up or down, you can see where you are going. The windscreen is a perspex model without wipers, but no matter because this cat is dry.

A tad more support on the hardtop would have helped stop the slight amount of movement I noticed when we were hard-nosing it through rough water. On the aft end of the top is a rocket launcher and floodlights with a spread of aerials on top.

Padded coamings and the cat's stability make this a great fishing platform. The loose marine carpet was to be replaced with rubber matting. There are salt and freshwater deckwashes - the boat actually carries a whopping 160lt of water -and twin 240lt fueltanks hiding underfloor.

The aft deck lockers aren't particularly deep, but they are handy for holding and rotating the day's lures or holding a block of pillies. The deep enginewells are a better place to thaw berley. A big Bermuda cutting board will be handy for cubing, while the walk-through platform between the outboards will come in handy for fighting a stubborn fish.

DRIVE TIME
The Dominator is surprisingly, amazingly - need I say it again - dry for a cat. I managed to slop some green water on the bow at trolling speed, but the seas were truly lumpy with no backs - just black holes - behind each and every wave. The water emptied off the foredeck quickly. Access forward is quite safe, though Bray rightly prefers to use a cockpit tub for his rope and anchor and a retriever buoy to lift the pick.

Underway, the wide sponsons obviously help the boat slide on the plane. The transition from displacement to cruising speeds is almost imperceptible. Flattening the twin 135hp Optimax outboards with a light load will give nearly 80kmh. With crew, gear, full fuel and water, the boat will turn in around 70kmh, which, to my mind, is ideal.

However you drive it, the Dominator 7.0m corners with such alacrity that you need to hold on tight. You can make last ditch decisions and pull out of tough situations without falling off the plane. And you can have fun driving this cat like you would a sportsboat.

At cruising speed of around 32kmh in the uncomfortable seas during our test, the Dominator 7000 could have strode all the way to Bray's favourite fishing hole, a kink on the shelf. After 10-12 hours of trolling and running around, he uses just 140lt of fuel. The twin Mercury 135hp Optimax motors have three-blade, 19-inch stainless Laser props. His former boat with twin V-fours used around 300lt a day.

The Dominator 7000 is a genuine canyon runner with the range, reserves, seaworthiness, safety and goods to lock horns with serious fish. The boat seems smooth riding and doesn't trip downswell. Of all the cats I've been aboard, this is the one which puts up the most convincing argument that two hulls are better than one.