Marlin Broadbill 800 Offshore Sports

Two Greek fishermen pulled up in their little tin boat and looked across in horror. After all, it's not everyday that you witness a bloke with a three-day growth assembling a shotgun at the local ramp. But, hey, Michael Diamond, the Australian gold-medal winning trapshooter, loves his prized Perazzi weapon almost as much as his impressive new boat.

A member of Botany Bay Game Fishing Club, Diamond held a well-trained pose with his prized gold medal dangling around his neck and his Italian-made gun safely by his side. In the background was the new love of his life, a Marlin Broadbill 800 Offshore Sports with its sights set on the wide blue yonder.

Diamond's imposing maxi trailerboat goes by the name of, what else, Pump Action. Just in case you're wondering, its registration 'number' is HORNY.

Thus, it's nice to see that the straightshooter can still see the funny side to life. That, above all else, is why he loves boating.

Diamond explains the importance of boating as we prepare to launch his 3200kg rig. The hull, which measures 8.00m long, is 2.75m wide. A daylight wide-load permit is needed for towing the triple-axle trailer, which takes up the best part of a lane. But as is common with big cats on well set-up trailers, Pump Action was a snap to launch.

"The boat is a great getaway, an escape from the pressure of top-level competition. Shooting is 80% mental, so you come away totally drained. But being offshore is totally relaxing. I started trolling the washes for bonito and kingfish before heading out wide. Then, last season, I caught my first yellowfin, a 25kg fish," he says with enthusiasm.

Bitten by the offshore-fishing bug, Diamond went to his fiancee, who enjoys watersports such as jetskiing, and announced the inevitable. He wanted a bigger boat for bluewater fishing....

BLUEWATER RUNNER
Diamond trained his crosshairs on Marlin Broadbill, a boatbuilder with a 20-plus years history. The company makes a lot of craft for rescue organisations, Water Police, dive and charter operators. It uses computer-aided design (CAD) to produce some 35 boats a year. Of these, 30% are in survey.

Pump Action is a boat for the 'boys', a hard-core fishing machine, designed for tangling with marlin and sharks. It is equipped for long days at sea. Things such as accommodation, sinks and toilets have been dropped in favour of extra cockpit space, a gamechair, and an arsenal including tagpoles and gaffs from Tailored Marine Accessories.

I'm not sure what the dimensions are but take it from me, the cockpit is h-u-g-e. Up front is a comfortable helm under a hardtop, back aft is an integrated transom with centre pontoon between the outboards, and in between is a cockpit big enough to land the largest of gamefish.

Before I had time to note the details, the engines were idling. Botany Bay was flat as the proverbial pancake and surprise, surprise, the celebrity skipper didn't back off. Not even when clear of Kurnell. A point-and-shoot kind of boat, the big Broadbill loves to be driven hard, Diamond says.

The latest 2001 Series Optimax 175hp Mercury outboards produce a top speed of around 42kt. The motors are noticeably quieter than the earlier Optimax models. At least they seemed this way when mounted away from the helm on the transom (no pods).

Anyway, we made for the deep-blue sea as a rising swell and 15kt northeasterly began to fill in. Fitted with counter-rotating 19-inch stainless props, the boat maintained an unstoppable 23kt cruise at 4200rpm, which also happens to be a good rev range for optimum engine economy.

Built from 4mm plate alloy and filled with foam, the Broadbill has a feeling of rigidity. Some of the water it displaced occasionally blew back on the windscreen. But with the sliding window closed, you can cover the sea miles while remaining as dry as a well-kept Perazzi popgun.

A short distance offshore, Diamond eased the throttles to trolling mode. At low speed, the big eight-metre hull is terrifically stable. You can forget the worries of workday life and troll hands-free thanks to a Raytheon Sportpilot autopilot.

At rest, the 800 Series comes into its own. Even with four adults along one gunwale, the boat doesn't budge. Thus, it will work beautifully for drift-fishing and, when you do get a marlin to the boat, everyone will be able to lean over and kiss it goodbye.

As evidenced on the return trip, Diamond is a proficient skipper. The hull runs quite flat, so ideally you need to trim out the outboards and give the motors some stick. This way you tend to keep the bow out of the troughs. About 4600rpm or 27kt proved best when running downsea.

Unfamiliar with the latest Optimax gauges I found myself trimming the motors by eye till Diamond pointed to the dash. The trim meter is built into the multifunction Optimax LCD gauges. These use Smartcard technology and even have a troll button which lets you raise or lower engine idle revs with full GPS compatibility fuel range figures and so on are all available.

DEVIL IN THE DETAILS
Pump Action was standard but for the Tailored Marine gaff racks and gamechair, outrigger poles and bases, electronics, and the shorter cabin for more cockpit space. The boat was also armed with two tagpoles, two dehookers, a snooter/tailer, and a six-inch and eight-inch flyers.

The optional padded coamings are worth their weight in gold. The vinyl-clad foam cushions attach to the gunwales via press studs. They provide instant extra seating, as the gunwales are themselves nice and wide, as well as thigh support at sea. Cut-outs in the padded coamings reveal rodholders and spigots for the baitboards, which can be mounted in various positions.

There are full-length sidepockets, with additional pockets flanking the helm, under the coamings. Batteries and oil bottles are held in aft corner trays and a reasonable-sized livebait tank is built-in to port. There is a saltwater deckwash and a big centre scupper that effectively drains the carpeted cockpit floor. Ambient water flows to the engine well before tumbling back to sea.

Other cockpit highlights include twin underfloor wet wells that are linked to the ocean. Each well is big enough to hold three dressed 25kg tuna. Water bubbles up at rest or, if you prefer, you can keep the wells dry by screwing a bung into their feeders.

The centre pontoon between the engines, which allows you to walk right out beyond the outboards when fighting a fish, is a feature which only big cats can boast. There are also marlin doors big enough to drag a grander aboard. A manual winch will be packed onboard. The deck hardware, meanwhile, is so heavy-duty that the company actually lifts its hulls via the oversized bollards.

ACTION STATIONS
A rocket launcher runs along the aft edge of the hardtop, which provides terrific protection from the elements. Ventilation is assured thanks to a scroll-up rear curtain, opening side windows and overhead hatches. The toughened glass offers a good view ahead even when wet.

Skipper and copilot get to sit on Reelax seats that have armrests, swivel in all directions, and are mounted on seat boxes with sealed aft bins to double as coolers for your drinks.

A full-width dash offers all the space you need to mount fishfinding gadgetry and personal items such as sunnies and sunscreen.

Pump Action was fitted with a Furuno GP1850DF combo depth sounder and GPS plotter, Hydrive hydraulic steering, Raytheon Sportpilot, multifunction Optimax gauges, Apelco VHF and GME 27 Meg, compass, and switchpanels.

Diamond likes to spin CDs on his GME marine stereo while kicking back with a spread of Pakula lures astern.

In the lock-up cabin I found room for one person to sleep in absolute comfort at sea. Two people can bed down in calm water, while a group of four fishos have room to regale each other with stories while waiting out the weather.

Like the man behind the trigger, the Offshore Sports 800 is a straightshooter. What you see is what you get: a down-to-earth boat that will rise above the pack.

"One of my dreams was to represent my country at the Olympics. The other is to get a big marlin, get my first, and have him trophied on the wall so I can capture the moment.," cracks Diamond as he puts the Perazzi shotgun back in its case. "Especially if it's going to put scratches in the boat..."