Noosa Cat 550 Centre Console

Without doubt, aluminium craft, plate or pressed alloy, make up the vast majority of centre console boats. The open style of a centre console provides a roomy fishing rig and the further north you go the more you will see.

Naturally, the warm climates of Queensland and the Northern Territory are certainly more attractive to this style of boat than that of the southern states where it can be icy cold on the water.

While fibreglass centre console rigs were once few and far between, we have seen a few glass manufacturers introduce small and midrange centre console boats in the past few years.

The increase in the price of aluminium and the labour required to build the boats has meant that the manufacturers of fibreglass can now be quite competitive with their midrange boats.

One of the latest centre consoles is produced by Noosa Cat and should prove to be quite popular among open water anglers. The new 5.5m craft offers a huge amount of workable deck area, a good stable and reliable platform, and is efficiently driven by a single engine.

BIRD'S EYE VIEW
One of the benefits of taking a Noosa Cat for a test run is that the company is located on the Noosa River, so you get to cross some pretty messy water on the Noosa Bar before reaching the open ocean where swells and choppy conditions are encountered more often than not. This gives you quite a feel for the boat in a good mix of situations and conditions.

When we jumped into the 550 I didn't know what to expect out of the rig. Motoring through the 8kmh zone of the river the first thing I noticed was how high the helm position is above the water.

With a standard boat the deck is around water level. The hull of a cat ensures you are much higher, as you have the tunnel beneath you formed between the two sponsons of the hull.

Being higher doesn't really hinder the stability, as the Noosa Cat hull is very stable to begin with. The extra height ensures good visibility, and though only a foot or so higher, it's enough to make a difference when spotting objects in the water, casting at fish and looking for fish or birds.

HIGH FLYER
Once we got a few revs up on the engine the boat slipped straight up onto the plane over a very short distance and cruised along with minimal effort. On the broken water of the bar, I gained a better appreciation of the cushioning effect of the hull, created by the air that passes through the tunnel. It's obvious that the air in here is taking the jar out of the ride and creating a certain amount of lift.

The trip across the bar was effortless, and while I don't like to mess around on bars, a few trips were made at varying speeds (albeit cautiously) with very pleasing results. As long as you work the waves and use some commonsense, bar crossing shouldn't be a problem with this craft.

Out on the open water, the 550 loves quartering and running into the sea, though I did find myself backing off on a few of the bigger sets, as the faster speeds of these boats make it easy to get airborne.

While the boats handle this without a problem, I don't believe it is good practice. While the driver knows what's going on, the crew don't always have a hold at the right time and there are usually lots of loose items that can get tossed about.

For an open boat confronted with 10-15kt of wind and a few different directions running about on the water, we remained relatively dry with only a little wind-blown spray. Most of the spray generated by the bow is directed under the hull of the boat and out through the tunnel. Interestingly though, no spray is sucked back in at the aft end of the boat, which was a common occurrence in early cat hulls.

The hull of the new Noosa Cat has reasonably wide sponsons at the aft end, which contributes greatly to the stability and the lift of the hull. In rough conditions these allow you to plane along at reasonably slow revs. Combine this with the good rough water handling of the hull and you've found yourself a comfortable and safe boat for those long rides back home. The conditions may be rough, but it's a comforting thought that you can cruise on days like this without too much hard work.

FISH-FRIENDLY CAT
Being a keen sportsfisherman, the room available for fishing was particularly appealing. The shape of cat hulls means that the bow section of the boat is almost as beamy (wide) as that across the aft end.

Across the 550's bow, a raised area forms a big benchseat which has a fair amount of storage room below it, accessible through hinged locker doors. The anchor well is also rather spacious and is found right behind the bowsprit.

The seating/storage area at the front doubles as a casting platform, with plenty of room for two anglers to get up there and cast lures to their heart's content. With two at the bow there is still plenty of room for another two to throw lures at the back.

The console itself is wide enough to offer protection for two from a bit of wind and spray, with plenty of internal room for all those items that you want to keep dry. The benchseat behind the console is made up of an Eva Kool icebox with a backrest and cushion placed on it.

A bit of smart stainless steel work was completed inhouse at the Noosa Cat factory, with the iceboxes converted into a top seat with the backrest tilting either way. The box is well secured to the floor, yet is easy to remove at the same time.

As with most centre consoles, additional storage for everyday items is found in the sidepockets and while not an actual storage area, you will find room to slip a few items in under the transom.

ENGINE TORQUE
The transom runs full width and the outboard is mounted on a small pod on the stern. The 90hp Mercury outboard fitted was very effective and the rig was not lacking power at any stage.

The pod set-up itself works very well and the motor never even looked like cavitating or bobbing in under the swells.

Perhaps the only point worth mentioning is that turning a cat hull takes a bit of getting used to. You can't do those tight fast corners as easily as you might like, as the weight transfers from one sponson to the other. Other than that, the boat is a beauty to drive.

Twin engines are certainly an option, in which case the boat is formatted with pods on each sponson. However, in the case of our testboat, a single pod was used centrally. This significantly decreases the cost of the overall package. Thus, priced competitively with monohulls of similar size, the Noosa Cat is an interesting option, especially in situations where the user is looking for plenty of space and a stable offshore boat.

With many anglers set in their 'mono' ways, Noosa Cat may find this under 6.0m market a hard one to break into. But as people start to appreciate the advantages of such a rig, I dare say we will begin to see more of these little centre consoles on the water, with this small boat bluewater sportsfisherman leading the charge.