Pacific Sportfish 6.4 Centre Cab

The 5.8 Tournament was a fully-rigged demo boat from Brisbane Sportfish specialist Northside Marine and I was able to sample it on a number of occasions. Each time it reinforced my first impressions - here was an accomplished and affordable offshore package.

So when Northside's Billy Hull contacted us with news that the company's latest Sportfish demonstrator had hit the water, I hightailed it around to the company's Deagon premises to check it out.

This time I was greeted by the 6.4m version of the proven centre-cab layout. Here was a chance to find out if bigger is really better.

Accompanied by Bill and Northside's owner Gregg Nickerson, the plan was to take the boat straight from the fitout workshop for a half-day shakedown run and a few hours of fishing on Brisbane's Moreton Bay.

With the weather gods playing along for once, we were enjoying ourselves so much we ended up spending the whole day on the water, covering plenty of ground and blooding the boat with its first few sportsfish.

Fitted with a 150hp FICHT-equipped Johnson outboard, the 6.4 offers similar packaging to its smaller sibling.

The standard model features a 5mm thick plate alloy bottom and transom with 4mm sides and deck. However, in this case, Northside specified Sportfish's 'Bullet Proof' option - 6mm bottom sheets and 5mm sides and decks!

This adds around 130kg to the hull's weight and is also available as an option on the 5.8m.

The actual hull design, with the chines, planing stakes, 18° deadrise, outboard extension and deep foot at the bow, performs exceptionally well in all conditions.

With some plate boats, there's often an uncomfortable compromise between stability, ride and performance - but not so with this rig. The ride is comfortable, and at rest we had three anglers fishing from one side of the boat without any stability problems. This is reassuring when you're handling a large fish at boatside when out to sea.

As with all the Sportfish designs, the big deep forefoot comes into its own when running down the face of a swell or cutting through the chop. There is no broaching and the fine entry cuts cleanly, producing very little spray.

As I've mentioned in tests in the past, the standard pod set-up on Sportfish's boats is more of an outboard extension - that is, the pod is not sealed to provide flotation to support the weight of the outboard or provide additional lift onto the plane.

The Johnson 150's no lightweight, but in my experience the 6.4 easily handles its bulk. The bulk of the outboard still sits well clear of the water and performs its trimming functions extremely well.

This augers well for those who wish to fit twin outboards to the 6.4. It should be noted here that Sportfish fits hydraulic trim tabs as standard when the Bullet Proof option is specified.

Although in single engine trim the extension is not a large one, it has enough room to clear the full width of the transom of any cables, thus leaving the area itself uncluttered and ready to accept all the usual Sportfish goodies - bait board, livebait tanks and storage shelves.

The 150hp FICHT had ample power for the three of us, though we didn't have much gear - just the basics - and about three quarters of a tank of fuel. Moving onto the plane was accomplished with ease without the need to mash the throttle, even with the underfloor wet tank full of water and a few fish.

With a bit of running in, you'll probably get mid to high 70s (kmh) out of this rig, which is more than fast enough.

Those who carry bigger loads or regularly cover longer distances could move up to a single 175hp (or perhaps even a pair of 90s). Such a set-up won't yield much more speed, but it should give you better cruising speeds - and at lower revs.

Either way, with 200lt underfloor there's plenty of fuel capacity for a day's trolling on the shelf.

Having an alloy boat shouldn't mean having to put up with a scruffy finish. You don't with this Sportfish, because a lot of effort has gone into the finishing touches.

Thanks to Sportfish's own in-house painting and two-pack Sterling paint and stylish striping, Northside's 6.4 looks a million dollars.

The paint job is one of the best that you'll find and Sterling products are hard to go past for colour retention, durability and resistance to chipping and corrosion. It's top stuff!

The Centre Cab has been set up as a serious sportsfishing boat. Many of the features from the 5.8m have been further improved to make this an even more efficient platform. Testing the first demo boat for a good six months allowed plenty of time to find out what worked and what didn't.

In the 6.4 the deck space has been kept as clear and workable as possible, with the centre cab located slightly forward of midships to keep a good work area on the aft deck. Though comfortable twin V-berths are provided inside, there is still plenty of room for extra tackle boxes and sportsbags.

The two swivel helm seats are mounted on boxes which can be easily accessed and provide two good dry storage areas.

In Northside's 5.8m these were used to store the twin batteries, which I thought was a waste of space. In this boat, the batteries have been kept in the transom, leaving these areas free to be used as tackle hatches or tool storage.

One or both could even be rigged up as a small fridge/freezer. I've seen this done in several boats, with the addition of a solar panel on the targa top. This works well and is certainly an option worth considering.

The cab boasts a large flat dash capable of taking all the electronics and instruments you want to mount.

On the passenger's side, there is a handy shelf where you can throw your keys and wallet.

The aft deck is where most of the action takes place. Across the transom you will find the livebait tank and the standard bait rigging station. The storage areas in the lower half of the transom are occupied by two batteries and the outboard's oil bottle.

Underfloor, there's an aluminium fish box which can be used either dry or flooded with fresh seawater.

On the day we tested the 6.4, we cast to and caught a few mackerel and a nice longtail tuna. With this sort of fishing, normally the skipper gets caught up inside the cabin, the fish sounding before he or she can get a cast in.

The beauty of this boat is that with the clear curtain section of the canopy removed from the centre cab, the skipper can stand in the walkaround and work the controls without too much fuss.

Being outside the cab and near the bow of the boat, the skipper doesn't miss out on the fishing action. In fact, he is in the prime position to cast into surface-feeding fish.

Sportfish has fitted a couple of rodholders to the targa which sit almost vertically. These were ideal for the skipper's use as the gear was right by the wheelhouse ready to use, but not at all in the way.

Other rods can be stored in the rocket launcher on the soft targa top and there are also plenty of rodholders located in the gunwales around the boat.

Thanks to good design and its heavy-duty construction, the Pacific Sportfish 6.4 is a very fishermen-friendly machine.

In fact, it's so impressive that the BlueWater team has decided to take an even closer look...

In the vein of that Kiwi model's favourite saying, BlueWater Boats & Sportsfishing's latest project boat hasn't happened overnight - in fact, it's been the best part of a year in the making.

That's the time that has elapsed since we first spied the base hull at last September's Brisbane Boat Show.

Its identity is no secret and eagle-eyed readers and trailerboat aficionados will recognise the craft from the picture here. Resplendent in its bare alloy finery, it is in fact a Pacific Sportfish 6.4m CentreCab Bullet Proof Series Hardtop Tournament. To simplify things, let's just call it BlueWater II (BWII).

BWII is a departure from the norm for us. Having run a succession of fibreglass project boats under the BlueWater, Trailer Boat and Trade-A-Boat banners (we're still running a SF655 Southwind), it is the first plate aluminium craft we've taken under our wing for some time.

Why the change? Well, the main reason is that as these projects evolve we tend to change our minds. Whether it be the placement of a rodholder or something more significant, even the best production boats need a little bit of fiddling here and there once fished, to make the step from a good to a really great sportsfisher.

Fibreglass boats certainly have the fit and finish nailed these days but the material still does not lend itself to easy or repeated modifications.

Add to this the fact that initial customising of layouts, adding and subtracting fittings, installing larger livebait tanks, extra fuel and water tanks, is easier in aluminium and you'll appreciate why we chose the plate route.

And as this boat will be the centrepiece of a number of our boat show displays, it also has to present (extremely) well.

In the past this has been a weak link in most plate boat builders' armoury. But one look at the Pacific craft at the Brisbane show last year and we were sold.

The next dilemma was choosing the size. For a start, we were looking for a craft with even more fishing room than the well-credentialed Southwind. Given the miles our project boats do on the road, however, the new vessel still had to be readily trailerable.

Thus, our first spec of a boat in the 7.0-7.5m range had to be trimmed to something closer to the 6.5m range.

This reduction in length made layout even more important. While a centre console design would provide the maximum fishing room, weather protection was also a priority. As a result, we settled on the next best thing -- a walkaround.

It was at this stage that it was suggested we go down the Bullet Proof Series (BPS) route. Aside from producing an even tougher package, the makers said that the result would be a softer, quieter ride. We ticked the BPS box too... We'll let you know if we were right further down the track.

Nailing down a wish list from there wasn't too hard. For a start, we wrote down every feature we were after. With the help of Pacific's Frank Wielinga and Anne Minchinton and Northside Marine, we then put a tick against the definites.

The build spec now reads something like this:

With electronics playing such an important part in offshore fishing these days, we were determined to fit out BWII with a suite befitting a true mini-gameboat.

As dash space is limited in centrecabs, our initial discussions centred on using some of the more commonplace compact recreational sets. However, just when we thought we had settled on a plan of attack, another possibility surfaced via longtime Trade-A-Boat supporter, Adelaide-based Quin Marine.

By using Quin's latest waterproofed and integrated Simrad components, not only could we fit a fully-functioned pro-style deepwater colour sounder and DGPS chartplotter, but we could also interface the whole affair with an in-dash Robertson autopilot.

In case you haven't got the hint - this is going to be one hell of a trailerboat!

With the electrics and hull fitout more or less decided, that left one small matter for consideration - powerplants.

Well, sort of...

The truth of the matter is we made two decisions regarding this craft well before we'd even finalised the choice of hull. One, the vessel would be powered by twin outboards, and, two, they would be four-strokes.

The twin decision is easy - we want the offshore security of two powerplants. The whole four-stroke decision is somewhat more complex.

Much has been written in marine magazines around the world about the two-stroke versus four-stroke debate. While we have nothing but praise for the V-six Saltwater Series Yamaha two-strokes that have powered our last two project boats, we felt it was time to see what all the fuss was about...

We've wanted to test the claims and counter-claims regarding fuel economy and performance for some time. This boat will provide an ideal opportunity. And yes, it is our intention to re-power the vessel on at least one occasion during its 18-month stay.

That said, BWII will debut with a pair of 90hp Honda four-strokes proudly bolted to its transom.

Given Northside's experience with setting up Sportfish hulls and Honda four-strokes, we're confident that the rig will be a cracker. Mike Sinclair