Quintrex 690 Trident Hard Top

Over the years, Quintrex has be a brand known for inexpensive, robust little tinnies that you could knock about for years in the bays and estuaries around the country.

Sure, you can still get your cost-effective tinnie from Quintrex, strap on a small outboard and/or a set of oars and take the kids out to pick up a few flatties.

But at the other end of the Quintrex range, things have changed. Quintrex is now striving to offer a bunch of high-quality turn-key fishing machines that you can literally drive out of the showroom via the servo for some fuel and bait and down to the ramp.

To offer a boat for those who want to fish more than just enclosed waters, we recently saw Quintrex launch the Trident cuddy cabin to the market. The Trident range consists of three boats, the 610, 650 and 690.

Now that the hard top boom is on in earnest with offerings flooding the market from manufacturers both here in Aus and from across the Tasman, Quintrex has released the Trident Hard Top in two sizes, the 650 and the 690.

But Quintrex hasn’t just bolted on a new lid and shoved the Tridents out into the market. According to Quintrex’s Damian Duncan, the company has taken some feedback from dealers and used the opportunity to add a few new features to enhance the fishability of the boats.

PRICE AND EQUIPMENT
- Get in and go
As with all the Quintrex boats, the Trident 690 Hard Top is offered in a ‘Ready to Go’ package which includes boat, motor, trailer, registrations and safety equipment.

The 690, fitted with an Evinrude E-Tec 250hp HO outboard on a dual-axle trailer from Springwood Marine Queensland will set you back $87,168.

For that price, you get a pretty well kitted out boat that you could easily take fishing straight away. Quintrex does, however, offer an extensive options list so that you can customise your Trident to suit your usage. We won’t go into all the options here, but as you’ll see later in the story, you don’t need to add much to have a fully-kitted ocean-ready pocket battlewagon.

Our test boat was fitted with a few extras including upgraded Lowrance HDS12 electronics, LED light kit which gives lights for inside the hard top and for the cockpit. There was also a deck wash, rear lounge and cool Trident metallic grey paint bringing the total to $93,808.

LAYOUT AND ACCOMODATION
New seats and modified transom
Stepping aboard the Hard Top for the first time, the first thing we noticed that everything looked neat and tidy and well finished.

Quintrex has modified the transom with a new bait station and rearranged underneath to fit two batteries and an isolator switch in a neat cabinet with a hatch. The bait station has been modified to be both wider and deeper. You get a cutting board, five rod holders, knife sheath and two cup holders.

On the port side, there’s a live-bait tank with viewing window and new external pickup which allows water to circulate through the tank while you’re under way, keeping your bait fresh.

On the starboard side, there’s a transom walk-through with an alloy slide-in ‘gate’ and there’s a standard swim ladder with a burley bucket on the port side.

Pockets adorn both side of the boat but we did note that the pockets extend right to the checker-plate floor and anglers won’t be able to their toes under when fighting a fish.

Moving forward we find two nice new Quintrex Ocean Pro seats which slide fore and aft and have solid grab rails for standing passengers. These seats are really comfortable and supportive but we did find that no matter how far we slid them forward we couldn’t reach the foot rests when helming or as a passenger. It’s a simple fix for Quintrex – bring the footrest up a foot.

The seats are mounted on pedestals which have storage under and recesses for your EPIRB and fire extinguisher.

The helm is a beauty with plenty of room for screens or bracket-mounted electronics. There’s a good view forward through the screen and a wiper is standard for the skipper and optional for the passenger. The side windows slide for ventilation and the passenger gets a lockable ‘glove box’ for wallets and phones and the like.

Overall it’s a good hard top setup with plenty of room and no protrusions to bash yourself on.

Between the seats is a 135-litre kill tank which is positioned across the boat for ‘optimal weight distribution’ according to Quintrex.

Across the back of the hard top you get six Real Easy rod holders which flip up and down for easy access. Incidentally, this brings the total number of rod holders on the standard boat to 17.

Moving into the cabin we find two long (2.1m) bunks which are carpet covered as standard but we’d fit the hard-wearing vinyl cushions in case someone wants to have a nap after an arduous fishing session. Under the bunks is storage but we found that the lids have no way stying up so you can only search for that illusive Phillips-head screwdriver or second torch with one hand. We’d like to see some gas struts or at least some straps to keep the lids up with – sure, you could do it yourself and many owners probably will, but you shouldn’t have to.

The Trident is not designed as a walk-around boat and to that end there’s a big hatch at the front to access the anchor gear. There is provision for mounting a winch and we reckon that with this size of boat many owners will go down that track. The anchor well is a roto moulded affair but lacks a lid which we’d have especially if you’ve got a winch.

A substantial bow roller prods out the front to assist deployment and retrieval.

HULL AND ENGINEERING
- Blade hull and solid construction
Prior to the launch and test of the Trident Hard Tops we were treated to a full tour of the factory where the Tridents are built in Coomera, Queensland.
The tour gave us a real insight into how much goes into the construction of these plate boats. From the stretch-formed aluminium sheets which are cut by robots to make the bottoms and topisdes, to the ribs and ‘gibs’ that combine to form the internal subframe structure to reinforce strength and create a precise hull shape in each boat, it was a real eye-opener.

We were told that it takes around 60 hours of welding to create one of these boats and there is a total of around 500 metres of welding in each vessel.
The Tridents are constructed of 5mm alloy on the bottomsides and 3mm on the topsides the hard tops are 3mm alloy and are bolted to the rest of the boat.

Another thing we did learn from our tour was that the fuel tank is accessible as the floor is screwed down and not welded as in many other boats. This means that should you get a problem with the fuel tank or need to drain or clean it, the tank can be accessed without ripping the boat to bits.

The Blade hulls we have described at length before but suffice to say that is a flared bow design with a fine entry and variable deadrise which provides good performance through chop and is stable at rest (which proved handy at the launch when we were doing boat-to-boat transfers offshore).

Our boat was powered by an E-Tec 250hp HO (high output) engine mated to Evinrude’s new fly-by-wire throttle controller. It uses a system Evinrude calls I-CON. The digital throttle control sends a signal to an electronic servo that is in turn connected to the shift and throttle linkages. The result is a gentle control for both shift and speed. This is a great feature as you won’t experience cable stretch or linkage problems affecting your control travel.

ON THE WATER
- A great package but we didn’t get to use the wiper!
For our test, Queensland bunged on a stunning day with an offshore breeze and not much swell. Perfect for getting out on the water.

After a bit of photography, we blasted out through the Seaway and into the ocean! As mentioned, it was pretty flat so we couldn’t really test the hull to its fullest extent, but we did get a chance to test the performance and handling. The fly-by-wire is fantastic – especially when experienced back-to-back with a conventional cable system. The I-CON system has three settings so the skipper can change the resistance to give more or less ‘feel’ to the throttle. This could be handy in rough conditions when you have your hand resting on the throttles, a bit more resistance can stop the throttle bouncing and the boat lurching with the immediacy of the throttle change. Shifts are silky smooth too. We loved it!

Our 690 was fitted with the 250 E-TEC which is the maximum for this hull. If you wanted to save a few shekels, we reckon this boat would be fine with a 200 or even a 175.

As it was though, this rig provided plenty of punch. It literally jumped up on the plane and at 3000rpm, we were cruising nicely at 20-21 knots using 23 litres per hour. A fast cruise of 4500rpm had the 690 up at 32 knots using around 51 litres per hour. Wide open will return about 47 knots using 80 litres per hour.

Handling in these conditions was great and we could flick the big 690 around easily on the hydraulic steering with little or no cavitation. Blasting back into the offshore breeze, the Hard Top was loving it. And so was the crew. No buffeting from the wind and the Blade hull cutting through the chop with aplomb.

The spray was effectively deflected by the chines and the flare and we didn't get to use the standard windscreen wiper once.

At this stage, I changed into a regular 610 Trident and the difference was much greater than I expected.

Aside from the breeze without the hard top, the 610 was much more chattery and wasn’t handling the chop nearly as well. Sure there is a difference of nearly a metre in length (6.19m vs 7.07m LOA) but more I think it’s the weight (860kg vs 1130kg boat only) which makes the difference in this kind of chop. In the 690 we were also carrying a bigger fuel load and the bigger engine. Don’t get me wrong, the 610 Trident is a great boat but the 690 proved to be better by a significant margin.

VERDICT
- A worthy contender
In the battle for hard-top supremacy in the aluminium boat market there are some really good, established names: think Bar Crusher, Surtees, Extreme and Stabicraft from NZ, Westerberger in WA, to name just a few. Many of these boats have their special idiosyncrasies and people stick to one brand because they like things a certain way.

However, there are many out there who just want a good, solid boat with good features and one that won’t cost a second mortgage to own and run – and this could be the boat for them.

Hard tops are certainly more suited to the southern climes and if you’re looking for a sturdy boat to hunt for big snapper in Port Phillip or Western Port, or a rig to grab some tuna out of Portland, or a boat to chase the King George whiting in SA, then you could do a lot worse than the Quintrex Trident Hard Top. Oh, and we loved the new metalflake grey ‘stealth’ colour too!

LIKES
>> Sturdy construction
>> Ride and handling
>> Solid aftersales service and warranty
>> More affordable than some competitors

NOT SO MUCH
>> Helm seat footrests too low
>> Can’t get your toes under the coamings
>> Nothing to hold the lids up for the under-seat storage
>> No lid standard on the anchor well

RATINGS
Overall rating: 4.5/5.0
Mechanical/equipment: 4.6/5.0
Packaging and practicality: 4.6/5.0
On the water Performance: 4.5/5.0
Value for money: 4.4/5.0
X-factor: 4.5/5.0

SPECIFICATIONS:
Price as tested: $93,808 options include: Upgraded electronics, LED light kit, deck wash, rear lounge, Trident grey metallic paint
Priced From: $87,168
LOA: 7.07m
Beam: 2.48m
Depth: 1.47m
Length on trailer: 8.38m
Height on trailer: 3.36m
Bottomsides: 5mm
Topsides: 3mm
Transom: 5mm
Weight boat only: 1130kg
Rec hp: 150hp
Max hp: 250hp
Engine as tested: Evinrude E-TEC 250hp HO
Prop: 19-inch Rebel

Supplied by:
Hunts Marine
629 Princes Hwy,
Blakehurst, NSW
(02) 9546 1324
www.huntsmarine.com.auv