Salthouse 65

Our test of the 65 Salthouse Sovereign was exhausting. We had to travel all the way to Land's End, then journey up the coast of Baja California Sur, then qualify for initiation into an obscure, super-secret society that marries blue-marlin fishing and musica Cubano (Cuban music: specifically that of the Buena Vista Social Club).

Sometimes I'm amazed at what we have to undertake just to entertain and inform our readers!

The tale begins at the airport at Los Cabos near the southernmost tip of Baja California, where after an interminable wait to be stamped into Mexico, I board a van filled with tourists bound for the tequila palaces of Sodom and Gamorrah... er, I mean Cabo San Lucas. I wax nostalgic as we race along the coast, remembering similar trips years earlier when the ocean view was less frequently interrupted by the monoliths of time-share civilisation.

After catching my first glimpse of Los Arcos, the famed arched rock formation at the very tip of the Baja peninsula, we roll into the billowing outskirts of Cabo on a sweltering afternoon. Even at 2pm the watering holes are rocking.

Been there, done that - but my fellow passengers are hankering for a hangover. A bright red warning sign on the portal of the infamous El Squid Roe nightclub announces appropriately: "Sorry, we are open"

Ah, but I have come not for the gin-joints and other distractions of this bustling tourism Mecca located near Land's End; I have come to test a 65ft Salthouse Sovereign by fishing it all the way from the sin capital of Cabo San Lucas to the state capital of La Paz.

SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT
From across the marina it's difficult to differentiate the glistening white enclosed-flybridge sportsfishing yacht from its sisters in the Marina Cabo San Lucas. Only on closer examination does it begin to stand apart from enclosed-flybridge Hatterases, Vikings and other similar yachts.

I was escorted through the security gate by Capt Xavier "XR" Andrade, who is generally referred to by his nickname "Scorpio". He picked up my bag and led me aboard a vessel he now knows intimately, since having taken delivery of it fresh from the Salthouse yards in New Zealand roughly 18 months and 10,000 nautical miles earlier.

Scorpio was clearly proud of his ride, and it sparkled with his good care, looking every bit like a new boat - from the engineroom to the pilothouse and everywhere in between.

I had previously met El Patron, the boat's shadowy (and for this tale anonymous) owner, and we fell into catching up with old friends and favourite destinations - several of which we would soon visit. As we chatted, he quickly showed me through the vessel he had specified to Bob Salthouse, after a long search in several countries, to replace his aging Elliott sportsfisher.

As soon as I'd photographed the engineroom, XR fired up the twin Cummins QSM-11, 635hp diesels, and his regular mate Raul "Simpson" Aguilar and family friend Ernesto Maceira disconnected the power cables and cast off the lines.

We made a quick stop at the fuel dock to allow me to get a couple of quick shots of the boat surrounded by the growing glut of Cabo San Lucas. After I reboarded, we motored past the empty bait barge, through an enormous gaggle of jetskis, and out towards Los Arcos to capture a partial portrait of the Saltie, poised off the famed gateway arch and Land's End.

Then we got down to the real business of the trip. Scorpio throttled the engines up to cruise speed and the big Salthouse climbed quickly and ever so easily into planing mode.

EXCITING SIGHTING
We were nearly at the Gorda Bank before we found reasonably blue water. The throttles were eased back after Scorpio spotted a striped marlin tailing on the surface.

The striper disappeared without a bite, but about four miles East of the Gorda a substantial dorado (mahi mahi) grabbed a specially made white Zucker ZM-3.5, which Scorpio called "blanco", from the long corner position. El Patron was quickly standing up to a nice fight on 15kg gear.

A few minutes later, El Patron's team leadered and gaffed a gleaming gold and iridescent blue 54lb bull dorado, and the menu for dinner became certain.

We trolled about 20 minutes more without action; then the lures were retrieved and the engines throttled up to 1900rpm, which pushed the big Salthouse along easily at just over 20kt, burning roughly 38gal (144lt) per hour. We were running in to the southern lee of Cabo (Cape) Frailes for the night.

In the roughly 60 miles of coastline we had covered since leaving Cabo, I'd come to know this Salthouse a little better. It was surprisingly fast for a big boat carrying only 1270hp. Obviously, the moderate horsepower also gave it increased fuel economy and range.

The Saltie ran dry, planed quickly and easily, and tamed a roll promptly while sitting in the trough - all features apparently resulting from Bob Salthouse's many years of hull-design experimentation and the modest vee (6°) the boat carries in its stern. Fact is, it rode like it was stabilised - despite its comparatively narrow beam (15ft 4in or 5m).

"There were few things I wanted to do on this boat that Bob Salthouse had any disagreement with, except the installation of stabilisers," El Patron recalled. "He said I wouldn't need them on this hull, and he was right."

The meeting of buyer and builder was serendipitous, and it came near the end of an exhaustive search for a power-cat sportsfisher that had dead-ended in New Zealand. A friend had just learned about Salthouse and suggested that they might as well stop by. When they called, Bob Salthouse invited them to tea, and the boat quickly evolved.

LENGTHY DISCUSSIONS
Our test platform actually started life as a 57 Salthouse. The hull was stretched to 62ft to incorporate the buyer's desire for greater range and accommodation.

With the bow pulpit, this boat measures close to 65ft in length overall. At the time of writing, a new, longer and beamier 65 Salthouse had just been launched.

The stretch is not obvious outside until it is pointed out, but it makes a huge difference in the engineroom and living accommodations. Not only does the pilothouse have a back porch; so too does the main cabin, where a large U-shaped dinette area separates the galley from the cockpit.

As you enter the boat from the cockpit, this area also includes a handy dayhead with shower to starboard and a very ingeniously equipped hanging locker for rods and reels.

Continuing into the interior from the porch, you pass the partial spiral staircase (90°) up into the pilothouse on your right. The galley is to port. There, practical cabinetry, deep sinks with fitted cutting boards, moulded countertops, fine trim work and quality appliances by Miele and Fisher & Paykel are fitted into the fine teak joinery with white ash inlay, which is found throughout the boat.

Forward of the galley to port is a luxuriously appointed lounge with suede leather couches, which is a perfect place to enjoy the satellite-fed television entertainment centre mounted in more fine cabinetry in the forward starboard corner of the lounge. Aft to starboard are additional storage drawers and a liquor cabinet, where El Patron keeps his fine collection of sipping tequila and Cuban rum.

Atop the cabinets is a padded pilot berth that doubles as a comfortable window-level lounge, perfect for reading or napping close to the action while underway. Fine wool carpets cover the decks in the interior. (Hey, this is a New Zealand-built boat after all!).

LIVING LARGE
The steps down into the forward living area lift up to reveal access to the spacious engineroom, where glistening white surfaces are easy to keep spotless.

The twin Cummins engines and all their related gear are easily accessed and serviced; the wiring runs are clean and the plumbing is thoughtfully engineered. Watermaker, water heaters, pumps, genset in its hush box and secure toolboxes are all easy to get to.

On your left as you descend the stairs is a large wine-storage cabinet and a capacious storage compartment under the brow of the bridge. Four steps down, there is a stateroom with over-and-under berths to starboard, and another one with parallel single berths to port - which also includes a full head with circular shower stall equipped with a rotating shower door.

The master stateroom is all the way forward and it features a pedestal king-size berth, his and hers hanging lockers, and tonnes of drawer and storage space - a feature that is notable throughout the boat.

I didn't think I was a fan of enclosed pilothouses on sportsfishing boats, but I may be a convert. Certainly on a boat that could find itself in nearly any environment and a range of sea conditions, the dryness of the enclosed bridge is a big benefit.

On the Saltie, the enclosed bridge deck was big, comfortable, well equipped and utilitarian. From the command console at the forward end, with its pair of comfortable pilots' chairs (one centre, one to starboard, right behind the chart table) you feel like you are in a comfortable living room.

A full-length lounge to port is divided by a cabinet from another that runs aft before it curves around amidships, providing comfortable seating for a big party and plenty of room for long-legged midday nappers. Additional storage cabinetry is to port.

Sliding doors separate the pilothouse from its back porch, which includes the control station, with its bolstered leaning post for security and pair of wraparound benches that provide a great stadium seat from which to view the action below.

The electronics suite in the bridge control console was compact and efficiently laid out, thanks in equal parts to the petit digital instrumentation the electronic Cummins engines allow for; the multiple windows provided by the Furuno NavNet panels; and the excellent co-operation between the builder and the buyer.

The flat, black instrumentation and electronics console face was the just the way it oughta be. 

NOT-SO-RUDE AWAKENING
We slept soundly in the placid anchorage behind the cliffs of Cape Frailes and awoke to a gorgeous sunrise over the tip of the Cape, which peeked through a cleft in the rock formation.

The foredeck davit easily launched the boat's inflatable, so we grabbed a couple of pictures of the serene anchorage as the new day broke. Then we headed east-northeast at about 2000rpm in company with a three-layer wedding cake of a Feadship called Prima Donna, which was easily twice our size and incongruously sported a fishing cockpit.

As he found better water, Scorpio turned more to the north and we slowed and put out our lines at about the same time the cruisers from the Buena Vista area of Baja's East Cape region began congregating in a likely spot offshore. We soon had our first blue marlin in the pattern.

The mood onboard was casual and relaxed between fish, but at the first indication of a predator in our wake everyone fell quickly to a specific task.

The big cockpit of the 65 Salthouse is well equipped for gamefishing: padded cockpit coamings all around, practical tackle lockers with vertical rodholders on the port forward bulkhead, livebait well on the starboard forward bulkhead, and a pair of transom gates with flip-open tops and sliding transom doors.

Simpson or Ernesto usually gave the first indication of a fish in the wake, and El Patron would scramble into the cockpit as I grabbed my cameras and XR moved to the rear control station on the aft bridge deck.

Our first fish up was an estimated 250lb blue that took a Mexican flag-coloured Zucker from the right short corner, ran out about 100 yards of line in a showy surface run, then threw the hook.

PAKULA TO THE RESCUE
Soon after we'd settled back into conversation another blue showed in the same location in the wake - but this one dropped back and ate the only Pakula lure in the pattern (a Rat, Express colour).

This one stuck, giving El Patron his first significant exercise of the trip, while I exercised my index finger pushing the shutter button.

This fish, roughly the same size as the previous one, put on a spectacular show, then retired to the aft port corner for hook removal. It was then towed for revival out the open transom gate and released healthy and brightly coloured.

Thirty minutes later another blue marlin took the same Pakula lure, jumped dramatically, got into a head-shaking frenzy, then jumped toward the boat and threw the hook.

We'd had three blue marlin on in the first three hours of the day. We also saw a slew of free jumpers and two surface-feeding striped marlin before noon.

The lack of live bait prevented effective pursuit of the stripers, but the waters Scorpio had chosen to fish - between Buena Vista and the "88 Spot" - were alive with gamefish.

Around noon we worked a red Shell Oil barrel that held several large dorado, but the clear water and our lack of any natural bait eventually turned the opportunity into an exercise in frustration.

Around 2.45pm, El Patron hooked and successfully released what would prove to be the biggest fish of the trip: a blue marlin estimated at 400lb, which gave him a run for his money, an endorphin burst, some muscle twitching and aerobic exercise - and a whole lot of fun.

By 4.30pm that first day we'd raised another blue and seen two more stripeys - great marlin fishing by nearly any standard. The boss called it a day, the mates retrieved the five lures from the wake, and the engines were throttled up to cruising revs. Our skipper headed the big Salthouse down the serene, glass-flat channel between Cerralvo island and the Bay of Ventana, on our way into La Paz.

SUNSET TO KILL FOR
The broad placid channel delivered up a large school of pilot whales, and allowed us to view the spectacular cordellera (midriff mountains) of the Baja peninsula.

Turrets of up-thrust stone, wrenched skyward by the mighty San Andreas fault, turned pastel ore-coloured hues as the sun sank and eventually disappeared behind the gnarled ridges.

As the twilight darkened, we wound our way along the shoreline channel, through a maze of functional and non-functional markers and buoys, eventually slowing at the entrance to the Club de Yate Palmira marina - the Salthouse's well-protected home during hurricane season. The marina was also home to several megayachts and many large sportsfishing machines, including a new 45 Viking and a new 70ft Mikelson on the same dock we occupied.

The marina docks opened onto the malecon, an unobstructed sidewalk along the shoreline of the city of La Paz that ran for miles.

After cleaning up, we walked the length of the dock and into a waterfront restaurant, where our skipper completed the registration process for the Third Torneo de Pesca de Dorado (Third Dorado Tournament), run by El Club de Caza, Tiro Y Pesca "Gavilanes", AC. The next day we'd be fishing a dorado tournament against a fleet of some 35 boats ranging from outboard-powered locally built pangas to sophisticated yacht fishermen.

The first prize was a Ford KA "automovil" (a roller-skate of a car not unlike those used by families of clowns in a circus). It would be a perfect vehicle for our diminutive mate Raul Aguilar, who was generally called Simpson due to his resemblance to the cartoon character Bart Simpson.

SPIRIT OF COMPETITION
The next day, armed with live bait, we were ready to be contenders, raising our first dorado within 15 minutes of the start-fishing signal at 8am. That dinner-size fish was slipped into the cold storage box just inside the aft cabin door, beneath the back porch deck.

Then just before 9am, XR spotted a striper on the surface and cast a live bait to it. That frightened it at first, but the fish then turned and came right to the transom, where Simpson dropped it another live bait, garnering an immediate strike and hook-up. We lost that fish to a broken leader, but more followed, including a nice wahoo that took the "blanco" lure, several more dorado, and a very nice blue marlin that came up on the short corner lure.

A lot of the action surprised me - particularly the big blue - because we were fishing green water in relatively shallow water, near the tip of Ceralvo, and it just didn't look fishy. XR's local knowledge proved to be completely accurate.

We didn't win the car, but it turned out that the 54lb dorado we'd caught on the first day of our voyage would have done the trick if we'd caught it 48 hours later. Oh well... we'd still had a great day.

After returning to the marina at Palmira, we wandered over to the tournament scales and caught the weigh-in of the tournament-winning 21.5kg specimen. I snapped some pics of the winners with the Pacifico (beer) Girls, then we had a couple of tequilas and a nice dinner of grilled snapper and vegetables in a waterfront marina café called, appropriately enough, La Panga.

An after-dinner foray into the heart of La Paz gave us a quick taste of the capital city of Baja California Sur - a city more devoted to commerce and government than tourism, but with all the requisite tourist features. The waterfront marlecon was dotted with nightclubs, hotels, restaurants and shops, and revellers filled the sidewalk.

FINAL FLURRY
We left early the next morning to get some running shots of the Salthouse from the marina breakwater, then set out for the final full day of the adventure.

On this day I would nearly fulfil the single most difficult requirement for induction as a member of Tula's Social Club: raising and hooking a marlin while the mournful, bluesy ballad "El Cuarto de Tula" - found on the Buena Vista Social Club album - played on the vessel's stereo system. I ended the day with a pair of marlin, a blue and a striper, but both were caught just one song shy of the music cut that spawned the organisation.

Fortunately, El Patron rules as the very benevolent Presidente of the unique organisation, and after much deliberation he made an exception. That night at dinner, I was handed the coveted official members t-shirt, which features the smiling visage of a beautiful Latino lady, the words Tula's Social Club, and, "Fishing, Lap Dancing and Tequila." I can't wait for the Annual General Meeting.

The next morning we left the serenity of Ventana Bay in our wake and ran south into the dock at the Hotel Palmas de Cortez, where I left the big Salthouse. All told, it was a great way to get to know the second example of the fine work of Salthouse Marine Group in New Zealand that I've had the pleasure to review. The Kiwis are great boatbuilders, and the Salthouse products I've experienced are as well made as most of their competition worldwide.

We found little rough water in our multi-day examination of this custom-designed long-range sportsfisher, but what little we did encounter told me it handles snotty water well. It certainly handled its fishing chores well.

Wide sidedecks made it easy to sprint forward to cast a bait; the big cockpit was eminently fishable; twin transom gates made reviving billfish easy on either side of the stern; and the boat's long, stately hull manoeuvred very easily in pursuit of big game.

What didn't I like? I was not impressed with the non-skid on any of the decks, except in the cockpit where El Patron had elected to add more. I'd also move the helm position slightly aft to move the instrumentation and electronics from under the windshield, where they cook in the sun for most of the day. I'd probably also choose drawer-type fridge/freezers rather than a side-by-side. Other than that, the Saltie was an impressive vehicle, one I'd be happy to fish in any waters.

Perhaps when Tula's Social Club convenes its exclusive and diverse membership for the next AGM, I'll get that chance.