Savage 435 Jabiru Pro

The strenuous requirements of the USL code dictated that my boats were in full ship survey and to get a factory production boat such as the Jabiru to qualify was not a viable proposition -- more is the pity.

I did, however, borrow many of its design features and had a South Australian boat builder construct one for me; that boat clocked up 1500 engine hours per annum for the next decade and there wasn’t a feature my customers or I did not appreciate.

The Savage Jabiru was well ahead of its time back then and even now presents in a saturated market as a really viable boat for river, lake and estuary fishing for those who just do it now and then or others who put in the more serious hours. Over more than two decades, little has had to be changed in its design though the cosmetics have put the finishing touches to a great little boat.

An option not fitted to the review boat was the 40 litre underfloor fuel tank and should this be taken up it will free up more stowage space in the rear bulkhead and more evenly distribute weight forward. This will allow the bulk of the anglers to sit aft when underway, allowing for easier coverage of distance in choppy conditions.

The flush mounted hatch covering it opened towards the stern effectively placing a barrier between the deckhand and the ground tackle he or she was trying to deploy so a hatch opening to port or starboard would address this issue. The hatch does lock down firmly with the use of the installed barrel bolt and the forward edge is rebated to allow anchor rope through while closed. A single handle on the bow point is the securing point for deployed anchor rope.

The casting deck is spacious with the stowage area below being one void accessed via three hatches that are held down with elastic toggles. The catches for these toggles are installed across the fascia of the bulkhead and those that fly fish will likely want to make some alterations here as this sort of appendage will frustrate those casting fur and feather due to line entanglement. Other than that the casting deck is clutter free with hinges neatly nestled amongst the marine carpet covering.

The floor of the casting deck compartment is raised off the keel line and carpeted so goods will not slide around readily and will be kept out of any moisture sloshing about in the bilge. The surrounding coamings are around 75mm above the casting deck so there is a physical barrier preventing feet slipping over the gunwales.

Those who fish in stealth mode will want to opt for the electric bow thruster mount plate which was manufactured into the hull on the review boat; it was as sturdy as any we have seen even on custom built-boats.

The cockpit deck is, like the fore-and-aft casting deck, carpeted marine ply. Here it is screwed down along the keel line stringer and retained by flat plates attached to the vertical ribbing on the sides.

There are five seating positions for the two standard seats. One spigot is installed in the forward casting deck whilst three are in the cockpit deck at various positions to allow for trim and list adjustments when on the water. That for the skipper is a tube mounted in the front of the rear casting platform and to free up that raised fishing deck the seat is removed and placed in a spigot in the main deck.

This rear casting deck has three hatches. The one in the centre is hinged open allowing access to the starter battery and bilge pump while the other two are removable panels wedged under a rear plate and retained at the front with an elastic toggle.

The tote fuel tank sits on a carpeted platform in one of these while the other is free stowage space.

The coamings all round on the 435 are beamy enough for the inclusion of accessories such as down and outriggers as well as planing board poles and as standard there are a couple of nylon type rod holders.

The hull is constructed with 3mm sheet aluminium in the transom, top and bottom sides with typical vertical side ribs and cross member ribbing under the deck welded to a keel bar.

Ostensibly these hulls could be best described as V-nosed punts. They have a slight deadrise over the length of the main hull with upswept fore-quarters. The upsides of this design are the extra stability offered by having so much relatively flat hull bottom in the water and anglers can move around with minimum rock and roll when anchored or on the drift. The other advantage is the minimum horsepower required to drive it onto the plane due to the amount of planing area underneath.

As with all upsides there will be an opposing downside and that with this boat is the amount of spray you will get when travelling into a wind that is coming over the fore-quarters. Having said that this is no different from any other boat of this general design; they all do it to some extent and some more than others. We’d say this Jabiru was better than average when it came to the spray issue and in any case, it is par for the course.

Finding some flat water, we took the Vortex to full throttle and guessed a top speed of around 30 knots. Back to around 18 knots it settled into a comfortable cruise with enough bow up attitude to get over chop cleanly that would have otherwise been hard going. This was with two adults on the rear.

It proved nippy enough through the throttle range displaying ample torque and with a maximum horsepower of 50 on the back you could expect some spectacular handling and speed.

As mentioned earlier, this Jabiru presents as a lot of boat for relatively few dollars and has all the hallmarks of one that could be clad with all manner of accessories to get you on the water looking and fishing, as the boat's name suggests, like a pro.