Savage Aluminium Swordfish 605 SP

This is the ideal vessel for rugged offshore fishermen with one thing on their mind — the next catch.

The Savage Swordfish 605 SP has a cockpit so big that you could... No, I’ll resist the temptation to trot out a standard cliche about games of football. I’ll just say that the cockpit is large (even extravagantly so) because it tends to rob the boat of a little comfort up the pointy end.

For a boat this size, what could be a reasonable cuddy is rather cramped. But then the Swordfish gives the appearance of being designed by rugged fishermen for full-on offshore battle, and be damned with the comfort zone. And fair enough too. If you want to get fish in the tucker bin, you don’t do so lying on your back punching out zeds.

The Swordfish is really quite a substantial bit of boat with an overall length of 6.54m (or 21ft) excluding pod and bowsprit. But it weighs in at only 720kg (hull only), which means the standard Holden or Falcon family car can tow it without much hassle at all.

It is one of a family of three Swordfish, including a runabout design (SF) and a centre console (ProFish).

The hull, of course, is aluminium (3mm on the bottom and 2mm on the sides) with a solid fibreglass cuddy fixed by large rivets. It’s a combination which works well, using curved mouldings where they should be and the toughness of aluminium where it’s needed most.

PERFECT POWER
The testboat supplied by Boronia Marine was powered by a 115hp Mercury V-six which pushes the SP along very well indeed. Factory-recommended maximum horsepower is 135 for a single outboard or the equivalent for a twin set-up. The 115 Merc seemed just about right.

It pushed the SP onto the plane quickly on Westernport Bay which could only be described as covered in ‘gravel road’ corrugations rather than waves on the day of the test. It’s not a condition that tinnies like very much and can get the teeth chattering.

Empty of gear and with two-up, the Swordfish was very trim-sensitive. Trimmed in the nose it buried and bullocked its way through the mini-chop, while trimmed out it really flew nose-high.

I suspect a full load of fuel in the underfloor tank (100lt) and normal gear onboard would sit the boat deeper in the water and eliminate these extremes.

It’s rather a shame we can’t order appropriate weather for boat tests, rather than having to make judgements on what we’re given on the day. In this case, I suspect the Swordfish would be happier in 15-20kt of chop and roll than in whisper-wind corrugations.

PRACTICAL FEATURES
But let’s start at the pointy bit and work back. Access to the bow is through the brilliant Savage walk-through windscreen. There is a flick-back centre windscreen panel and an adjoining long centre hatch on the cuddy which means you walk — rather than crawl — up to the anchor well on the bow.

If your anchor is mounted permanently on the bowsprit it’s simple to unclip it and let it fall away and on retrieval, keep pulling on the rope and chain until the anchor slots back into place.

If your anchor is not fixed on the bowsprit and roller (which are standard) you’d better grow considerably longer arms because the roller is out of reach to pull the anchor and chain up and over without a lot of paint and panel bruising.

The self-draining anchor well is huge and would fit several warps of rope, chain and two anchors and the lid has a very practical self-locking catch which eliminates the crawl-under-and-screw-up-tight arrangements we’ve had to put up with for years on all sorts of boats.

The split bowrail is firmly anchored with heavy-duty rivets and acts as a handy and sturdy grabrail for anchor work.

The lock on the cuddy hatch wasn’t quite as good in the self-locking department but once you got the hang of it, it grabbed firmly. The windscreen had two standard twist locks to batten it down, but one defied all attempts to close it due to a small misalignment in original fitting. It wouldn’t be difficult to fix and one clip held the panel tight anyway.

AN ANGLER’S WISHLIST
The cuddy was functional, with sufficient headroom to sit and fiddle with tackle out of the sun or rain but if you really wanted to snooze on the vinyl vee-berth you’d have to lay on your back with your knees very bent. But, as I said earlier, this is an action man’s boat.

Padded side shelves act as backrests as well as storage spaces and there’s more of that under the vee-berth in hinged-lid compartments.

In fact, space to stash stuff is a real feature of the Swordfish. A lockable glovebox is big enough for two wallets, two phones, the car keys and perhaps a bit more. There is a huge, open sidepocket near the passenger bucket seat which, like the driver’s seat, is mounted on a GRP pedestal-style storage bin with side access. Both seats are standard boat buckets. The helm seat is fully adjustable and the passenger seat swivels to watch trolling lures.

The cockpit sidepockets are wide, long and deep. In fact, they’re so big and accessible that if you weren’t careful they could end up as rubbish dumps with everything thrown into them. Ideally, they would be used for long bits of tackle like spare rods, gaffs and baseball bats for the nasties.

I say spare rods because the testboat was fitted with an overhead stainless steel rod rack or rocket launcher for six outfits.

In the stern quarters, there’s more storage with two good-sized wet-bait boxes fitted with lockable plastic lids which could be plumbed for livebait tanks.

A lot of thought has been put into the ‘little’ things, which make such a huge difference to whether a boat ‘works’ or not. These include stainless steel grabrails around both stern quarters and heavy-duty rear painted cleats (but they’re attached with large rivets, not bolts, so beware tethering large and lively makos to them!). The battery and oil bottle are mounted way up on the end of each sidepocket well off the floor or they can be mounted aft under the floor, while the fuel filler is high on the port gunwale.

The stern features a split fold-down seat. When the seat is up, the padded stern coaming acts as a backrest. When the seats are down, and the action’s hot, this acts very nicely as a thigh cushion.

The gunwales are wide, wide, wide — and flat. And at a perfect thigh height for the average person to balance properly while fighting a fish. Each side has a trolling rodholder angled straight and positioned well down towards the stern.

It’s easy to get excited about these little things because so many manufacturers ignore them, and they are so important to a comfortable day’s fishing. It’s these little things that set Savage apart from some of the other aluminium manufacturers... Again top marks.

Outboard over the stern there are a couple of nice features too. The motor is mounted on a halfpod with strong swim platforms either side. The testboat had a mount for an auxiliary motor bolted on to the port platform and a high-mount baitboard positioned over the outboard.

ACTION STATIONS
The only little flaw to the action station of the Swordfish is the positioning of the main navigation light near the stern on the starboard gunwale. It’s simply in the way where it is. Sure, it screws out when it’s not needed, but it may be better positioned on top of the rocket launcher near the GPS receiver plate.

The driver’s position is very good behind the stainless steel grabrail reinforcing the windscreen. Gauges, sounder and compass are in front where they should be and are easily read. Feet fall quite naturally to a treadplate on the end of the bunk (the passenger has one too), while the throttle comes easily and naturally to the right hand and the softgrip steering wheel is comfortably positioned.

The toggle-switch panel for anchor light, bilge pump and nav lights is also conveniently placed in front to port. The radio is mounted in front of the passenger and is easily accessed.

The paint job on the boat is first class. The hull and topsides are an off-white colour, while the interior of the cockpit is that speckled grey which is easy on the eyes. There’s carpet on the floor (grey/red/blue) which I don’t really like in a fishing boat, but the factory provides an option of non-slip floor with a central cover strip. Underneath the floor is foam buoyancy for safety.

The Swordfish travels on a Mackay multi-roller dual-axle trailer which is drive-on drive-off with mechanical override brakes fitted to the front axle.

A Boronia Marine package priced at $35,476 includes a bimini canopy, front and side clears, safety gear and 12 months registration.