Sportfish 6.8 Centre Cab

When you think of plate-aluminium boats, the name Sportfish automatically springs to mind. While a number of 'custom' plate boat manufacturers have come and gone, the Queensland manufacturer's reputation for building a quality product has kept them at the top of the tree.

Fishermen love the functional layout and fishability of Sportfish's Centre Console and Centre Cab range. The 6.8 Centre Cab is the latest Sportfish we have tested incorporating the company's Super Vee hull design.

The 6.8 Centre Cab, as the name suggests, incorporates a walkaround cabin configuration with adequate room to traverse the path to the bow. Heavy-duty aluminium handrails provide safe support as one does so. A standard bowroller is fixed to a heavy-duty bowsprit.

The open anchorwell is large enough to accommodate several hundred metres of 14mm rope and associated ground tackle. This huge compartment matches the equally large bollard that sits aft of the well.

The coamings around the anchorwell, the footway and roof of the cabin are masked along the edges and neatly sprayed with a non-slip finish. The forward edges of the cabin walls are chamfered to prevent shin, toe and ankle damage when moving about in this area.

Walking back to the cockpit, one uses a half round step to move down onto the main deck. This step has an open face providing storage inside and would be a good place to store cleaning gear or small tackle boxes. Sidepockets run the length of the cockpit, from the walkway step to the transom bulkhead. A permanent shroud covers the fuel filler line and breather pipes at the aft end of the port sidepocket.

A full box section across the beam of the boat provides storage for batteries, oil bottles. A shelf on the starboard side holds the deckwash and battery isolation switches.

A plumbed livebait tank of about 45lt is flush-mounted in the transom bulkhead and overflows into the enginewell. Bollards are located in each aft corner as well as on each of the forequarters.

Flush-mounted rodholders are welded into both port and starboard gunwales mid-cockpit, with another two in the aft corners.

The fully self-draining deck is carpeted throughout and features an underfloor killtank, which is centrally located just aft of the helm and passenger seating. The killtank is constructed separately from the hull and is drained via a duct to the transom. A stopcock is installed to prevent water entering the tank when not required.

Mounted on the floor mid-cockpit is an icebox with a padded top and pivoting backrest for forward/backward facing seating. This box features an aluminium shell, which has a fibreglass insert with a drainage bung that empties onto the deck.

The cabin on the Sportfish is quite large with good sidepocket space. Additional storage space is located at the forward end of the cabin and on the bulkhead holding the instrumentation - the back of which is behind an aluminium shroud. There is plenty of headroom for a person of average height when seated on the bunks.

The footwell, while seemingly small, would still cater for a couple of pairs of legs for those seated. The upside of this is that bunk space is generous. The cushions are upholstered and cover storage space located below the bunks.

The skipper's footrest is constructed from aluminium pipe and is welded to the bulkhead. Swivel bucket seats provide both helm and passenger seating, but with no forward-backward adjustment for the skipper on the model tested. Adjustable seating is an asset to the helmsman and does make life more comfortable in a variety of situations. While not standard on this boat, we believe that it sits high on the priority list of options.

The pedestals are fixed to aluminium boxes that also have storage within and lock down stainless steel hasp and stables secure the lids in place.

A stainless steering wheel fitted to the Sportfish drives its hydraulics. Dash layout is neat, with the CD player and marine radios mounted overhead. The speakers for the CD player are installed in the targa supports.

The test day produced a breeze of 10-15kmh, which is enough to create plenty of short, sharp Moreton Bay chop.

According to our handheld GPS, 1000rpm produced 8.6kmh. This result is indicative of the Super Vee's slick hull, which would hold the serious offshore troller in good stead economy-wise. At 2000rpm we reached 12kmh, and 3000rpm resulted in 21kmh and a clean plane.

Testing its limits, we pushed the throttle to wide-open where the tacho pulled up at 5400rpm. GPS speed at this point was 74kmh. With the chop before us, we expected a bit of a hammering but were pleasantly surprised with the ride. Cracking across the top of the close chop the Sportfish cleared the water on a few occasions, ploughing through the back of the next wave with no associated slamming.

While this was surprising, so too was the degree of dryness that this hull offered. Spinning off the top of waves and running into them with the wind on the forequarter, we were hard pushed to get any spray on the windscreen.

Easing back to cruising speed, this boat settles into its comfort zone at around 3800rpm and 39.4kmh. With the sea from various directions, we found the boat to be very stable and attributed this to its large reverse chines. Trimming the Sportfish is a little different from the average monohull. Out of the hole the bow is trimmed down hard, but, once planing, it's trimmed up further than normal so that the chop is hitting well back along the keel line. Normally, this would result in hard slamming, but not so with this particular deep-vee rig.

As observed in past Sportfish models tested, the finish on this boat is typically neat with clean welds and outstanding paintwork.

The 6.8 Centre Cab performed particularly well in the prevailing conditions on our testday. It is definitely a boat that will appeal to the serious angler who is looking for the fishability of a walkaround but the protection and comfort of a cabin boat.

A few optional creature comforts and the family could be catered for as well.