Webster Twinfisher 4.6

Cast your eyes around your local boat ramp and you'll see fleets of tricked-up tinnies brimming with whizzbang electronics, packed with nifty fish-catching devices, heading off to places that were once off-limits for little boats. Lured by the promise of better fishing, the small-boat brigade is pushing the envelope of open-boat design.

Anglers now take to the water in sophisticated fish-hunting machines armed to the hilt with satellite navigation, side scanners and sensitive depth sounders that can pick the eyes out of a mud gudgeon at 30 metres. The Webster Twinfisher 4.6, owned by our very own NSW-based ad man Tony Poole, is a great example of a clever aluminium craft.

This boat is a showcase of small-boat aluminium design. The idea was to create the ultimate harbour boat that had the tenacity to head offshore on a good day.

That means the little boat had to have a good deal of seaworthiness, fishability as well as user-friendliness. What to get? The Webster 4.6, a natural progression from the former Webster 4.0 Poole was running, seemed the logical choice.

This big little boat is easy enough for one person to manhandle, fuel bills are more than affordable, and the boat is an easy tow behind a family car. Coming in under the 750kg gross rig limit means no brakes on the trailer and less that can go wrong when towing.

BUSH BACKGROUND
Available in waterline lengths from 3.8-5.2m, the Twinfisher came about as a result of one man's quest for a better fishing boat. Against all odds, and the advice of his peers, designer Ron Webster from Orange in central NSW produced a catamaran hull that needs just one motor. Now the Twinfishers are coveted all around Australia.

Webster set about designing a boat to suit his predisposition for inland angling. He dangles a line in places such as Wyangla and Burrendong Dam, Lyall and Windermere Lakes. These are big impoundments that can cut-up pretty bad.

So he set about making a compact boat with big-boat stability, propelled by a single engine, with lots of casting room, and a high degree of safety. A little shelter of some kind would also be handy when the brisk high-country winds whistled in from the west.

Despite his detractors, Webster succeeded in making a cool catamaran that works efficiently with just one motor. A lot of trial and error went into creating a hull shape that provided clean water between the tunnels so the outboard's propeller wouldn't ventilate.

Webster won't tell you all his secrets, but the wedge between the tunnels that directs clean water to the propeller is there for all to see. Other factors contributing to the clean 'prop pocket' include the width of the tunnels and the run of the sponsons back aft. He says there are about eight factors to consider.

CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS
In any case, the design works so well that Webster has incited something of a country-wide small-cat onslaught. The boatbuilder from Orange is about to double factory space, introduce an automated assembly line and employ CRC cutters in order to meet demand.

Commercial operators including the Waterways Authority, various councils, universities, and diving schools use his boats anywhere from the Top End to Tassie. But, many in the fanatical fishing fraternity are among his closest allies.

And you don't need to be a rocket scientist to see the advantages of the cat design. The Twinfishers are big - no huge - on cockpit space. So when you are buying, say, a 4.6m you are actually getting as much usable room as a 5.5m monohull.

Indeed, the 4.6m model I drove would have no problem carrying four anglers and a raft of high-tech tackle on both inland dams and offshore reefs. High freeboard, wide gunwales and a fine entry for a smooth ride makes this hull comfortable on offshore sorties.

Stability is such that a team of anglers can lean to one side without the boat lurching. The 2m beam allows a wide centre-console to be fitted, which with clears offers a useful amount of protection from the elements. In fact, there's enough beam on the Twinfisher 4.6 for an adult to sleep crosswise.

STROKE OF GOOD LUCK
These days, half of all Webster Twinfishers are fitted with a single four-stroke outboard. While the four-stroke costs a bit more up front, they deliver optimum range and economy, not to mention clean running and low noise levels.

It is my belief that a four-stroke outboard does this boat the most justice. The hull has plenty of aft buoyancy to support the greater weight of these motors and, by virtue of its low-drag design, the motor will deliver exceptional efficiency.

With a 70hp four-stroke Evinrude, the Webster 4.6 can run all day on 55lt of fuel. Unlike some four-stroke outboards, the Evinrude, which is actually a Japanese-made motor, exhibited a good deal of get-up-and-go.

Top speed is around 50kmh at 5500rpm, with the dodger down. But the little boat seems most affable cruising inside or out at 30-35kmh at 3500-3800rpm. And at these revs, you can be sure the Evinrude is running frugally. It also seemed smooth and quiet.

Some post-delivery finetuning has seen the Webster 4.6 gain some extra lift in the snout. The motor has been raised three notches and mounted further aft on a small bracket. A 13 1/4 x 15in Hustler propeller from America is more effective than the motor's standard prop. A high-lift Raker prop, should it fit the Evinrude, might bring even better results.

As it was, the boat exhibits very little transition to planing speed, seems smooth for its waterline length on the way back in, with only the occasional licking of spray either back out the tunnel or across the quarter. The cat leans out in the turns, as cats do, but with a motion that isn't in any way violent.

GEAR & GADGETS
We launched the Webster 4.6 over the soft sand at Clontarf Beach, but more about the follies later. I idled away from shore, noticing no visible plume of exhaust, as Poole booted-up his gadgetry.

In keeping with the trend to fully-cocked tricked tinnies, he had a GPS chartplotter, deepwater depth sounder, marine radio and marine CD player. I could tell you they were a Navman Tracker 900 (an excellent sub-$1000 plotter), a Lowrance X15 with 50/200MHz transom-mounted transducer (it works past 20kt), and a GME 27Meg and marine stereo, but, no, I won't feed his lasciviousness.

Everything including fore-and-aft floodlights, under-coaming lights, above-deck fishboxes, a livebait well, saltwater deckwash, overhead rocket launcher, outriggers, side-mounted rod and gaff racks, dry storage, and a neat lunch table and portable 12V fridge feature on this heavily tricked tinnie.

The T-top and bimini over the centre-console offer some protection, but with the forward canopy folded out you can create a weather-proof annex over the forward seat. There's room to sit here, out of the weather, as you might in a little cuddy-cabin.

The little annex also creates a mile of dry storage under the foredeck, which is topped with checkerplate and has a split bowrail for excellent access. Poole had paddles, anchors, rope, lifejackets, fenders and more tucked away here.

On the engineering front, there is a fuel/water separator, twin 1300GPH Rule bilge pumps, a 60lt fueltank built into the BoatBox helm seat, heavy-duty 80 amp battery, the best clears money can buy around the console, several 12V accessory outlets, EPIRB, safety kit, and an 85lt Evakool forward icebox.

With a flat carpeted floor, wide coamings on which you can sit, plenty of room around the centre-console, and that storage, the fully-armed Webster 4.6 remains an easy boat to move about. You don't find yourself tripping over and, thanks to the boats stability, you remain sure-footed even when drifting beam-on to the sea.

WHY A WEBSTER?
There are a lot of factors fuelling the small-boat craze, including record fish stockings in inland lakes and a noticeable improvement in water quality in places such as Sydney Harbour. These days, inshore fishing can be more productive than dangling a line on the over-exploited city reefs.

But go shopping and you will find a lot of tinnies aimed at flat-water fishing with varying and daring new designs. Take it from me, few I've come across are as crafty as the Twinfisher. And I can say that without being indebted to the builder.

Capable of fishing both zones, the Twinfisher 4.6 had already seen two marlin tagged off Port Stephens. Try doing that in the tinnies of yesteryear and you're asking for trouble. And trouble it was when we went to retrieve the boat. A fresh sand shift saw us bogged to the axles, necessitating driving to a proper boat ramp to pull it out.

Oh, one other thing. The sponsons are watertight chambers so the Websters all have plenty of built-in buoyancy. This is probably just as well, because Poole is likely to pack aboard another couple of thousand gadgets and gismos, providing they come at the right price.