Yellowfin returns

Back in the ’80s, Yellowfin was a household name in boating circles. They were boats that were built from heavy-gauge plate aluminium, strongly constructed and favoured by commercial fishers and recreational anglers that pushed the envelope when fishing. They were designed to take years of rough handling without the need for constant repairs to hull and superstructure.

In 1981, then owner Bob Caruthers sold out to a group who manufactured the boats under the same name for nine years, until boating trends changed and the brand was shelved to make way for new models.

Yellowfin now produce the 6700, 6200 and 5700 in cuddy cabin and centre console configurations.

The 6700 Cabin has 5mm bottom plates with 4mm topsides and the same beam and deadrise at the transom, right across the range. The transom bulkhead has a walkway on the starboard side and a door that hinges down to form a step onto the deck. With the boarding ladder deployed, a large fish could easily be dragged through the walkway and onto the deck.

Under this companionway the looms from the helm station come from the starboard side of the boat, across the deck and into the centre of the transom bulkhead. The house battery sits on the deck, while the cranking battery and engine oil reservoir are on a shelf.

Because of the looms’ location under the transom walkway, they clutter this space and make cleaning this area a
little difficult.

The port side of the transom bulkhead houses a 65lt-plumbed livebait tank. There’s also a berley pot built into the boarding platform. The removable bait-rigging table has plenty of rodholders. It might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but it’s a standard feature on the Yellowfin.

A 135-lt killtank in the central deck is plumbed to drain astern and has a hinge that looks like it’s bulletproof, but the Perko catch and plastic bezel that lock it down, is not as robust.

If you’re one of those people who constantly whinges about the lack of storage space on a boat, you won’t have a problem with this Yellowfin. The sidepockets are cavernous and the overhanging coamings are the widest I have seen in trailerboats of this size. A “guestimate” has them at 300mm in the forequarters tapering only slightly at the aft end. Simply massive! While this adds some serious rigidity to the gunwales, it’s also a good place to park the backside in smooth seas when fishing, and wide enough to bolt on downriggers and outriggers. In fact, outrigger-mounting plates on these sidedecks are a standard feature.

The gunwales are high enough to brace against when fighting a fish and you can get your toes in under the sidepockets.

There’s enough room across this dash top to put multiple cabinets at various angles. What’s missing is a sill along the back end of the top to stop the bits and pieces, which invariably get tossed here, from ending up on the deck.

Also standard on the 6700C is a rocket launcher, which is mounted on the aft shoulders of the cabin sides, isolated from the bimini. Solid spigots welded here allow the struts to be bolted on and six rods may be stored across the top.

Nothing too much out of the ordinary with the seating other than it’s made by Telwater and has a robust alloy-tubular frame that’s easily unbolted from the deck brackets if required.

The deck continues on the same plane into the cabin where there’s a low vee-berth, with shallow storage underneath. Probably not the most comfortable way to sit, but a nap between the hot bites is possible here. The cabin has good head height, so crawling through to get at the ground tackle from the hatch in the roof won’t be an issue.

Continuing in the robustness stakes are ample hand and bowrails about the boat.

We took three of these boats to sea down at the Gold Coast, a day after a strong-wind warning was issued. Although the warning was cancelled on the day, the residue was ideal to put the Yellowfins to test… slop coming from all directions, swell up to 1.5m and 15kts of southeasterly wind.

Standing at the helm and ploughing six to eight miles offshore through the slop was quite comfortable. Standing behind and holding the helm or passenger seat was even better. What was even more surprising was how dry these hulls run. A minimum of spray found its way onto, or over the screen, even with the wind quartering across the bow; very impressive indeed!

Dead in the water and drifting with three large adults moving around, the Yellowfin was very stable. Too deep to anchor, the drift was slowed from the 3kmh (1.6kts) rate to zero by holding the big Mercury in reverse against the swell and waves coming onto the stern.

The scuppers are a “ball in tapered neck” style system draining to a deep gutter running across the aft deck. It proved to be 100 per cent effective when backing down hard into the oncoming sea with the deck being doused by the odd wave splashing over the transom bulkhead and water dissipating immediately.

Running home through the Seaway, the Yellowfin proved it had no issues with a following sea and behaved as it should -- perfectly.

With some flat water, we wound the 6700C out to 77km/h (41.5kts) with the 200hp OptiMax running at 5400rpm. At that rate it was consuming 74lt/h.

The OptiMax cruised at 3500rpm with the boat running at 46kmh (24.8kts) and consuming 26.6lt/h. If you want to tow lures out wide, 9.5kmh (5kts) at 1500rpm will get some distance out of the 250lt tank because she drinks only 5.6lt/h, which equates to more than 44 hours of running time.

Your scribe was onboard the test boat offshore, so shots of the 6700C in action are lacking somewhat. But never fear; her smaller sibling, the 6200C, is just as versatile.

Overall, an impressive Yellowfin with more refinements than its predecessor, but no doubt the credentials to hold it in good stead while it re-establishes the same notoriety in years to come!