Profile 735H Limited with twin Mercurys

by Steve Morgan •

Nobody can accuse Brisbane Marine’s Troy Wood of sitting there and just waiting for things to happen. In the last couple of years, he’s actively transformed the business from a quality Mercury Service and re-power agent into a boat dealership that offers turnkey packages for multiple brands.

One of the latest brands he’s taken on is the New Zealand designed and manufactured Profile hull. It was an excited Wood that called and suggested that we get out on the water and have a ride in the 735H Limited – one of the flagships of the range with a list of options as long as your arm.

“You’ve got to have a ride in this hull,” Troy beamed, “It’s the best alloy boat I’ve ever been in.”

We weren’t disappointed when a calm-ish forecast for Moreton Bay on the test day turned into a brisk southwesterly. When we made it across to the Tangalooma wrecks, Troy told us the story.

“We went across to NZ with the aim of securing a real quality alloy boat brand for the dealership, and the Profile boats really stood out,” Troy explained, “so we didn’t waste any time getting some ordered for Brisbane Marine.”

From calm to lumpy, the test day showed how Moreton Bay chops and changes with wind and current. It was a great day for testing with some shooting at the wrecks, of course.

This Profile hull is one of the few large plate boats that remain trim sensitive. You can make the variable deadrise work for you in the rough and then get all of the angle out of the water when you have calm conditions and let it fly!

With sliding windows and skylights for ventilation and illumination, there’s no problem with going boating in the heat or the cold. Remember that New Zealanders know all about cold, rough weather boating. Those crazy Kiwis love it!

The bait board holds half a dozen rods and everything you need for assembly of terminal tackle within easy reach.

Surprise! There’s a gas cooker under the passenger seat. This is optional in all models except the Limited where it is standard.

Fuelled up, rigged up and ready to go. All we were missing was a few extra hours to fill the underfloor kill tank with fish.

The transom door allows easy loading and unloading. When you don’t have one, you miss it greatly.

More and more manufacturers are getting this right – easy access to the bilge and batteries. The Profile does this through the three waterproof hatches in the transom.

The deck wash and pump are standard in the Limited (top of the line) 735 as tested.

It’s not the beamiest cockpit on the market, but it uses the space very well. Check out the live bait tank with the clear front under the transom step.

What’s better than a 115ProXS Mercury? Two of them! The power plant for the Profile is super responsive and as much fun as I’ve driven in a boat over 7m.

Check out the grab rails on the hard top. Along with the comms mounting area, you can see that there has been a lot of thought given to the design of this boat and no expense spared in making it.

It doesn’t matter how big you want your electronics to be – the Profile will fit them in flush-mounted. Into the carpet.

We should have brought some stumps and a cricket bat. There’s plenty of room down the centreline for a pitch. Plus we still like talking about the cricket one-day World Cup, especially to New Zealanders.

There’s very little of the helm and cabin that’s not carpeted. The wet work area in the cockpit is washable.

With the bunk infill, there’s a mile of space in the cabin and the carpeted walls soften the ambiance.

Even though the 735 is a big boat, there’s no wasted space and passengers can get out of the weather without being stuck on a bench seat down the back when it gets nasty.

And, being Mercury’s Dealer of the Year for 2017, there was no way that the test rig was going to be fitted with anything but the best.

There are three models of the 735: the GL, the Sport and the top-of-the-line Limited. The test boat is a Limited fitted with twin Mercury 2.1L 115hp ProXS outboards. Tuned for high performance, a single 115 ProXS is impressive on any boat, but the twins fitted to this hull were incredibly fun to drive.

With a shorter and smaller hull, it’s pretty standard for a good hull to be trim sensitive. You can trim down to use the bow deadrise in the chop and then trim up to get the hull out of the water in the calm.
I’ve found the longer the boat is, the less dynamic the response to trim, so I loved the fact that the Profile 735 really got up and out of the water with the trim high and the hammers down.

This responsiveness also lets you trim the boat to take advantage of the variable deadrise in the hull in less than ideal conditions. Heading back to Scarborough across a sloppy southwesterly against the tide in the Pearl Channel is as good a test as any, and the Profile made the trip dry and comfortable.

The Mercs delivered a top speed of 73km/h at 6400rpm, but drank enough fuel to get only 800m/L burned. Easing up to 3750rpm got you 40km/h and nearly double the economy (at 1.5 km/L combined). Coincidentally, that was also a great speed to negotiate the wind versus tide chop.

From a design and fit-up point of view, the Limited lacked nothing. From a fully carpeted and optioned cabin (with a concealed gas cooker under the passenger seat) to a beautifully designed cockpit with live bait tank in the transom step, the options list is (literally) longer than this article.

Take a look at the test video to see the big girl in action.

As tested, this rig weighs in at $159,000, with the base models and single outboard setups coming in significantly cheaper. Visit www.brismarine.com.au for more information.

Specifications
Length: 7.35m
Height on trailer: 3.15m
Max hp: 260hp
Capacity: 8 persons
Deadrise: 36° (bow) to 17° (transom)
Tow weight: 2400kg
Width on trailer: 2.34m
Length on trailer: 8.85m
Beam (external): 2.34m
Beam (internal): 2.05m
Hull: 6mm
Sides: 3mm
Fuel: 400L

Performance
RPM km/h km/L/engine
Idle 5.7 3.9
1000 8.0 3.5
2000 13.5 2.3
3000 26.0 2.7
4000 43.0 2.7
5000 59.0 2.2
6000 72.0 1.8
6400 73.0 1.6
*Best economy was 3km/L/engine at 3750rpm