Horizon Scorpion 485 a great entry-level rig

The Horizon Scorpion 485 can get a lot done with not that much boat. It has a big cabin, shade and enough grunt to easily tow a tuber, as well as comfortably fish in a hull length of less than 5m.

by Steve Morgan •

If you have a family and like fishing, you always seem to be confronted with a series of compromises. What may be the ideal fishing boat for dad may be totally unsuitable for mum, or vice versa. Add in a couple of kids with the attention spans of a small insect and compromise will be right up there on your radar.

Horizon Boats’ Scott James is right up to speed on this situation. They manufacture and sell a range of boats that are both affordable and tackle some of these issues head-on.

We recently got out on the water with the Horizon 485 Scorpion Cuddy Cabin – powered by a Yamaha F60 4-stroke outboard – to do a little boat testing, fishing and tubing on the Tweed River. And the question we set out to answer was this: does the Scorpion offer a good compromise between fishing, fun and family?

The answer was a definite ‘yes,’ and let us tell you why.

Yamaha’s Will Lee eagerly volunteered to do a few laps of the lower Tweed on the biscuit. The Scorpion ticks a lot of the boxes for fun family boating in a package that won’t break the bank, or your tow vehicle.
Fancy a quiet fish? The Scorpion draws little water and the transom set up with door and ladder allows you to get in and out easily when you’re in or out of the water.
Powered by Yamaha’s F60 60hp four-story outboard the fuel economy was always going to be good. How good? At 4500rpm cruising at 38km/h, you get 3.4km/L of fuel - very frugal.
It looks like a lot of boat, but the family car will have no worries towing the Scorpion/Yamaha package and with a single axle trailer, you’ll be able to manoeuvre it into tight garage parking situations.
The transom door is a simple design, but it makes the boating experience for the family so much better. No more busting your nuts clambering over the bow rail!
You can access the anchor well through this for’ard hatch. The crew can, at least. It’s the unwritten rule that the Captain doesn’t have to pull up the anchor.
The helm will fit all of the gadgets you’ll need to spend a day on the water. Larger units will need to be bracket mounted.
The fold-away rear lounge seats are a comfortable place to travel and stow away when the fishing rods come out.
There’s a pretty big cabin in there for a 4.85m boat and the fact that it’s open means that it seems even bigger.
You can feel the weight of the cabin on the hull - the centre of gravity is higher than similar hulls with different layouts.
Whether you use the cabin for storage, relaxing or both, the design is simple and easy to maintain.
Ready to roll for under $33,000, the Scorpion is a logical step to a family boat from an open tinnie.

Firstly, the rig is well priced. Scott James and his team at Horizon boats specialise in getting affordable packages on the water. As tested, the Scorpion came in at under $33,000, which is at the affordable end of family boating.

Secondly, you don’t need to trade in the family car for a 4WD to tow it. With a dry hull weight of just over 500kg and an on-trailer weight of less than 1000kg, you’ll move it around nicely with most family sedans. The added bonus of a light rig is that you can use a single axle trailer to tote it. Single axle trailers have inherent manoeuvrability advantages in small spaces and garages and an overall length of 6m means that it’s not impossible to fit in most spaces designed for cars.

Thirdly, there’s abundant shade and areas out of the weather in the Scorpion. The cuddy cabin design’s open cabin pairs nicely with the added soft top to create a space out of the sun for anyone to chill out who has gone a bit hard early on. While travelling, the rear bench seat offers a smoother ride and folds away neatly for when the serious action takes place.

There’s been a lot of thought put into getting the crew on and off the boat – a shallow draft means that you can pull the boat to the beach transom-first and load through the duckboard and transom door. Not all boats are that easy to load.

Step back to the power plant and the Yamaha 4-stroke F60 offers great fuel economy. Delivering 38km/h at 4500 rpm and 3.4km/L of fuel, the combination is definitely easy on the pocket when it comes to running costs.

Of course, we had to answer the question of whether it was ‘tube-worthy.’ Yamaha’s Will Lee readily stripped down to the boardies and contemplated how fun his job was while sliding around the Tweed. You can see the vision of Big Willie in action in the video version of this boat test on Fishing Monthly Magazine’s YouTube channel.

Fishing-wise, we eased the rig out through the Tweed Bar and found the Scorpion seaworthy enough to easily take offshore on the good days.

For more information, you can visit Horizon’s website at www.horizonboats.com.au, like their Facebook page (Horizon Boats) or look up your local Horizon dealer and have a chat. Packages start from $31,690.

SPECIFICATIONS
Length
4.9m
Length on trailer 6.0m
Height on trailer 2.4m
Beam 2.2m
Depth  1.16m
Bottom  3mm
Sides 3mm
Hull weight  510kg
Max hp 75
Capacity 5 persons

PERFORMANCE
RPM                Speed (km/h)         Economy (km/L)
1000
…………………………….. 5.3…………………………….. 4.0
2000…………………………….. 9.3…………………………….. 2.5
3000……………………………… 14…………………………….. 2.3
4000……………………………… 31…………………………….. 3.3
5000……………………………… 43…………………………….. 3.1
6000……………………………… 52…………………………….. 2.4
*Tested with a 12” pitch alloy Yamaha propeller.