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.
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.