by Steve Morgan •
My first visit to Bunbury’s Sportsmarine was impressive for a number of reasons. Firstly, the dealership is as neat and well stocked as any I’ve seen around Australia. They sell plenty of boat brands – mostly powered by Yamaha outboards. Secondly, the New Zealand built Extreme boat we had for testing was an impressive rig.
Dealer principal Greg Collett had it hooked to the back of his Landcruiser and we wasted no time getting down to the ramp to get it wet.
Sportsmarine imports the hulls from across the ditch and matches them locally with Dunbier trailers. They then head to the dealership to get fitted with Yamaha outboards before being water tested and offered for sale.
Boarding the boat, you immediately notice the Nyalic finish that coats all of the bare aluminium surfaces. I’ve seen this on McLay boats before and it has proved to be a durable way of coating high workload surfaces while retaining great looks. Indeed, at first glance, you’d think that the surfaces were painted silver.
Standard in the Extreme boats are a central flooding hull ballast tank to aid stability at rest and fully welded buoyancy chambers. All visible welding is first class and there’s an efficiency in design and attention to detail in the finishing that’s a class above many boats on the market.
It was a little disappointing that the calm seas on offer on the test day didn’t let us fully experience this boat’s rough water abilities. Typically, NZ built boats excel when the water looks like the inside of a washing machine.
Also, I thought that a 130 on a 6+ metre hull was a little under-gunned, however, Sportsmarine reported that 80% of these rigs are sold with that power plant instead of the heavier and more expensive F150.
Economy was excellent with the 130, delivering around 2.2km/L between 4,000rpm and 4,500rpm. As usual, if you run the boat at wideopen throttle, you’ll get 59km/h at 5,900rpm, but economy will drop to 1.3km/L.
Complementing the build quality, the Extreme is beautifully finished. Carpet lining on the cabin walls, practical covering of the dash wiring and custom built hinges are obvious, but the attention to detail with bushes and anti-corrosive coatings doing their best to separate dissimilar metals all adds to the longevity of the hull.
We also liked the novel seat bases, attached to the gunwales rather than the floor. This adds to cockpit space and allows flexibility in where you store your coolers and other large items.
It was hard to dislike anything about the Extreme and how it was set up. The Sportsmarine crew know their boats and set them up well. As tested, the test rig weighed in at $81,575 with the 130HP Yamaha. You can get more information at www.sportsmarine.com.au or you can Like ‘Sportsmarine Boat Centre – Bunbury’ for specials and dealer updates.
PERFORMANCE
RPM…….km/h…….km/L
650………4…………..3.9
1000……6.5………..3.3
2000……11…………2.4
3000……16…………1.2
4000……37…………2.2
4200……41…………2.2
5000……46…………1.4
5900……59…………1.3
*As tested with a 17” S/S propeller
SPECIFICATIONS
Length…………………….6.07m
Beam……………………….2.34m
Bottom sheet.…………5mm
Transom sheet ………5mm
Side sheet.………………4mm
Transom deadrise….21í
Max HP……………………150
Tow weight…………….1500kg
Capacity………………….5 persons