Stessl 730 Coastrunner with Yamaha 300hp V6

Statistics show that a third of new businesses stall within the first two years, and half close within the first five years. But in the fishing and boating industry, we have a much better metric for measuring the lifespan of a business. It has to do with how many boats you upgrade.

Gold Coast apparel company, The Mad Hueys is up to number seven. We think that this is pretty good, because Fishing Monthly is only up to #6.

The 300hp V6 Yamaha on the transom is the maximum rated. Be warned about being heavy on the throttle, though – you only get 0.73km/L when you drive this flat out.

The new, white Yamaha DES is a great colour match to this boat.

This rig has Lenco trim tabs installed, however we did not need them on the test day.

We like that the Stessl was a proper walkaround with high gunnels and the ability to fish 360 degrees.

The grab rails on the front of the console are a neat addition. You have something to hang onto when chasing a school of tuna.

We did find one area where they could have upgraded. This is a manual deploy MinnKota!

Although full of fenders on the test day, the kill tank should be full of fresh fish.

There is some old-tech. Side pockets.

Even the passenger gets a suspension seat. The rest of the crew just have to hang on – tight.

The Animal #7 is a pretty slick rig, and turned heads no matter where we were on the Gold Coast.

ou don’t get the same bunk length as in a cabin boat, but we are sure that you will appreciate the rest after a long run in the shade in here.

Here we see The Animal #7 at home in its natural environment – the offshore grounds east of the Gold Coast.

One of the joys of being an aluminium boat builder is that when HelmMaster turned up you only had to make slight modifications to fit it all in.

If you are going to be doing some serious miles offshore, why not be comfortable? Suspension seats are luxury.

The 300hp V6 Yamaha on the transom is the maximum rated.

If you are going to be doing some serious miles offshore, why not be comfortable? Suspension seats are luxury.

The owners have chosen the camouflage SeaDeck to line the cockpit. Some like it and some don’t like the complex design.

What would an offshore boat be without ample rod storage above the hardtop?

Platerix2 always have sturdy entry steps. The transom door is standard.

The Animal #7 is a pretty slick rig, and turned heads no matter where we were on the Gold Coast.

The 300hp V6 Yamaha on the transom is the maximum rated.

Stessl’s Mark Johnson joined us for the test day.

“Innovation is our catch-cry and these are the biggest Platerix2 hulls that we’ve done to date,” Mark said.

The Animal 7 is a new model that Gold Coast builder, Stessl, has released. Based on its Platerix2 hull, it’s a 7.3m walkaround hard top that’s powered by a 300hp Yamaha 4.2L DES outboard and it’s one in which not many ‘options’ boxes were left unchecked.

That’s how you get to a $200,000 price tag on a boat. Start by ordering the biggest Stessl that you can and then cram heaps of cool stuff into it.

For example the DES Yamaha means Digital Electric Steering. These are the outboards that can have the Yamaha HelmMaster system plugged right into them. Although adding nearly $20,000 to the price tag, you get joystick steering, autopilot and the ability to lock yourself to a GPS coordinate.

And that’s not the only thing you notice that is upgraded at the helm. You’re sitting on some pretty cool shock absorbing seats, and you’re looking at a 16” Garmin flush-mounted into the console.

Interestingly, they’ve still opted for a Minnkota (powered by lithium batteries) up front. I wonder if they’ll fish more on the Yamaha or Minnkota spot-locking ability?

You also notice that this is a proper walkaround rig. Even though it has a decent size cockpit, you can still walk and fish 360° around it and the gunnels are high enough for you to do this in comfort, with a decent fish on the end of the line.

As you would expect, this boat is not particularly cheap to run. At today’s fuel prices it costs a fair bit to fill up to 350L fuel tank. Drive this boat hard and you will achieve 0.73km/L. The most efficient speed was at 38km an hour (3500rpm) where the Yamaha delivered 1.4km/L. That gives you a theoretical range of just under 500km.

Given that the weather conditions were pretty close to perfect, the ride was still pretty good. The foam-filled hull rode quietly and you can see from the boat test video that the attitude looked great. You can watch the video test by scanning the QR code hereby.

I was kind of surprised that the guys had opted for galvanised steel, twin axle trailer for this rig when there’s definitely an aluminium option available. But when you consider that this rig falls easily under 3t, maybe there’s no need to skimp on weight underneath. You can tow it with a standard twin-cab ute if you don’t overload it.

Also a function of modern times are the drive away prices on the iterations of this rig. Although the Hueys’ boat came in at around $200K, you can get a down-spec package for closer to $150K with a 250hp outboard and a lot fewer options boxes ticked.

You can get more information on www.stessl.com.au or by asking your nearest Stessl dealer.

SPECIFICATIONS:
Length (bow-transom) 7.3m
Beam 2.5m
Depth 1.5m
Bottom 5mm
Sides 4mm
Hull weight 1,400kg
Max hp 300
Fuel 350
Capacity 7 persons

PERFORMANCE:
RPM Speed (km/h) Economy (km/L)
Idle 5 2.2
1000 9 1.8
2000 14 1.1
3000 26 1.3
3500 38 1.4
4000 48 1.3
5000 62 1.0
6000 74 0.73