Remora Boats 490 powered by Suzuki 115hp

We met Jason Olivey for the first time in his shed on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It looked like any fibreglass boat builder’s shed – smelling of resin and covered in fibreglass dust.

There were several boats in various stages of construction: one in the mould, one mid-build, and one on the trailer nearly ready for delivery. And like all boat manufacturers he assured us that his shed was too small and he was on the lookout for a new one. It looked like an honest call.

Remora Boats isn’t Jason’s first manufacturing venture. You may have heard of his brand of Remora Oceanic trolling lures that originated in his lounge room while he lived in Sydney.

You can watch the full interview with Jason by scanning the QR code hereby, but he is a lifelong boat builder and always wanted to make his own brand of niche boats. We met him right at the start of his journey.

At the time of this boat test he has finished several boats, but had many more on order. Over the years this hull size and shape has been popular with boat renovators, and the ability to buy a new one off the shelf with no wood in the construction is very tempting for many anglers.

“You won’t need to replace floors and transoms in these rigs in a decade or two. Your kids will be re-powering them, not re-building them,” he said. That’s because he uses Therma-lite in the floors and transoms where plywood used to be the material of choice. It’s a full composite build that has nothing to rot.

There are some serious reverse chines underneath this hull, keeping the small chop spray down.

Remora built this 490 as a stock and demonstration boat for Mak Marine. The guys have fitted it with a 115hp Suzuki and a Minn Kota electric motor among other things.

The complete package fits and tows easily on a single axle trailer, which means that it’s quite manoeuvrable when fitting this boat into a standard garage.

The Remora hulls are currently being made on the NSW Central Coast by Jason Olivey and his team.

Towrex Trailers supply the trailers to Remora, which packages them for the dealers.

Although there was no fuel metering available for this boat, the 100L underfloor fuel tank is definitely good for several hundred kilometres, based on previous tests with this engine.

Relatively high gunwales all round and with no casting deck, the Remora is a well suited to ocean fishing work.

The inclusion of the pod into the hull extends the original 4.55m hull length to 4.90m.

Mak Marine is a Suzuki dealer and fitted this demo boat with the 115hp platform.

115 is plenty of horsepower for this rig, and it’s fun to drive two-up.

There is no wood used in the construction of these hulls – Fibreglass and Thermo-lite mean there’s nothing to rot.

This is one of two iterations for helm seating. The other is a moulded box that fits a livewell and some gear storage.

The console will take a bracket-mount MFD to 16” behind the windscreen.

We loved the stainless rail solution for the bow mounted electric motor mounting.

Jason prefers trailers with carpeted skids, although you can order a roller trailer if your launching situation requires it.

The Towrex trailers have the alloy wheels as standard.

After checking out the factory, we headed to the closest Remora dealer – Mak Marine just south of Newcastle. They had just finished fitting out a black 490 with a 115hp Suzuki outboard.

Brendan Macdonald and his team from Mak Marine were excited to get the rig on the water, so we tagged along to do some filming. You can watch the video boat test by scanning the QR code on this page. It was a late afternoon on Lake Macquarie with only a small amount of chop. We took turns taking the rig for a ride.

You need to remember that this is just a 4.55m hull with a pod. Its light weight gives it responsive performance and versatility when it comes to beach launching or accessing difficult areas, but it’s not going to have everything a 6-7m boat has in it.

Storage is basic, with side pockets and some area underneath the console. The test boat was fitted with a framed lean seat that can keep a cooler under it, but there is also the option of a fibreglass storage and live well combo in the helm seat position. Some will see this as a negative.

The floor is kept at the same level throughout. Some people may want a raised casting deck (and the storage that comes with it), however this trades-off gunwale height, which you’ll likely need when fishing in the ocean.

The console seems proportionally the right size and there’s a handrail around the top of it that’ll be handy when it’s rough. It fits fish finders up to 16”, bracket mounted on the dash. Small touches, like the customised Remora switch pad are neat.

We also liked the mounting for the electric motor on the front – some clever stainless steel tubework presents a good looking and practical solution. I assume not many of these built for fishing will go out of the dealership without one.

Judging by the smile on Brendan’s face, we reckon that he was happy with his first Remora.

There was no fuel metering installed at the time of testing, but we achieved a top speed of high 60km/h with the standard Suzuki 19” three blade aluminium propeller and it cruised nicely at 3,500-4,000rpm. Performance data is listed in the table.

As tested, this rig will set you back $57,000, however Remora packages start in the late-forties with a smaller outboard. Remora don’t sell direct to the public, so if you’re keen on a quote or a ride, see the guys at Mak Marine or on www.makmarine.com.au. You may also be keen on Remora’s Instagram page – it’s quite active.

Specifications:
Length 4.9m
Beam 2.04m
Fuel 100L
Max hp 115hp
Capacity 5 persons
Length on trailer 7.1m

Performance
RPM Speed (km/h)
Idle 2
1000 6
2000 11
3000 21
3500 36
4000 43
5000 55
6000 64
• Running a 19” 3 blade Suzuki aluminium propeller.