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Fisherman & Boatowner Magazine, (boat test) - March 2001.
Courtesy: Sea Media Publications

BAR CRUSHER 610 CUDDY CABIN
Story and Photos: Peter Webster

As the plate boat market gathers momentum, new models are being released for an eager market - and the standard of design, building and fit-out grows apace. Peter Webster report and pics. Much as it pains the writer to concede that our Kiwi neighbours are good for anything beyond the odd America's Cup event, much less real football and genuine cricket, we've been forced to accept that the new Bar Crusher range of welded plate aluminium boats is likely to do to plate alloy boat building in Australia what the Kiwis have already done to the Americans on the 12 Metre yacht racing circuit. In other words, this boat is going to "kick butt". These are powerful words, but the Bar Crusher promotion is gathering force, and making quite an impact along the eastern seaboard.

What is a Bar Crusher? What do they do? Who is behind them? We decided it was time to learn more about them when by coincidence, Bar Crusher's MD, Peter Cleland, arrived on our doorstep with a brand new Bar Crusher 610 cuddy. Although the meeting was more fortuitous than planned, we nevertheless seized the opportunity to go for a really good run in the Bar Crusher 610 to learn more about this interesting craft. The Bar Crusher 610 like its smaller 5.5m brother, was basically designed in NZ for rough water fishing.

In a design sense, the Bar Crusher 610 we tested is a very contemporary boat. From the swallow tail transom to the gas-lifted aluminium hard top, this boat is truly one of the most innovative and interesting boats of its kind we have tested.

As you can see, it's essentially a hardtop over a cuddy cabin arrangement. There is not enough room for full length berths in this version, although a long cab version no doubt could be arranged if a customer wanted to allocate more space to the cabin. As it currently stands, the cuddy isn't big enough to sleep in properly although you could put your head down for an hour or two's nap before the fish come on, or the bundy wears off. But it's not really designed for that purpose. The cuddy cabin is an area where you could sit inside from bad weather, store rods, keep your clothes dry, stow the food baskets, etc. It's not designed as a sleeping area, although with bunks of 1600 mm length by an average 620 mm wide, there's enough space for a couple of youngsters to sleep if not the adults. Back out in the cockpit, there's 1900 mm of cockpit space behind the fixed seat (measuring fore and aft) with a very healthy 1.5m of cockpit width between the coamings across the cockpit. So it's got a very large cockpit that's for sure. Measured from the transom through to the bulkhead, there's no less than 2.69m of floor space so if you're looking for fishing room, this boat's got it and then some.

The Stats..... It has a bottom hull thickness of 5mm, topsides of 4mm and a plate aluminium floor as well. The boat carries 150 litres of fuel under the floor and for the test was powered by a Yamaha 115hp, 4-stroke extra long shaft outboard motor. As you can see from the attached list, the standard features are quite extensive, but first and foremost we should highlight the most unusual "quick flow" water ballast system built into the keel of this boat. As a concept, the idea of a water-ballasted keel in planing powerboats is hardly unique or even unusual. Water ballasted keels have often been used in planing powerboats by various designers over the years and they'll continue to be used. Why? Because the idea is essentially quite sound. Whether you derive enough benefit from the extra construction cost involved is always debatable, but nobody doubts the veracity of this system or idea itself. When the boat comes down off the plane and settles in the water, the water floods up the open chambers of the keel to create a quasi "ballast" system. As the boat then takes off from a standing start, the natural momentum of the water drains the boat almost instantaneously, so the boat's performance is in no way affected by the ballast keel process. Essentially, it is an idea that provides superior stability when a deep vee boat is at rest and there's no doubt it does this with the Bar Crusher 610.

Indeed, we all noted the Bar Crusher was one of the most stable powerboats of this length we have ever tested, and that's a real tribute to the "quick flow" water ballast system.

Back inside the boat, the Bar Crusher 610 must be considered extremely well appointed. There is a host of really clever little ideas carried forward in this boat, but none of them top the set-up of the windscreen and hardtop. This is truly one of the cleverest ideas the writer has encountered in years. With the windscreen up, and the hardtop in place, the boat needs 3.18m in height to get through an entranceway on the standard trailer with 13"wheels. But fold the roof and windscreen back down into the cockpit, a process that Peter Cleland demonstrated took less than one or two minutes, and the height needed to store the boat is reduced to 2.250 m on the same trailer. This is a fantastic feature for owners who like to keep the boat inside a garage or storage shed, or perhaps under the house. For once, it's not one of those damn fool set-ups that takes about 2 hours to lower and another hour or so to put back up again. This does take seconds. It uses gas struts very cleverly, so the whole process can be handled by one of the junior crew or by a person on their own in a few minutes. Well done, Bar Crusher.

Overall, we were very impressed with the innovation and thought that has gone into this 610 Bar Crusher. We were particularly interested in this model because by coincidence, it's virtually identical in size to the new 6.0m Project boat F&B is building from another design from our marine architect. Not only is the new F&B boat the same size, it is also going to use the same engine so we were very keen to trial the Bar Crusher from both a professional and personal viewpoint. Why this special interest in the 115hp Yamaha? Well, put it this way. How many 6.0m Sportfishing boats do you know in GRP (fibreglass) that you can work really well (with 30-knot performance in a seaway) with a 115hp Yamaha 4-stroke? Most GRP boats of this length have to run at least 135-150hp engines, and it's by no means uncommon to see them with engines as powerful as 200- 225hp. So here we are in a big, roomy 6.1m plate aluminium Bar Crusher with a 115hp 4-stroke surely this would be underpowered and suffer by comparison to the GRP models? Performance Well, although the Bar Crusher 610 is not a high performance craft, it certainly logged 30 knots very easily, and with two of us onboard, in no way felt that it needed more horsepower. As it transpired, we didn't have the opportunity of putting more people onboard, but I really don't think it would have made all that much difference. This boat was unusual in that it's Peter Cleland's own boat and the company demonstrator and for once, it was fully set-up with all safety equipment, multiple anchors, a full load of fuel and all the stuff you have onboard a seagoing boat. We also had some nice weather offshore I would admit, and that probably made life a bit easier, but nevertheless, I felt the 115 Yamaha 4- stroke was a beautiful motor on this rig, and no way would I advocate more horsepower unless a customer knew that he was going to be working serious ocean bars with heavier loads and more crew than we had on test day. Even so, I doubt that you would ever go more than 135hp. Just for the record, again we were blown away by the smoothness and quietness of this Yamaha 115 engine it really is an exceptional piece of engineering, and an absolute joy to work with in the seaway especially in cruising and trolling modes. Working the boat back in through the entrance, at no stage did I have that "need more horsepower" feeling. Indeed, I didn't even think about it until we were well through the entrance and back running the speed trials down the bay again to offset the tide flow and average the speeds.

But enough of the Yamaha what was the boat like? Well, in truth, the Bar Crusher delivered on its advertised promise. It is one of the softest aluminium boats of this length I've ever been in, and I'd go so far to suggest that it's possibly the softest riding 6.1m plate alloy boat in the business. Now that's a pretty big claim, I admit, but remember, we've tested some awfully good boats out of here these past 12 months and we're right up to speed with what is - and what isn't good in terms of ride, handling and overall performance.

Have another look at the photographs and in particular the shot on page 7 that's taken from 3/4 forward, and you'll have a better understanding of why the boat is as soft riding as it is. The Bar Crusher 610 has an exceptionally long snout so much so, you could argue that of the 6.1m, about 700 or 800mm of that is taken up in the pointy snout. But this is all part of the clever way that has been used to wrap plate aluminium around the building jig. In order to shape the aluminium in such a way (as they've done here) where they get a two-way curve. By that I mean the two views are (1) The bird's eye view. Looking down, as the long sheet of aluminium goes around the jig, and then (2) Splayed out as you would look at it from ground level as it sweeps around from the sides of the boat to the bow. To get all this happening as smoothly and evenly as they have, they needed to carry the sheet well forward thus the Bar Crusher ends up with a long snout, a very deeply veed forefoot area, and quite a deal of inbuilt flare in the shoulders of the boat.

Frankly, it's bloody good design, engineering and boat building. No wonder the fibreglass manufacturers are getting so stressed about the inroads being made by plate aluminium boats. This is yet another example of how modern technology is being used by the aluminium boat builders to create shapes that were unthinkable only 5-8 years ago. And the benefit is wonderfully obvious to the consumer even a person whose doesn't really know or understand much about boats.

The Bar Crusher 610 is so soft riding, most boat owners couldn't pick the difference between this plate aluminium hull and a very sophisticated fibreglass deep vee hull. And boy, doesn't that bear some thinking about!

Whatever, it's all good news from the boat owner's point of view and really exciting for the plate aluminium buyers in the market today. It means that they're starting to get real competition coming through and a choice of some fascinating craft that offer exceptionally high levels of performance, handling and ride. It's not just a case where there's just one or two models, we're starting with a line up half a dozen top flight plate aluminium boats that offer world class standards of handling and ride and the Bar Crusher 610 is right up there with the best of them.

It's an oldie but a goodie - the hollow water keel has been around for years, and is currently available in several plate boats and a couple in GRP. It works very well here, too. The Bar Crusher has quite remarkable stability at rest or at anchor. In this particular case, Peter Cleland was at pains to point out that they have optional side squabs and pedestal boxes.

Trailing The Bar Crusher 610 wins this category hands down. Peter Cleland put this exact rig over the local weighbridge for us on his way back to Melbourne, to record a certified 1520 kg on the tandem axle trailer with all gear and equipment shown here. This is a great figure isn't it? Just imagine being able to buy a 20 footer like this with so much offshore capability, safety and comfort with an all up weight of just 1.52 tonnes on a tandem axle trailer for heavens sake! This boat can easily be towed by any of the middle ground 4WD's, and by most of the six cylinder and above Holden, Falcon models with the OEM towing pack fitted. Behind your typical Landcruiser, Patrol or Pajero, they would scarcely know the Bar Crusher was even there, and that's a really important asset to have if you're planning on making the long trek from the south to some of Australia's exciting northern waters. In long distance haulage, having a trailerboat that only weighs 1.52 tonnes dressed, means the trailer is completely under-stressed, the rig can easily be towed all day and all night at 100-110 kph, without any strain on either the driver or the 4WD.

Conclusion One of the most interesting boats we've tested for some time, the Bar Crusher 610 not only lives up to its advertised claims, it exceeded our expectations. It is unusually soft riding, and uses strong but light weight alloy construction. This allows it to be towed easily behind modern, middle size tow vehicles, and even more importantly, allows it to be operated very pleasantly indeed with moderate 115hp 4-stroke engines.

Legal Note: The statements, observations and opinions expressed in the above excerpts are those of the boat tester and were formed after inspection and testing of the Bar Crusher boat described in the test. The opinion is provided by the author of the test and not the directors of Bar Crusher boats.The information in these excerpts is offered to assist prospective buyers to do their research. Bar Crusher Boats confirms that the information above may contain factual errors and no responsibility is taken for it's accuracy or completeness. Please refer to the legal notice by clicking on the words "Legal Notice" at the bottom of each page.