A Perfect Score, From Every Judge
At Trailer Boat Magazine's Australia's Greatest Boats competition in 2012, the Bar Crusher 670HT achieved something no other boat on test managed that year: a perfect 10 out of 10 from every single judge for fishing suitability. It wasn't a fluke either — Bar Crusher had already won the inaugural running of the same competition in 2010, giving the 670HT's win real continuity rather than a one-off result.
What the Judges Actually Said
The panel's enthusiasm came through clearly in their own words. Angelo San Giorgio compared it directly to a performance car: "It performs like a Porsche... there aren't too many that compare." John Willis put it more bluntly: "It handles like a skateboard!" John Ford praised how smoothly it got up onto the plane even run flat-out, Kevin Smith called it "beautiful to drive... an absolute winner of a boat," and Jeff Strang simply named it "the pick of the fishing boats" in the entire field.
The Boat Behind the Result
Running a Suzuki DF175 fuel-injected four-stroke, the 670HT tested at the time planed in around three seconds from a standing start and topped out over 40 knots — genuinely strong numbers for a boat built primarily around fishing capability rather than outright speed. At 6.7 metres with a 2.35-metre beam and 20 degrees of deadrise, it paired that performance with a wide, open deck, clear cabin, and supportive seating, plus the fishing essentials: tackle storage, a bait board, a live bait tank, and a kill tank.
Quickflow and an Early Look at Bar Flap
The judges specifically called out the Quickflow® water ballast system — around 500kg of capacity for stability — as a standout, along with an early automated Bar Flap option for controlling that ballast. It's a useful historical marker: the Bar Flap concept, covered in more detail via a Hook, Line and Sinker 670C delivery story elsewhere in this batch, was already part of the conversation around this boat as far back as 2012.
Why an Old Award Still Matters
A ten-year-old competition win doesn't tell a buyer what a current model costs or exactly how it's specced today, but it does something a spec sheet can't: it's independent, judged proof that this hull design earned genuine respect from experienced boat testers, unanimously, in a field of real competitors. That kind of durable credibility is worth more over time than most marketing claims.
