BOATING & marine Check out the footage by searching for BNBFTV
A clean and uncluttered profile is a Sea Class given.
Yamaha’s 175hp four-stroke provided plenty of motivation, pushing the hull to 73km/h.
AMM 5700 Sea Class all you could ever need
O Inboard grab rails allow for easy entry and egress over the bow. Raised cast deck includes massive storage hatch.
Helm layout incorporated ‘left-hand drive’ to keep throttle controls on top of the console instead of the side.
NE boat to do it all.
One boat to capably fish the bays, rivers, creeks and offshore. I didn’t have my ‘one’ picked until I recently tested the Australian Master Marine 5700 Sea Class centre console off the Gold Coast. As far as plate aluminium boat builders go, you’d be hard pressed to find one better than AMM. Customisation and attention to detail are two things Matt and Barton from AMM pride themselves on, and each boat that comes out of the Brendale factory is handbuilt to exacting specifications, incorporating any custom features the client could want. Our test Sea Class, as with the vast majority of boats AMM builds, was kitted out with myriad extras designed specifically for the customer, who is actually onto his fifth AMM. That kind of repeat business demonstrates the quality product on offer. Fitted with a 175hp Yamaha four-stroke, the highest horsepower available for the 5700 size, I expected performance to be spritely and I wasn’t disappointed. For once we were greeted with good ‘boat-testing
AMM 7000 halo
Boat Review by DANIEL TOMLINSON
conditions’ upon heading out of the Gold Coast Seaway, with a stiff northerly breeze stirring up a reasonable chop. Trimming the motor down and dropping the hammer resulted in rapid acceleration onto the plane, with the motor and Sea Class hull combo holding steady on the plane at just 31km/h and 3000rpm! This low planing speed returned a super-economical number of 2.1km per litre, which is bloody impressive for a high-horsepower motor and roughly 6m plate boat. I found the boat handled the conditions best at a casual 4000rpm cruise, netting awesome 1.9km per litre fuel economy while nipping along at bang-on 50km/h, perfect for shooting across the bay or wide offshore to the deep grounds. Flat chat, we managed 73km/h at 5600rpm, travelling 1.1km per litre of fuel used. All very impressive numbers for a bluff-fronted centre console built from solid 5mm bottom and 4mm side sheets of
high-tensile plate aluminium. AMM’s Sea Class hull is a proven design and ably treads the fine line between the offshore boating essentials of good ride comfort, stability at rest (with a 2.25m beam) and a dry ride under way. Rolling along at that comfortable 50km/h, I found the 5700 Sea Class to tack straight and true regardless where I pointed the bow offshore. Whether travelling with the swell and chop, straight into it or across it, the substantial reverse chines made short work of the Gold Coast slop, driving water well out the sides of the plate hull. Only once did any spray find its way over the high sides, thanks to yours truly decelerating while working the wheel and dropping the front left corner into a trough. Even then, the centre console’s windscreen copped the spray and I remained dry. Pulling up to take some interior shots, I moved around the deck and took in what this beautifully finished boat had to offer.
Interestingly, for this customer’s boat, AMM did away with both traditional raised bow rails and rear grab rails, meaning viewed side-on the boat cuts an ultra-clean profile and looks ‘fast’ standing still. Relocating the bow rails to the interior of the boat (see casting deck picture) affords easier entry and egress over the bow of the boat, with nothing to get in the way of your
bum when sliding in and out after nosing into the beach. This kind of thoughtful design touch, as requested by the customer, is absolutely the norm for AMM and simply part of the process when creating custom plate boats. Under foot was an awesome soft and grippy EVA foam flooring material that is laser-cut and can * continued P45
Classic centre console layout the ultimate in 360-degree fishability.
AWESOME OFFSHORE PERFORMANCE Check out the video of Queensland’s newest, most awesome offshore plate alloy centre console on the AMM website. More practicality, more comfort, more convenience, more fishing power.
07 3889 7380 | 234 Leitchs Rd, Brendale Q 4500 Page 44 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, September 2018
www.bnbfishing.com. au