Carbine – Cut Above the Rest – By Dan Kaggelis
There’s a lot to like about open fibre glass boats. First, they offer the perfect fishing and spearfishing platform, with huge amounts of deck space and large spacious casting decks. In terms of a sports fishing platform such as casting up on the reef flats or popping for GTs they offer virtually no restrictions to the angler. For spearfishermen they allow plenty of space for all the spear gear and lower sides make them easy to get in and out of.
Second, they are far lighter in weight compared to bigger cabin style glass and aluminium boats which means you don’t need huge amounts of horsepower to push them, and push them fast. Max out the horsepower on many of the open glass boats and the potential speeds can be absolutely blistering. One very positive and very timely consequence of this is huge savings on fuel costs, as you don’t need to burn a tonne of juice to get high top end cruising speeds. This further equates to more range which means no annoying jerry cans taking up space.
Let’s not forget about the ride these boats offer. Combine a glass hull with a reasonably skinny beam and plenty of power and you get a boat which can cut through the chop and handle the rough stuff with ease.
There’s a reason why these boats are found in huge numbers in our northern Australian and Pacific Island communities and that is because they are highly capable to travel in all sorts of weather.
My love of open glass boats comes from the fact they are simple yet highly effective boats. If you are after a boat that is fast, cheap to run, has a great ride and most importantly is designed for fishing or spearfishing, then this style of boat is what you are looking for. No frills – just a fishing weapon.
In a following sea, the Carbine handles like a dream.
I’ve been fortunate enough to fish out of plenty open glass style boats including Cyclones, Hookers, Contenders, Galleys, Wahoos, Haines, Bonitos and even a few which had no names at all and they are always a pleasure to fish out of. So, when I drove past Port Douglas Marine a couple of months ago and saw their new Carbine 553 and 600 boats glistening in the sun I just had to chuck a u bolt and go in for a gander. The first thing that struck me was how similar the hull was to an old and dear favourite, the V17 Haines. I’ve spent plenty of time in these boats and I still believe they are by far one of the very best riding hulls that have ever been built in this size range.The Carbine shared the same classic lines and dead rise, and you could just tell this boat would be at home powering to the reef. Looking over the rig it certainly looked the goods so it was time to do some investigating. Turns out the Carbine range of boats are built locally in Port Douglas by expert boat builder Lance Hawkes. Lance is a well-known and highly respected boat builder from Pittwater having designed and built custom vessels for extreme applications. Take a good look at the Carbine and you will see Lances years of experience shining through. Not only in the design but also the build which is as solid and strong as these boats can get. So, let’s get into the ins and outs of the build and for this review I’m going to focus on the bigger brother, the Carbine 600.
The Carbine 600 is 6 metres long with a 2.1 metre beam. The hull including the console weighs 700kg which keeps the boat under the limit in terms of extra towing and electric break requirements. The boat has polyester hull/ vinylester tie layer hull construction and it is completely hand laid by Lance himself. The hull is completely composite and has no timber at all so no worries about any rot here. The interior is finished in flow coat whilst the external of the boat is finished in gel coat. The transom of the Carbine is made from 65mm thick thermolite which means it can hold plenty of ponies on the back. It’s rated from a 115hp right up to a frightening 175hp!
To put it bluntly, the boat is built like an absolute tank and there is zero chance this thing is going to bend, warp or break no matter how you drive it. And drive we did with a full licence from the boys from Port Douglas Marine to fully send it.
Conditions were perfect for a boat test, 15 to 20 knots of stiff south Easter with a run out tide on top just to give it a bit of extra spice. We put the Carbine in at Dixon’s Inlet at Port Douglas before launching it into the slop and heading east to the reef. I was a little hesitant at the end of the protection of the leads as the waves were standing up and angry. However, with a bit of encouragement, I dropped the hammer on the 140 Tohatsu and the boat shot out of the hole with minimal effort, got on top of the waves and the 23-degree deadrise v hull went to work. The first thing I noticed about the boat apart from the incredible power was how well the hull cut through the waves. The more power I gave it the better the hull performed, especially in the rough conditions. When it did get airborne the landing was just as impressive being both soft and surprisingly very dry for an open boat. Those who know me, know how much I hate getting buckets of water in the face when travelling in the boat and this ride was far from that. I can confidently say this was the driest ride I have ever had in a centre console in these conditions by a mile. In fact, even at high (more like crazy) speeds the ride was really comfortable and far from the expected bucking bronco experience in these less than ideal conditions. Even when travelling side on to the waves, the boat was really stable and rode like a champion. In a following sea, the Carbine 600 just ate it up and it was like we were travelling in a short chop not a rough paddock. At no stage did it ever breach or want to twist its rear end and with more than enough power, the boat just ate it up.
The deck space and hatches provide for plenty of storage, built in eskies and kill tanks maximising deck space.
To give you an idea about its capabilities in terms of speed, the Carbine 600 powered by the 140 4 stroke Tohatsu cruised at just over 50kmr burning around 1.2 litres and flat out was a scary 70kmhr. Keep in mind this is not even the maximum horsepower which is rated up to a 175. To put it simply this boat was an absolute weapon and if you are into getting to your fishing destination fast, with little fuel burn then the Carbine is right up your alley.
In terms of range the Carbine comes with a 240-litre fuel tank which in terms of range capacity is an overkill. From looking at the fuel burn information during testing this boat has some serious capacity to run a very, very, very long way even at high speeds.
In terms of the fit out of the internal of the boat, there is plenty of storage and built in esky space. The casting deck has two massive water proof hatches which have ample room to store your tackle, safety gear and anything else you want to carry. Below these hatches is a metre plus long built in esky which has heaps of capacity to store your catch including longer fish like Spanish mackerel. This could also double as extra storage space if you wanted to as the console seat can also serve the same purpose. There is also a very large kill tank as well which can also double as extra storage. The reverse centre console seat makes it comfortable and convenient for fishing forward and backwards especially when trolling. Being locally built to some degree your boat is a custom build so you have the options of adding live bait tanks, smaller fuel tanks, side console, centre console, or even a tiller and so on.
The Carbine 600 is a weapon of a boat. It offers amazing power, efficiency and ride which is unbeaten in my opinion when it comes to open glass boats of this size. It was an absolute privilege and pleasure to drive and review this boat and it exceeded my expectations across all facets.
If you are interested in looking at the Carbine range give Chris a call at Port Douglas Marine on 4223 4725 or shoot them an email on service@pdmengineering.com.au
The Carbine 600.
