| lnvercargill-based boat builders Stabi-Craft were onto a good thing when they pioneered the construction of pontoon or 'tube' boats back in 1987. |  |
||||||||||||||||||
| With great advantages in reserve
buoyancy, stability and load carrying ability, they struck a nerve
with both commercial and recreational fishermen and divers who valued
function over form. Stabi-Craft have continued to advance their designs with filled-in transoms, 'D' section pontoons, improved layouts, and more attractive cosmetics including fibreglass tops. You can't keep a good idea quiet - Stabi-Craft have a developed a solid export history, and have been much imitated as other manufacturers adopted the pontoon- design concept. With an increasing dealer network, Stabi-Craft have become well established in the large North Island recreational market. I arranged to trial the new 595 Hard Top model with Auckland agents Key and Ian's Marine. This has been introduced as an entry-level, hardtop model. |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Construction .
The 595HT hull is actually a narrower version of the popular 593HT hull. (The 593HT has now been renamed the 609HT.) The 595HT test boat is 8Omm less in internal beam, and 23Omm less in external beam than the 609HT. This was done to get a finer entry and reduce the 'shoulders' of the older model, giving a better ride in quartering seas. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||
| A further difference is a much larger anchor well, to provide the fall necessary to fit an anchor winch. This shortens the berths in length, making them more for sitting than lying down. The cabin floor is also a step down, to maintain comfortable sitting head-height. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Construction sees a one-piece bottom (folded
along the keel line and welded at the how), and sealed, pressure-tested
pontoons in five separate sections. The deck is seam-welded in place
and supported by a full length 'ladder' frame to which it is sealed
with Sikaflex. The tube thickness is 3mm and the bottoms are 4mm. The deck is 3mm chequerplate. The hardtop itself is of fibreglass, with aluminium supports. A 'commercial upgrade' has 3.5mm tubes and 5mm hull. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||
| Stabi-Craft have supplied reserve and buoyancy figures of 1700 litres for the 595HT hull. The sealed deck has a different drainage system to some other models. Instead of a sump, water drains through a grill in the transom wall into the outboard bracket and is pumped out by a 500-gph bilge pump. In addition, the cabin step-down, if flooded (there is no step to pre- vent this), can only be drained when the boat is out of the water. And finally, the large anchor well has no hatch. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Call me a Luddite, but I am not sure that
is a good drainage set-up for heavy conditions. If facing any bar
or surf work in this boat, I would be looking at upgrading the pump
to 2000gph, fitting a hatch to the anchor well, a lip on the cabin
entry, and maybe scuppers in the stern (manual insurance against bilge
pump failure) as well. All of this could no doubt, be done on request.
Gunwales are built on top of the 'D' section pontoons, giving both extra storage and free-board. The transom has a half-height cut out with a drop gate. Overall, the welding looked good, and construction methods are sound, proven by doing the hard yards in some pretty tough conditions over the years. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||
| Power and performance The 595HT is rated for outboards up to 150hp and recommended for use with a 115hp model. The test boat was fitted with a Johnson (Bombardier) 115hp two-stroke outboard, swinging a 17" pitch prop. Fuel was carried a 200-litre capacity under-floor tank. With about a half fuel load and two adults aboard, we achieved 56kph (30.2 knots) at 550Orpm, cruised comfortably at 4Okph (21.6 knots) at 4000rpm. Initially, we struck a typical steep chop of about half a metre with about 15-20 knots of southerly wind against the tide. This provided a good test for the boat, with a head sea eventually coming onto the forward quarter, then the stem as we went about our travels. Later in the day, a sea breeze cancelled out the wind and conditions slicked out. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||
| Andrew Deadman (sales manager
for Kev and lan's Marine) and I travelled from Stillwater (at the
base of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula) out through the Tiri' Channel,
across to Moturoa Island, then back to Shag Rock at the back of Tiri'
Island. There we stopped to pick up a feed of snapper before travelling
back to Stillwater. Overall, the boat performed well, producing a good ride in the sloppy conditions. In the quartering wind and sea, we were glad of the shelter of the hardtop, as we were taking a fair amount of spray. Visibility became a problem at times and I would recommend fitting the optional heavy-duty wiper that is offered. |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Anchoring Access to the bow on the test boat was by climbing around the cabin sides. This ledge has a non-skid finish, but a grab rail on the front of the hardtop would be an advantage. The pick is most easily pulled when the bowman is sitting on the foredeck behind the anchor well. The warp falls naturally from hand to well. Split bow rails dropping to the fairlead sides contain the warp in the fairlead, out on the bowsprit. A substantial nylon bollard is fitted. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||
| A hatch in the cabin roof can be fitted
for those who prefer to work the anchor from there. An electric capstan
could also be fitted. A good practical anchoring set up. Layout The cabin, shortened to allow for the deep anchor well, is lined with marine carpet. This boat is not really an over-nighting proposition - move up to the 609HT for that. Consequently, the bench seats come standard with carpet covered marine ply tops, perhaps more practical for day fishing than the optional upholstery package. There is stowage space underneath and in the side pockets (the passenger-side pocket is longer and runs back out into the helm station). Access to the wiring and steering behind the console is by removing four screws holding the covering plate. Further side pockets are built into the main hardtop supports. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||
| The 'screen is 5-mm tinted
glass at front and sides, with the curved corners made from perspex.
Sliding side windows are available and one had been fitted to the
test boat. It did not leak under duress. The console face was grey fibreglass, with flush-mounted Lowrance sounder and GPS and a Uniden Solara VIIF. A footrest was also moulded in. Seats were pedestal mounted, rotationally-moulded swivellers. The upholstered covers are optional. Other seating options are available. |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Decking is chequerplate right through
with tube-mat covering. Side pockets in the cockpit will take short
rods, paddles and so on. The battery (there is room for a second battery) is set up on a transom shelf, screened with a vinyl drop curtain. The oil reservoir is also there, along with the battery isolation switch. The fuel tank port is on the rear transom face - good protection against any spillage coming aboard. An aluminium guard around the fuel line under the transom protects the hose from damage caused by sliding fish bins, etc. The optional walk-through transom has an alloy drop door that can be stored in a separate bracket on the outside of the transom when not required. An optional chequerplate boarding platform with grabrail and fold-down ladder was fitted to the port side of the stern. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||
| Fishability With less beam and narrower pontoons, the 595Ht is not quite as stable as the 609HT, the broader hull of the same length. But this is all relative. With pontoon construction, the 595HT is still a lot more stable than most standard monohulls of this length. Footing is good with a tube mat over chequerplate decks. The gunwale and transom faces are flat but the deck does not extend the full beam of the boat, meeting the rising hull bottoms a little short of the sides. This means leaning forward to get gunwale support on the thighs when playing a fish. The transom is fine to fish off. |
|||||||||||||||||||
| The four nylon through-gunwale rodholders
fitted are standard. The optional baitboard set in the centre transom
will convert into a ski pole and offers two further rodholders. On
the hard- top is an optional four-position rocket launcher that also
carried lights and aerials. Diver entry looks easy, with platform
ladder, grab rail and transom walk-through, all optional extra. The
side pockets look big enough to store dive tanks, or stowage is available
in the forecabin. Also in the test boat was a 100-litre fish bin with padded top, offering extra seating and stowage, While fishing, we placed it fore and aft, against the transom allowing both of us aisles to get to the stem when playing fish. While fishing, the natural tendency was for us to sit on the wide gunwales and put our feet on the bin top. We fished Shag Rock for a while, and even though it was midday, managed a feed of pannie snapper before moving on. The boat fishes two comfortably, and would be workable for up to four anglers. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||
| Trailering Stabi-Craft come standard in most areas on Mudgway trailers, and for the 595HT, the trailer is a single axle, galvanising multi-roller, unbraked model. Some Stabi-Craft dealers offer other trailer brands, and Kev and lan's Marine prefer to use a Voyager tandem axle, cradle A-frame model with hydraulic brakes and stainless steel callipers. The Voyager was fitted with six pairs of wobble rollers per side, plus a keel-entry roller. A wind-down pneumatic jockey wheel is fitted, as is a dual-ratio manual winch. The trailer is galvanised, with zinc-treated leaf-spring suspension. A nice fitting was the coupling; fitted with a reversible claw that allows it to be used with both of the different sized tow balls in common use. Rig tow weight is given as approximately 1200kg. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||
| All-in-all This boat is about as small as the practical and popular hardtop configuration can really be built on, and it is sustainable in this size largely because of the stability offered by the pontoon configuration. The 595HT is a more basic unit than some of Stabi-Craft's other offerings, but you get what you pay for in this world. A good entry-level boat for those wanting the stability, safety and load-carrying ability of a pontoon boat, coupled with the comfort of a hardtop. |
|||||||||||||||||||
 Visible in this shot are the fuel port (at bait board base), drop door in alternate stowage rack, bilge pump outlet (above outboard bracket) and transducer mounting plate. 
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
