THE boating market in Australia features several mass-manufactured boats that are household brands within fishing circles. In contrast, there are an endless number of small operations turning out quality boats without much hooha – these boats are often largely unknown outside their own back yards.
At this year’s launch of Yamaha’s new Offshore V6 outboard range a boat that probably fits into the latter category caught my eye. It was perhaps more noticeable from other boats on the water as it was – to me at least – an unfamiliar brand. And importantly from a Boat Fishing perspective it looked a serious mid-sized fishing platform. Interestingly, it also sported twin Yamaha F70A four-stroke outboards.
Plating up
On closer inspection the boat revealed itself as a Vindicator plate alloy 550 hardtop cuddy cabin. Three of us jumped on board the solid looking flat-sided platie as its skipper backed it up to the dock. As we busily moved around the boat’s carpeted cockpit for a close look the Vindicator’s attitude wasn’t upset in the least – it felt assuringly stable for what at 5.5m wasn’t a particularly big boat.
Another pleasing aspect of the Vindicator was the attention to detail the manufacturer has instilled in the finished product. Everywhere you look around the boat it becomes clear extra effort has been made to make sure the workable layout and the boat’s features are functional and aesthetically pleasing.
This quality is no doubt the result of the time taken over each Vindicator boat – at present the builder is turning one out roughly every 12 weeks.
Underway, the Vindicator 550 felt solid and planted on the water, even as its passengers moved around on board, pawing at its features, taking it all in. The aforementioned attention to detail was evident in aspects such as the placement of grab rails around the boat that handily seemed to be close to hand wherever needed. On this, one aspect I particularly liked, but taller boaties may not, was the reasonably low height of the cabin hardtop that makes hanging on to the overhead grab rails while travelling a cinch. This would be particularly handy when standing in the rear deck as the boat negotiated choppy seas.
For a 5.5m boat the cabin is pretty roomy. Thanks to a combination of large glass windscreen panels and clip-in side skirts there’s good vision forward and reasonable weather protection on offer for anyone within the cab confines. The cabin seats are the functional and common swivelling seat -on-storage-box variety – comfy padded Rae-Lines in this case. The cabin itself has a reasonable amount of room and storage space for a boat of this size; its 1.8m bunks also offer enough length for the occasional lie down or overnight fishing trip.
For a medium sized cuddy cab, the Vindicator’s walkaround section is of a practical, welcome width that makes accessing the bow a cinch – testing this out while underway also showed the hardtop rails help out in this regard.
Design vindication
Tracking down the builder for some background on the 550 confirmed it had been designed and built with fishing primarily in mind. Vindicators are manufactured in Gympie in Central Queensland where a small but successful family-based business has been quietly going along its merry way since the 1960s. Frank Watson of Watson’s Marine Centre is largely responsible for the final product. Watson, according to wife Denise, takes great pride in not cutting corners when he builds boats. She told Boat Fishing he also makes the effort to personally test his boats in conditions fishos along Queensland’s Fraser Coast regularly come up against. The testing in this case doesn’t get much more rigorous than beach launching from Fraser Island; an activity Watson and his son Glenn regularly undertake.
Denise Watson also told Boat Fishing Frank has a liking for fitting twin outboards to his boats, in a bid to cover the “just in case“ safety aspect of venturing far offshore. Despite the reliability and niceties of modern outboards their complexity can pose problems for non-mechanical types if the unlikely event of a breakdown occurs. In this situation an extra engine to get you home sure would be nice … Watson also likes the extra stability afforded by an extra donk on the stern.
A stint at the wheel during the Yamaha Offshore outboard launch left me impressed with the Vindicator. While I found the dual throttle controls for its F70s a little on the stiff side, the boat’s driving position gets a big tick. It offers excellent vision around the boat and definitely suits shorter drivers like myself. The twin Yammie 70s had the boat up and planing reasonably quickly and smoothly eating up the water.
Speed figures recorded on the day:
13 knots @ 3500rpm (20.9 Litres per hour)
18.9kts @ 4000rpm (22.4 lph)
22.1kts @ 4500rpm (26.7 lph)
24.9 kts @ 5000rpm (32.0 lph)
30.8 kts @ 5800rpm (43.8 lph)
34.0 kts @ 6300rpm WOT (63.0 lph)
As mentioned, the hull delivers a “solid” feel, which you’d expect from an 880kg hull with 5mm thick plate bottom and 4mm sides. With a 17 degree deadrise the hull couldn’t be called sporty, but it certainly adds to its stability at rest. On a reasonably calm day the hull’s prominent chine seemed to do a credible job of diverting spray away from the boat as we shot across the Gold Coast Broadwater. It also tackled chop and boat wake around the seaway entrance at speed without fuss or banging; average bumps in the water did little to upset the Vindicator. Given more time I would’ve loved to see how it handled the lumpiness of the sea beyond the seaway entrance. Unfortunately, too many others on the day were keen for a spin on the Vindicator…
Fishing friendly
The Vindicator 550 is well decked out for fishing duty. The rear cockpit looks and feels roomy thanks to a 2.45m beam and reasonable gunwale height for propping the legs against while dropping a line – padded coamings would be a nice addition here. The gunwales feature four flush-mount rod holders; a rocket launcher wasn’t fitted to the hardtop but should be available as an option. Failing that, mounting an aftermarket launcher to the uppermost rail shouldn’t be a problem. There are six rod holders on hand fitted to a well designed bait station sitting over the transom. The station itself is wider than most and features two hinged cutting boards with storage below for bait, knives and rigs.
The rear deck also has a plumbed kill tank astern that drains into the bilge. A neat clip-in curtain arrangement provides weather protection for the battery shelf and its ancillaries. Rounding out the rear cockpit are full length side pockets for easy storage of often used items such as nets, boat hooks and ropes.
Plate boats in this size range don’t come built much better than Vindicator’s 550. While one will cost you around $79,000 fitted with dual 70hp outboards, going for a single 115hp sees the cost drop to $73,750 – that includes a Belco multi-roller trailer. Like me, you may not have heard of Vindicator boats previously, but if you’re in the market for a well-built plate boat they’re well worth checking out.
