Tested | Anglapro Core 444CSR with Suzuki 50HP 4-stroke

You get a lot of boat for $20,000 with the Anglapro Core 444 and a Suzuki 50HO 4-stroke. Steve Morgan and Dayne Taylor take one for a spin off Coffs Harbour. This rig is packaged on a single axle Dunbier trailer and comes with a welded electric motor bracket, carpet and a pair of comfortable folding seats. Here's the full write up.... Sometimes it seems overwhelming to make the step from your first boat to a bigger, more comfortable boat that expands your range, safety and fishing options. There’s literally dozens of options in this class of aluminium boat in Australia. Considering a really basic tinnie will cost you around $10,000, the guys at North Coast Boating Centre in Coff’s Harbour have set up this Anglapro Core444CSR to test. And it’s come in, as tested and drive away, from under $20,000. So what do you get for double your money? Basically, you get a painted, carpeted, more stable and capable boat with boarding steps, storage and the potential to trick it up into a real fishing machine. Let’s look at the details. The 4.5 metre hull has a 2.11 metre beam, which makes this rig very wide for its length. It means that you’ll find stability to be no problems compared with a 3.7m v-nosed tinnie. It has 3mm bottom sheet and 3mm side sheets with plenty of internal ribs to support the smooth plate gunwales. More and more aluminium boats boats the smooth sided finish nowadays. Strength used to added with clinkered sides. Before painting, this rig has the floor frames welded in, an optional bow mounted electric motor bracket and the rear boarding step and rails attached as well as a couple of internal side pockets. After being sprayed (this one was white), the carpeted floors are fitted. Finally, the team from NCBC drop it on a single axle, Australian made trailer (which you can pull around with virtually any car on the road today) and bolt on the 50HP tiller steer Suzuki outboard, which is fuelled by the remote fuel tank that’s kept out-of-sight under the rear hatch. Registered and out the door, that’s $20,000. You’ll need to add your own fishfinders and electric motor. From a fishing point of view, this is an inshore boat that you can take outside on the calm days. We took it for a spin off Coffs Harbour and a calm day with a few lumps left over from some wind elsewhere. You can watch it in action in the video version of this boat test on the Fishing Monthly Magazines YouTube channel (or by scanning the QR code on this page on your smartphone). Although there was no fuel metering equipment fitted on the boat, we did get a feel for it in a cruise up along the coast. At wide open throttle (WOT) and a top speed of just over 50km/h at 6,000rpm. Optimum cruising speed was between 4,000 and 5,000rpm and we infer well over 50km of range from the remote tank. These boats need a little weight up front to balance the ride and help the rig out of the hole. With all of the weight (battery, fuel, motor and two people) down the back, it took a little effort to get this boat up on the plane, but once you add an electric motor and some of your gear, it’ll level out nicely. I’d also add a couple of seat bases a little further forward. These can help you balance the load, but also hold the seats when you’re anchored up and drowning some baits. For more information, a test drive or just to talk about fishing around Coffs, reach out to Dane and the team at North Coast Boating Centre. www.northcoastboatingcentre.com SPECIFICATIONS Length 4.5m Beam 2.11m Depth 1.1m Bottom 3mm Sides 3mm Capacity 4 persons Hull weight (basic) 250kg PERFORMANCE RPM km/h Idle 1000 3 2000 5 3000 8 4000 24 5000 36 6000 52