SEA PRO BY MERCURY
By John Mondora

The 5 m Sea Pro by Mercury in full flight on the Mulgrave River .

Way back in what now seems like the Dreamtime, Laurie Woodbridge was the young skipper of the game fishing cruiser Sea Baby 11 . He was yet to make his mark as a world famous captain, and a legend in his own right, but even then he had strong ideas regarding boats.

He said to me, “There are only two boats in this world. One is a 40 foot game boat, and the other’s a 12 foot punt.”

Well, in one way he was right, but in another he was way off beam as virtually all boats are a compromise to some degree. The secret of owning your dream boat is the compromise has to be as close as possible to your needs and dreams while offering the best value for money.

For starters, there’s the age-old debate regarding aluminium versus fibreglass. Hey, I have one of each and love them both, but no-one will ever convince me a tin boat will ever ride as soft as a ’glass hull.

Along the Great Barrier Reef and up into Torres Strait there are hundreds of 5 m glass hulls being used as mackerel, live trout and cray dories, so when the manufacturer decided to market this hull for the recreational sector, I thought he could have a winner provided it was well designed inside and available at the right price.

Dave Powell inspects the full width ice/storage box that has a padded lid for seating. Even two giant mackerel didn’t fill it.

The interior was designed by Dave Powell of Quay Marine here in Cairns , and the end result will be marketed as Sea Pro by Mercury. Built on the Gold Coast by Wahoo Boats (and they’ve been around a long time), this 5 m fibreglass sportfishing rig looks to have a bright future.

When Dave asked me if I was interested in doing a test on it, I never hesitated, but I did stress that it would be a ‘warts and all’ affair.

The weather in north east Australia this year has been plain bloody awful, with big highs racing across the continent, and the wind seldom under 20 kts. On top of that it has been cold and drizzling all winter. Not much joy if you are a fisherman — or boat tester for that matter.

Now, you can’t do an honest boat test on a potential bluewater hull on a dam or river, so we waited and waited until finally in early August there was a small window of opportunity, and boy was it small — one day and back up to 20 to 25.

When I do boat tests I also like to have a fish and as August is mackerel time up here, we threw in a couple of rods, a few wolf herring, and a dozen garfish.

What do you do with a big mackerel and a broken gaff? You carefully wrestle it aboard onto the casting foredeck!

Dave picked us up at 5.30 am and we launched the Sea Pro at Deeral on the Mulgrave River . On the run downstream I was a little surprised at how the whisper-quiet 60 hp 4 stroke Mercury pushed this 5 m hull along. She cruised along at just under 30 kts, which I thought was excellent.

I have a 60 4 stroke Mariner (same dog, different leg action) and I love the damn thing. Top bit of machinery, I can tell you.

Out through the mouth of the river and we ran straight into a 15 kt slop on the run to the island. The centre console on the Sea Pro is set well back and you sit on the padded lid of the full-width icebox to drive. Remember, the further back you sit, the better the ride, and this was a ride to remember.

I sat in front of the console on the padded lid of a storage locker and I won’t pretend I didn’t get a jolt now and again, but compared to an alloy hull it was chalk and cheese.

From the bow the Sea Pro sports an anchor well, storage locker and a huge live bait tank (at least 100 L capacity), all with lids, and this area makes a neat casting/fish-fighting platform.

Pulled up on the sand at Russel Heads, the new Sea Pro is a neat looking, no-nonsense fishing package.

The deck is fully self-draining and the console has a small built-in tackle box and a shelf for mobile phones and the like. The battery is inside of said console.

The ice box is full width and will hold an awful lot of fish. It has bungs for easy cleaning, which is great for two reasons. One is you can make up a saltwater brine to keep your fish cool, then drain it out when onshore, or if not fishing that big box is a top dry storage area. I was impressed by this thinking. There are also two more small lidded lockers on each side of the transom.

This prototype hull wasn’t carpeted, which is great for throwing a bucket of water on the self-draining deck, but I would certainly carpet it. I found the deck became extremely slippery after a couple of hefty mackerel were dropped on it, and I was wearing proper deck shoes. Quality carpet lasts forever and is easy to hose off.

At 1.85 m, she’s not the beamiest boat in the world, but is quite good as far as room goes, rides beautifully in a slop, and turns at full speed with no hint of sliding. Jumping wakes it was just a ‘bump bump’, not the usual ‘whack whack’ of a tin boat.

Dave and Jennifer with a pair of thumper 70 lb mackerel caught during the course of the boat test. This shot also shows the neat, uncluttered internal layout of the Sea Pro.

This boat will also be at home fishing the impoundments in Queensland (we’ve even tried it at Tinaroo, where it was a joy to cast from and that 60 is perfect for a slow troll), the estuaries and long rivers of the NT as well as over this side, and the islands and reefs anywhere around our coastline on a good day. Remember, it’s 5 m not 55 m. What you have here is a very safe and versatile hull and I think it is an excellent compromise.

What will it cost? Well, with that 60 hp 4 stroke Merc, Belco trailer, hydraulic steering, around $25,000 and that’s about what an equivalent alloy hull costs. We were impressed by this boat, and if you’re in the market for a tough, easy-riding, versatile ’glass rig, best you check out the Sea Pro by Mercury.

POSTSCRIPT. Did we have a fish? Of course! Did we get a bite? Of course! Did we catch a mackerel? Of course! Were they keepers? Of course! How big were they? Seventy pounds each, and that’s a bloody big Spanish mackerel!

Ho Hum. Just another day testing boats in Paradise (despite the wind).