TERRITORY MARINE OCEAN MASTER 551

Not the best of days for testing rough water performance, but it gave us a good chance to let the Ocean Master 551 have its head.

Winners in the prestigious Australian Marine Industry Federation awards tend to be boats from established industry institutions, so Territory Marine's achievement in being runner-up in the custom-built boat category to a Norman Wright Custom 47 Passagemaker can't be overstated. In case you don't know, a Norman Wright is a big, plush and very expensive cruiser.

All things considered, this commendation is an absolute credit to Territory Marine's workmanship, to their excellence in engineering, to the outstanding inherent safety of the Ocean Master design and, in the end, to an Ocean Master hull's remarkable over-water performance. It’s no wonder then that over 200 Ocean Masters have been delivered in just 2 years.

The console is extremely well laid out and practical — as they are on all Territory Marine boats.

As one doting owner I spoke to recently put it, "you don't go for a run in one of these boats without coming away totally stoked!" The Ocean Master 551 seen in the accompanying photos is a typical example of why Territory Marine is an ongoing success story.

The distinctive looks of an Ocean Master hull's ‘pontoons’ actually go unnoticed when you're aboard. Unusually for a boat test, after a week of strong winds we scored flat calm conditions so weren't able to ‘test’ the ride beyond some wake hopping. We did, however, manage a trial run with 4 blokes with a combined weight of 280 kg along one side to find ‘Science Fiction’ quite unmoved by treatment that would have freaked a lesser craft out completely.

The bow area has heaps of storage underneath, with plenty of room for a big insulated ice box.

All Ocean Master boats are custom fitted out to an individual client's specifications and this one was no different. Like all Ocean Master boats it featured a couple of Territory Marine signatures. One was the huge front opening door on the centre console — all the better to service instrumentation and electronics, and the wiring loom to supply them — and to maximise storage space.

Another was a solenoid switched fresh/raw water washdown. Keeping an Ocean Master tidy inside despite a crew with a predilection for tramping goop inboard and depositing slimy, bleeding fish on the deck is a work of moments with this system. That an Ocean Master deck self-drains through substantial scuppers helps, too!

Pictures tell a more accurate story about how well this Ocean Master 551 was set out, but the giant size anchor locker, cavernous under-deck storage (including dedicated space for a big icebox), aren't readily visible and must be mentioned. As does a huge fish box accessed from a hatch behind the console and running forward of it. The console was mounted well aft to maximise usable fishing space.

One very important thing not evident in photos though, is the high standard of welding throughout the boat. Good welds are obviously fundamental to a sound aluminium boat. To an observant eye they're one of the best indications why one brand is a better proposition than another in the long run — and another reason to join hundreds of happy owners fishing from Ocean Masters!

Whether travelling or at rest, the stability of Ocean Master hulls is just phenomenal.