Boat Review Date: November 2010
Author: Mike Brown

Overview

Coraline has logic for most of the name of their new bream boat. The 550 is logical because it is 5.5 metres long; similarly the Tournament – this is a competition boat – but the Stealth inserted between them? Fair enough it’s black and low slung, but the outrageous artwork and the 100hp pushing it? This is not a subtle boat.

If you want to get really unsubtle you can specify 150hp, which would very likely fail to keep you under the radar. But you could always drop a few tens of knots by engaging the optional electric thruster. Ah! That must be the stealth.

The thruster is just one component of a single minded fit-out: bream beware when this boat turns up. Or any other fish within a few miles of the coast come to that – this is not just a brackish water boat. The low freeboard is a limiter, but the hull is capable of coping with quite nasty chop; a sharp forefoot and a 15deg deadrise handle that.

The hull’s most outstanding feature is its stability, which is phenomenal. You can literally stand on the gunwale, with no one else in the boat to ballast it, and still not get a worrying heel. Not that you would want to do that, but it ensures a steady boat when two or three people are moving about in it. One welcome feature, thanks perhaps to the big knuckles at the bow that continue aft as reversed chines, is dryness: water is thrown out horizontally rather than upwards.

The layout is side console, making the most of the 2.1m beam - there is plenty of fishing space alongside it to port. The boat comes with just one pedestal seat as standard (and an extremely comfortable one it is), and the obvious place this spends much of its time is behind the console with the driver in it. But sockets abreast of it to port and another in the bow platform give a choice of positions. To save arguments it would clearly make sense to buy one or two more seats.

The console is a small structure so the clear deck area is large for the boat’s dimensions, but below this open space is an abundance of fishing desirables. The bow platform has a big volume below it, mostly taken up by an enormous wet or dry locker that could take slurry for a non-competition day. The vertical surface at the break of the platform houses tackle drawers. The battery, anchor and cable are housed in lockers ahead of the wet locker.

Mid deck further aft has the main catch tank beneath it. 80L in capacity, it has a removable plate dividing it in two, and is equipped with an electric circulating pump.

Although there is a limited number of official seats, casual seating abounds. The break of the platform offers room for at least three on carpet, and a similar number has generous space across the top of the lockers right aft. Filters and battery live within these lockers, but there is room left over for all the gear three or four people could bring aboard. There is also a very tricky gadget sharing the space: a Volt-sensitive relay. This organises the battery charging; it ensures the starting battery gets first use of the alternator’s output, but once it is nicely topped up diverts the charge to the thruster’s battery.

Coraline handled the Stealth’s detail well. The gunwale is polished rather than simply left bare; cleats are pop up; the paintwork is beautifully done as well as being eye-catching. Which it certainly is: the boat was a magnet for spectators at Hillarys.

With our 100hp speed was way up in the 30s. Despite its 4mm plate throughout this is a light boat and easily driven, but it is not skittish: point it and it holds its line. Response to trim is good, and the hydraulic steering delightfully light.

Coraline builds an astonishing number of models, and this is probably the most specialised yet. But of course it does not have to be just a bream boat. There is nothing to stop you hauling crab pots over the side, and it could be the other man’s perfect barra boat. It would look cool parked outside anybody’s house.

Lowdown

Price as reviewed         $49,860

Price from                   $40,958

Hull length                  5.5m

Beam                          2.15m

Fuel capacity               100L

Motor fitted                 100hp Yamaha 4-stroke