Johnno: I’m John Meguerian, I live in south-west Sydney and I’ve been fishing for probably 25 years. I started when I was quite young with my father fishing offshore. At the moment I predominantly do offshore work, chasing marlin, sharks, and tuna.
I’d owned two boats prior to this one. I had a 12ft tinnie and then I upped to a 5m bow rider, and now I’ve got this beauty. I’ve got a 670C and she pretty much will go anywhere and do anything I want to do.
I chose the Bar Crusher because it’s big enough to do what I want to do, but not too big to do what I want to do, if you know what I mean? It’s a large enough boat for me to take offshore and still manage by myself and just the smooth ride of the plate hull is brilliant.
I first saw a Bar Crusher in 2010 at the boat show at the Blakes Marine stand and I told my partner then that I would endeavour to get one. It took me about 12 months to save for the Bar Crusher and I went back at the end of 2011 and ordered it. I took delivery in 2012 and I’ve never looked back.
Maintenance-wise, she’s a dream. She’s easy to keep clean; a quick hose and it’s all over.
The Bar Catch is absolutely brilliant. It makes it so easy for me launch and retrieve by myself or with an inexperienced crew.
The deck layout having so much space compared to other trailer boats of its size. Other boats don’t have the four rod holders down the gunwales, and the wide gunwales are great to sit on during long days fishing. The boys love them.
I’ve got a pretty regular crew now of about four people that rotate with me. They love the boat, they’ll go anywhere in the boat. My first yellowfin tuna, my 66kg yellowfin I got, I fought it for about an hour, me and a good mate of mine — first time he’d been offshore fishing, so that was a day in the boat I’ll never forget. It was his first day behind the wheel while I fought the fish, so that was pretty memorable.
She’s brought us back in some pretty rough seas. Some memorable moments in storms with lightening and wind but you can’t stop a Bar Crusher!
I’d definitely buy another one.
I’ll keep this for as long as I can and then probably get into a bigger Bar Crusher.
