REVIEW: Bar Crusher 575C
A woman's perspective... he's a very cunning fellow my husband. Sometimes he will make decisions entirely on his own and subsequently draws me in to make it appear as if it was a joint decision.
So it was that I was dragged off to the 2006 Melbourne Boat Show to "examine a range of options" to replace our ageing craft. We duly went through the facade of carefully inspecting a range of different makes and models, talking to salesmen, listening to their spiel, making all sorts of enquiries before finally moving to the Bar Crusher stand.
It was here, that hubby suddenly turned from browser to salesman and I was the target – for a bloke that supposedly, had just come across this craft – a 530C (now 575C) he certainly knew a lot about it and the people manning the stand didn't appear to be talking to a complete stranger, before I knew it the signature was on the dotted line and we were on our way.
Was I resentful about having being taken for a ride?
Not on your life, the sales spiel was a complete waste of time, I fell in love with the boat the minute I laid eyes on it and nothing that's happened in the last 12 months has changed my mind.
I won't go on about the sleek stylish look or try to sound terribly technical about the water ballast, the airtight sub-floor system, the beautifully quiet Suzuki four-stroke, kill tank, plumbed live bait tank, removable cutting board, dual battery system, accessible fuel tank and filter and all the other wonderful features built into this craft, I'm sure they can be found elsewhere on the Bar Crusher website.
The things that I'm most concerned with are: safety, reliability and comfort, those things the Bar Crusher delivers in spadefuls. This boat is not trying to cover the entire market. It's built for fishing by people who understand what's required with an eye to every minute detail and as one of the staff pointed out when we were picking it up "the boat is rock solid, if you find yourself being flung-about, you can literally grab hold of anything safe in the knowledge that it won't come away in your hands".
I'm certainly no boating expert but I can tell when a boat feels right. For a metal boat I find it extremely stable, it's a lot smoother in a chop than other aluminium boats I've experienced, we find it reasonably easy to handle at the ramp and towing is no problem.
As well as fairly routine fishing around Western Port and Port Philip Bay, we find ourselves negotiating McLoughlins Beach bar in South Gippsland quite often which at times can be quite a hair-raising experience, whilst we are fairly cautious and carefully pick our days, as can happen, we have on a couple of occasions been caught-out by unexpected weather changes and whilst it hasn't exactly been death-defying stuff, I was quietly glad that it was the mighty Bar Crusher taking us back over that bar.
To sum it all up: we haven't had a moment's regret with the purchase of this boat. It's great dealing with the owners of a well-run business and not some shiny-pants salesman who's just sold you something and never wants to hear from you again. Peter and Warren Cleland are very helpful people. The only regret I have about my Bar Crusher is that we can't find the time to use it nearly as much as I would like to.
Paulette
Victoria
