Chris Fowler has always had a strong bond with the ocean. From his early years riding the waves and making surfing videos through to his current passion, chasing tuna and other pelagics, whiting and squid, he’s always been particular with his gear.

His search to upgrade from his last 6.8m boat led him to the Northbank brand and in particular, the 750HT (hard top).

“This is my first Northbank and I’d seen them in magazines and at the boat show,” he said. “I liked the look of the boat and when I took this model for a test drive, I was sold that day. It did exactly what I wanted it to do … and more.”

His last boat let lots of water through to the cockpit, so the layout of the Northbank suited him well. The cockpit remains very dry in all but the most challenging conditions. The test day was anything but challenging - a near-zero wind forecast let us out through the head and we got to spend a few hours trolling for southern bluefin.

We didn’t hook any, but spent the time following flocks of birds, chatting about the rig and marking plenty of fish on the sounder.

Like all Northbank 750s we have been in, there’s a massive amount of space in this boat. Let’s work from the transom forward.

The boat is powered by a pair of V-6, 200HP Mercury 4-stroke outboards, which cruise effortlessly and really pin the ears back when you drop the throttles.

“They’re really good on fuel, unless you want to punch it, then you’re paying,” Chris said when asked about the economy, “and also I like having two motors when I’m offshore.”

The cockpit has been set up my Melbourne Marine Centre to have everything places exactly where Chris wanted it.

There’s a couple of bait tanks, plenty of rod holders, outriggers and some clever storage options in all of the seats - the ones outside feature insulated, dry storage and the ones inside a mix of tackle storage options - all held securely behind closing doors.

Chris has all of the shelves filled with the fishing essentials - including ice-filled kill bags on the deck.

When we slowed in the vicinity of flocks of birds, the rods went out in his standard spread with ease and we trolled through tuna marking on the sounder.

Occasionally one would break the surface nearby, teasing us constantly.

Chris is adamant that the cabin doors are a great addition to the boat and there’s a clever sunshade straight above them that extends protection from the sun a lot forther back that the standard hard top does.

He joked about being so short that there needed to be a zip-out section in the middle so that he can access rods in the rocket launcher. It’s there and it works.

At the helm, there’s a selection of electronics befitting the no-holds-barred setup. He uses his Furuno MFD to navigate a bracket-mounted unit on the dash to mark fish. And he shows them passing under the boat with the confidence of an angler who has seen many before.


The rig travels on a local, custom built Savage trailer that’s fitted with carpeted wooden bunks instead of the standard rollers.

I trailer it behind my 200 Series (Landcruiser) and I’ve got a Savage trailer on the back,” he said, “I wouldn’t have any other trailer bar that one on the back of it.”

We’re unsure if we can release the ‘as tested’ price on this rig … the missus may be reading it and we do have to look after a fishing brother. You can get more information on a rig just like it, though, by taking to Andrew Stephen and the team at Melbourne Marine Centre.

Thanks for the ride in this weapon of a boat, Chris … we hope that tour next trip is more productive than ours.





SPECIFICATIONS

Length 7.37m
Overall Length 7.67m
Beam 2.45 m
Height on trailer 3.20m
Length on trailer 8.7m
Capacity 8 persons
Maximum HP 400 HP
Hull weight 1650kg
Fuel 350L
Deadrise 21degrees
Freeboard 1.0m
Transom length 25 inches

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