Moda 7500 Walkaround

The Moda 7500 Walkaround lives up to its name, being impeccably designed and incorporating more customisation than you can blink at.

If you thought flawless fibreglass finishes were impossible to achieve in aluminium plate boats, think again. We have here a locally manufactured plate boat that potentially sports some of the best glass finishes around. 

I’ve followed Moda Marine’s plate boat building for many years and would have to rate them as the top Aussie custom plate builders — and that’s a big call. Customisation, innovation, and futuristic design incorporated into every boat they build is what Moda Marine is all about. I saw that nearly a decade ago when testing their rocket ship-looking Moda BV8000 Wheelhouse centre console. There are a few definitions for the word ‘moda’ including fashionable, limited, stylish, even beautiful — and that’s exactly what these custom boats embody.

Interestingly, when you throw the Moda name around, it’s not a common name that the average Joe knows of. It’s most certainly an exclusive, or even boutique, boat brand. 

The team at Moda is committed to customisation

Dave Allen from Sam Allen Wholesale in Brisbane is one of the new owners of a custom Moda 7500, and if he’s changed from a glass boat to one of Moda’s plate boats there has to be something special about them. As a chandlery wholesaler of higher end quality gear, you can only imagine how customised and tricked-out this offshore fishing beauty is — to have spared no expense would be an understatement. 

Dave’s all about fishing — inshore, offshore, wherever, and whenever — and he’s not too bad at it either. They also sponsor a lot of the big Queensland competitions, so he was chasing a boat suitable for big offshore fishing trips out to the reef, something comfortable enough for a reasonable night kips and, of course, a showpiece to sport all their latest gear. Unfortunately, even a decent glass boat couldn’t offer the kind of customisation that he needed, and this is where Moda stepped in to produce his dream trailer boat — one that is without a doubt the envy of others. 

I jumped on for the ride when the build had already started in August 2020, and that was at the new high-tech Moda headquarters in Tingalpa, Brisbane. The Moda team was open to Dave’s custom alterations, with everything clearly mapped out from the beginning in a thorough PowerPoint presentation. Some serious innovation, chops, changes, and pretty cool mods went into the build, with the handover happening in late December 2020. All up, around five months plus of sweat, tears, the odd evening beers, and flat-stick fabrication went on. The final result? Read on. 

A plethora of gear and extras went in this Moda 7500, so I’ll try to keep it as brief as possible, but that’s probably not going to happen. To start, it’s a showboat of note and I really do like the lines of this hull, or those of any Moda hulls for that matter. The flared bow has a touch of American styling to it, but rather than having a soft shearline tapering to the stern, Moda have the cockpits coaming/gunwale levelling out on a straight plane to the stern, and I really like the look and practicality. The hard-top has a good blend of sharp and soft lines with tinted screens and having the dark blue hull with white certainly adds an executive and stylish look.

Moda specialises in aluminium plate boats

As for the customisations, well I reckon Dave threw some solid curveballs at the Moda team. To start, the bells, whistles, and extra fancy gadgets included an innovative stern set-up with extended port and starboard swim platforms. I must say that I do like the rail/cage extensions with built-in boarding ladders. The rails are at the same height to the gunnels, and have the extra rod-holders and live-bait tubes clamped on as well as an extra fishing and diving platform. 

The transom is set up with a nice, oversized bait-board that included drawer for tackle, plumbed tap with drain, stainless drink-holders, and extra rod-holders. There’s port and starboard 800gph plumbed live-wells with front viewing glass, a clip-in rear bench, and dual raised battery hatches with access to plumbing.

For clean-ups they installed a full Shurflo 18.9L/m deck wash with the freshwater option, along with Sam Allen Wholesale’s push timer tap for hand wash down — this is the weird-looking push button built into the coaming on the starboard gunwale. Give it a push, lean over the gunwale, and wash your slimy hands with ease. This eliminates those close calls overboard when trying to wash hands in the ocean over a high gunwale. 

The spacious cockpit dance floor suits game and bottom fishing alike and Dave opted to upgrade the floodable port and starboard insulated kill-tanks to 1100mm with Gemlux friction hinges, suiting big fish and extra storage space. Another large, floodable, and insulated ice box for fish and drinks was also flush-mounted into the deck against the stern. Note the snapper and 10kg kings comfortably loaded into it.

The full decks and wide coamings were finished in Seadek and professionally installed by Machine It in Brisbane. I’ve taken note of the wear and tear on mate’s boats with SeaDek, and it seems to have fairly good durability, so it’s something I’m considering installing on my boat.

Dave's boat features extended swim platforms

The gunwales have massive side pockets with toe-locks, with the rest of the boats fishing bling including a set of Reelax Game fishing and Marine’s Reef 450 riggers with 3K carbon 5.5m Grander series poles, a deluxe centre rigger, 3K carbon 3m grander series centre rigger, twin clamp on ‘Panther’ slimy tubes to the rear rails, the new Relaxn weld-in alloy Mako series rod/drink holders, and a Reelax stainless steel deck plate mounted to the floor that houses the Reelax Light tackle station or NFC80lb game chair.      

Moving forward, the 8500 Moda walkaround hardtop was then a perfect fit with the wider cab, providing close to 400mm of extra sun and rain protection. This mod was necessary to suit the new wider Mako series bucket seats installed, and although that mod restricts the cab walkaround area slightly, I do prefer the extra space within the cab. 

Considerable time went into the cab and hard-top design, with drainage being incorporated into the grab-rails and the hidden rear-facing sonar being a favourite mod of mine. Mounted to the rear underside of the hard-top on the starboard side, the sonar panel has an electronic actuator that with the touch of a button opens and closes to allow viewing whilst fishing from the cockpit/stern. The hard-tops screen also had a Roca wet arm wiper system, the new range Mako series LED spotlights, grab-rails, and rocket-launchers installed.

Back to seating. The new Relaxn Mako series sports bucket seats were installed onto the Shark shock mitigation base on the driver’s side, with a Relaxn F170 base on the passenger side. Not that the smooth riding hull needs it, but man, these bases make it feel like you’re sitting on cotton wool. 

Adding to the bling and creature comforts, the port seat box had a 30L Dometic fridge drawer to keep the beers cold, along with an innovative S.A.W (Sam Allen Wholesale) two-tray black tackle locker and a custom made Plaztek drawer. The top of the seat box has a hinged lid with plenty of storage below, and is also used as a rear seat.

The layout is highly customisable

The starboard seat box then has another two-tray tackle locker, four-tray tackle locker, and recessed black fire extinguisher holder. The top of this seat box is smaller than the port due to the fitment of the Shark Shock mitigation base; however, they still managed to customise it to suit the portable gas cooker for the overnight trips.

Onto the helm configuration, and again it’s another well thought-out and designed area to the 7500. Dave went big with a full-on Garmin setup consisting of the 16in 8416XSV installed into the dash and 10in 8410XSV (rear hard-top mount), coupled with a SS175–1kW thru-hull transducer fitted to the hull using a step-down collar, as well as GT51M Chirp transom mount transducer, reading clearly at 28 knots. The system then links to the GMR24-XHD radar, a Reactor 40 autopilot system, VHF 215I and a big Fusion sound system MS-RA670 head unit with two sets of fusion 7.7in speakers and one set of 6.5in speakers. It’s integrated electronics at its finest.

The helm/dash was also set up with the Ultraflex Masterdrive power assist steering, Lenco limited space trim-tabs with LED switch panel, a waterproof Relaxn glove box with the USB charging port on the port side.

By now you would be on beer number five with this list of gadgets onboard, but there’s still a few more items worth a mention, including the Caframo Bora fan in the cabin for the warm nights and stylish twin-stitch trimming throughout. The Pro Mariner two bank charger was installed near the batteries for an easy plug and charge, as well as 135W flexible solar panel on roof adding to top up charge throughout the day. The added Tuff TW240 Drum winch, Mansom Supreme Stainless anchor, and Relax rope and chain kit then took anchoring to the next level. The rope even has glow-in-the-dark fleck incorporated, as well as the chain being stainless steel. 

The weapon of choice

On the performance side, I had my doubts about the Suzuki 300hp being the weapon of choice for 7500 simply due to what goes into this beast — 475L of fuel, 120L of water, the larger cab, and all the other gear would no doubt pack on some extra weight, and it did. She tows at just under the max rating when fully loaded with gear. 

The Suzuki 300hp V6 is a fantastic motor all round, however it certainly didn’t have the grunt it would have on a lighter boat. Hole shot was more of a smooth transition to plane and up to wide-open throttle. I also found that you were in the higher end of the rev range at comfortable cruise speeds varying between 25–30 knots, adding a bit to economy. The Modas are not designed as gentleman’s cruisers, they are offshore weapons that eat up a decent swell, chop, and wind at speed. 

The ride? Well, this thing sliced up any form of chop and provided a comfortable, stable, and buttery ride at all speeds. It’s bloody impressive to say the least. I was surprised at the 22-degree deadrise producing such a soft ride. The outer chines are also not as aggressive and heavily reversed as other plate boats out there, which is normally done to create better stability and a dryer ride. In this case, the 7500 doesn’t seem to need that. She throws a bit of spray, but it’s deflected well enough to avoid hitting the screens or transom area. As for stability, I found it nice and comfortable both at rest and underway. 

On the performance side the 7500 tops out at 38.8kt/6000rpm, with economy sitting at 96L/h. Dropping back to a comfortable cruise of around 31 knots gets you 59L/h at 5000rpm, while a mellow cruise of 23 knots will give you 34L/h at 3900rpm. 

Fishing is the name of the game

Again, the 300 Suzi is a great motor, but I felt it was definitely working harder than usual to push this loaded beast around. Personally, I reckon a pair of 140s or 150s would be the winner, or the new Suzuki 350hp V6 duo-prop. Interestingly, as I sit writing this up, a new 350hp V6 Suzi duoprop is being fitted and, if the stars align, I’ll make sure I get a spin and the new performance figures into the feature. 

THE WRAP

What can I say? Besides the fact that the team at Moda Marine is ridiculously dedicated to customisation and producing some incredibly innovative and immaculately finished plate boats, this boat is tricked up to the max with accessories and bling — and I’ve only touched on what’s onboard. I’ve seen some of Moda’s larger cats and other mono-hulls customised to suit cruising with even higher-end luxury finishes. Their heavy-duty custom trailers are also pieces of aluminium art. 

Custom rigs like these most certainly don’t come at the budget price of a tinny, and you get what you pay for. Dave’s added bling tacks on a serious number of digits to the final price, and this takes the 7500 Walkaround to the next level. It’s a dream boat, one that will be used for dedicated offshore fishing and numerous overnighters out to the reefs off 1770 and the like for many years to come, as well as serving as his perfect Moreton Bay family boat. 

I really couldn’t fault much. If anything, the only let down was the 300hp being a bit underpowered to suit this hefty fishing weapon.

Getting to the good fishing spots is easy with this dash

SUZUKI 350HP V6

When it comes to outboard motor horsepower, I’m a firm believer that more is better, and this is prime example. 

The tested Moda 7500 Walkaround had a Suzuki 300hp fitted and although being a fantastic motor, it just didn’t have the punch and grunt needed to push this big beast. Dave realised this quick and upgraded to a Suzuki 350hp V6 Duoprop (counter rotating props), and all I can say is duck-yeah!

We made it at the death of mag deadlines and the virgin 350’s test included a pre-sunrise start to a 14–18kt SE day on Moreton Bay. The motor was gently nurtured to start, and I had my first throttle attempt later in the day, out of the wind and in the lee of Stradbroke Island. Hole-shot? Well, the Suzuki 350hp Duoprop put an instant smile to my dial. It’s punchy and definitely has more grunt with a light growl and crackle to it. On the plane the acceleration is super responsive and fast throughout the rev-range to wide open throttle. I think I was more stoked than Dave with the result! 

So, the power was significantly better, but what about economy? Well, I had predicted the 350hp to be at least equal, or even better than the 300hp and when comparing the speed versus revs and economy, well the 350hp is better and should get even better once the motors run in. To give you an idea, the optimum cruise speed of 27kt had the 300hp sitting at 4500rpm, with fuel burn at 43.47L/h. The 350hp at 27kt sat at 4000rpm with fuel burn sitting at 40.9L/h. So, the revs already sit far lower on the 350hp throughout the range, economy is better, and the wear and tear would most certainly be less over time.

What’s the difference between the motors as they are both V6? Well, I can’t go into the finer details due to limited space, however, a few items include the 350hp having a higher 4.4L displacement, a higher max output of 257.4kW, a slightly higher bore and stroke, and a gear ratio of 2.29:1 versus 2.08:1 on the 300hp. Theres numerous other upgrades to the 350hp Suzuki that give it the edge and again, this is one of the better upgrades I’ve seen that dramatically improves every aspect of performance and it looks far sexier.

It's primed for its job

FACTS & FIGURES

PRICE AS TESTED

$295,000 (approximate)

OPTIONS FITTED

Includes Suzuki DF250APX, and standard production trailer

PRICED FROM

$255,413

GENERAL

Type Offshore Fishing 

Material Plate aluminium 

Length 7.5m (24ft 7in)

Beam 2.5m (8ft 2in)

Weight under 3500kg 

Deadrise 22 degrees

CAPACITIES

People 7

Berths Bow V-berth

Rec. HP 300-350hp

Max. HP 350hp

Fuel 475L

Water fresh 120L

ENGINE

Make/model DF300APX

Type DOHC 24 Valve

Weight 290kg

Displacement 4028cm³

Gear ratio 2.08:1

Propeller Watergrip 16in x18.5in

MANUFACTURED BY 

Moda Marine

75 Proprietary St, Tingalpa QLD 4178

Ph 07 3390 8114 or 0488663280

E sales@modamarine.com.au

W modamarine.com.au 

SUPPLIED BY 

Dave Allen (Sam Allen Wholesale) 

W samallen.com.au