Bar Crusher | 2015 Melbourne Boat Show
Bar Crusher 490 boats priced at around mid $30,000.
Two new models available: Bar Crusher 490 Cuddy and 490 WC.
New Bar Crusher boats were 12 months in the making and were built using 3d computer modelling.
The outright bargain of the 2015 Melbourne Boat Show had to be the 490 range of Bar Crusher boats. We knew heading into the show they were going to carry a mid $30,000 price for a typical boat/motor/trailer package. However, once we saw Bar Crusher’s version of “typical”, we agreed these were bargains.
Bar Crusher 490 tinnies
The Bar Crusher 490 C and WR boats exhibited at the 2015 Melbourne Boat Show were fully painted, had marine electronics sounders, seat upholstery and Easytow trailers, and carried a 60 hp Suzuki four-stroke outboard motor. And at what price? $34,890 for all that. The competition has a bit to catching up to do.
“We try to engineer things better and differently for better performance. I guess we’ve carried that design philosophy into some sub-5m boats,” Bar Crusher’s Peter Cleland told Trade-a-Boat at the boat show.
“We’re not trying to take over the world; we just want to just produce a good quality product that’s well engineered, well designed, and performs really nicely for the customer. It’s the Bar Crusher philosophy, just carrying it into these sub-5m boats,” he says.
Bar Crusher 490 Cuddy
One of the two new 490 Bar Crusher boats, the 490 Cuddy is a cleverly thought out trailer boat that, like all cuddy boats, has a wide range of fishing and recreational applications.
It was designed for easy storing and towing (when Trade-a-Boat tested the Bar Crusher 490C earlier this year, we recorded an 850kg BMT weight), while harnessing Bar Crusher’s design and engineering know-how for a hull that rides well and remains stable via its water ballast tanks. “You can even stand on the sidedecks of these Bar Crusher 490 boats and be quite stable, which doesn’t occur in all boats,” says Peter Cleland.
“It’s a premium offer. The Bar Crusher 490 C is for those who want a little bit more protection. It might be mum and dad with young kids or an older couple or a guy on his own. It’s very easy to handle, be it bays, estuaries, or close inshore in reasonable conditions,” he says.
Bar Crusher 490 WR
The Bar Crusher 490 WR (Walkaround) is the second of these new sub-5m aluminium fishing boats. Being a centre console, it’s obviously geared towards dedicated fishermen. The console itself is well proportioned to the rest of the boat and incorporates three levels of storage.
More than anything, it’s an open boat made for dedicated anglers. “Nothing beats the fishability of an open boat,” says Peter.
Like the Bar Crusher 490 C, the 490 WR hull uses the Bar Crusher Quickflow water ballast system for added stability, while the pointy end uses what Bar Crusher calls its Wavealicer hull. “It has no strakes, a good level of vee so it cuts nicely, and a good level of deadrise,” says Peter Cleland.
Bar Crusher 490 price
“We’re being very competitive with these boats,” says Peter Cleland. “We realise it’s a very competitive end of the market. That mid $30,000 is where we think it should be. Initial interest has been really good and we’ve already take some orders,” he told us on the first day of the boat show.