Advice & Info: Marco 760 Sou'wester

Since purchasing Marco boats from aluminium boat building pioneer Graham Ransom in 2003, the Horne family – Dayne Horne and his parents Helen and Bryan – have taken the marque a long way.

The family has an engineering background and a life history of boat building. The company is still based in the Waikato town of Morrinsville, and Bob Jarvie runs the day-to-day manufacturing. Marco Boats are represented nationwide by a network of eighteen dealers (for details see www.marcoboats.co.nz).

The largest hull in the Marco range is the 760 Sou’wester, a hardtop designed for stay-away trips and bluewater work. I travelled to Waiuku on the southern shores of the Manukau Harbour to meet up with Waiuku Marine’s Dave Vare. Waiuku Marine is a Marco dealer, and Dave has been running a 760 as a personal boat for over a year now, taking it across the unpredictable Manukau Bar on a regular basis and using it for bottom fishing, bluewater trolling and family trips. He and his son proved its gamefishing potential by scoring a nice stripie out of it last season.

Our original plan was to cross the bar, try the boat, and tackle some of those big west coast reds, but it was not to be. The forecast ramped up from the initial 10 knots to over 20 – ironically also a sou’wester. On a run-out tide it was crappy enough in the harbour, and a wall of white water visible through the entrance sealed the decision to stay inside. There was plenty of sea in the high-current areas in which to try the boat, and it was a good opportunity to explore that side of the harbour, made famous in Mavis Brambley’s classic book Sea Cockies of the Manukau. We even managed to catch some snapper.

Construction

The 760 Sou’wester features 5mm bottoms and transom, and 4mm sides and topsides, adding up to a 1400kg hull. It has a modest 17° deadrise and downturned chines, with no planing strakes required.

Eight full-length stringers of 5mm aluminium give longitudinal stiffening, and eight bulkheads provide lateral support. Bottom construction sees the two bottom plates fully seam welded to a keel bar internally, with full seam welding at the keel-line externally. Chines have the side and bottom plates butted up and fully seam welded, inside and out.

Marco has rated the reserve buoyancy at 700kg, and this hull is CPC rated for six adults. It can be built to survey if required, and inboard versions are available.

Power and performance

The hull specifications list the Marco 760’s hull weight as 1400kg and the maximum recommended horsepower as 250hp. The test boat had a Honda 225hp four-stroke hung on the back, turning a 17-inch pitch four-blade prop. This turns out 35 knots (65 kilometres per hour) at top revs of 6300. Dave told me that fitting a foil to the cavitation plate gave optimum performance.

This big rig almost has a launch-like feel and cruises nicely around 22 knots. It comes on and off plane smoothly and progressively, and even in the metre-odd standing waves out near the entrance there was no sign of any bow-steer or broach, as befits a bar boat. The hull is a soft rider, the enclosed cabin offers plenty of shelter, and by driving to the conditions we had a comfortable ride. Downhill, running with the swell, the ride and level of control was excellent, with plenty of lift in the bow.

The HiDrive Admiral hydraulic steering handled the big engine easily, and I particularly liked the Lectrotab trim-tab controls with their clear indications of where each tab was, and which way the hull was going to react when an alteration is made. 

Anchoring

It is a reasonably easy climb around the cabin sides to the bow, with plenty of handrails and a substantial bow rail. There was no anti-skid finish, but if you want it, it is easy to add during construction or with after-market panels.

There is actually little need to go up on the bow for anchoring purposes – a Sarca anchor is permanently mounted in a substantial bowsprit, and a Quick windlass is fitted with a helm control. This feeds into an anchor locker under the bow, which can be accessed through a hatch in the collision bulkhead if necessary. An aluminium bollard is welded to the foredeck.

A trouble-free and labour-saving set-up.

Layout

The forecabin is lined to the deck and sleeps two adults comfortably with a berth infill fitted. An extra bunk base is stored along one side of the cabin when not in use, and fits across the rear of the wheelhouse to give another berth if required. Two side shelves add to some under-berth stowage in the forecabin. An electric toilet is fitted under the centre berth, a privacy curtain screening off the forecabin. The back plate of the console can be unbolted to get at steering and wiring controls, and a cabin light is fitted.

Out through the wide forecabin entry is the wheelhouse, with a large dash lined with grey marine carpet (cutting internal glare on the 6mm toughened glass ‘screen), a back lip and grabrail. The helm makes full use of flush-mounted instrumentation and features Honda ‘retro’ white-faced dials, as well as a high-tech Humminbird 987c multi-purpose unit that encompasses GPS-chartplotter, sounder and a side-imaging function that actually draws an image of the bottom on each side of the boat. Also fitted was a Guest remote-controlled spotlight. As mentioned, the forward screens are curved, 6mm toughened glass, as are the side sliding windows, which open both ways.

The helm/seating positions were not ideal for me, but this is a feature that is customised to the owner’s requirements in most boats, so is not an issue. The helm seat is an upholstered, rotationally-moulded plastic model on a swivel base. It is set on top of an Indel B fridge unit.

On the passenger side is a double fore-and-aft bench seat with a forward footrest that doubles as a storage locker. Under this bench seat is a galley unit that features a three-burner gas cooker and a sink that is fed from a 120-litre tank with a pump and gun delivery. There are galley stowage lockers under this, and stowage racks between it and the cabin wall. The cabin can be secured with sliding, locking cabin doors.

The chequerplate deck is sealed and drains aft to a sump under the transom wall, fitted with a 1200gph bilge pump. Side shelves run the full length of the cockpit sides, and sidelights are fitted into the gunwale faces. Extending from the rear of the hardtop is a removable canvas cover that extends the shelter in the cockpit.

Lockers in the transom wall house two batteries (‘start’ and ‘house’, with isolation switch), the fuel filter and the pump for the wash-down hose (this last accommodated under the transom step-through). Bollards are fitted to the transom corners, and large boarding platforms are fitted to the stern, including grab rails and a fold-down ladder on the side with the step-through. Under the stern, mounting plates are fitted for the trim tabs.

Fishability

In the cockpit, immediately aft of the cabin, are two storage locker/seats/worktops. One is fitted with two pullout plastic bins, the other with a full tackle locker (taking four plastic tackle cases) on the side, as well as top-access stowage for larger items. Catch stowage is supplied by a large, removable after-market ice chest.

Six aluminium through-gunwale rod holders are fitted along the gunwales. Mounted on the transom is a large bait station with an additional four rod­holders.

Some may consider this bait station a bit too large, as it restricts access through the transom gate, but this is an optional fit-up item. Another transom fitting was a mount and power take-off for a davit and winch, used for lifting a scallop dredge, dropper line or whatever.

The cockpit canopy already mentioned was useful while fishing and waiting for the rain to stop so I could shoot some photos. It would be equally useful as sun protection, although it restricted access to the seven-position rocket launcher on the hard top while extended.

Kilwell outriggers were fitted and had already been put to good use, with the previous season’s marlin capture. An in-deck fitting takes a game chair if required.

The hull is stable, the chequerplate deck gives good footing, the rounded edges are comfortable to lean on, there is plenty of toe room, and the gunwale faces give good top-of-thigh support. A nice cockpit to fish from and, overall, a top fish and dive machine.

Trailering

The trailer is a tandem-axle Voyager, cradle A-frame design with entry bay. The leaf-spring suspension is zinc treated and the rims are galvanised. The hull is carried on 12 pairs of wobble rollers per side. A keel-entry roller and side guide poles are also fitted.

Other features include: submersible lights; hydraulic trailer brakes; wind-down jockey wheel; dual-ratio manual winch; dual coupling; and spare wheel. Drive-on, drive-off launch and retrieve was easy. Tow weight for the rig, fully fuelled, is 2500kg.

All in all

A stylish-looking, well behaved, and solidly manufactured hull with stay-away potential. A top fish and dive machine, definitely blue-water capable.    

Supplied by Waiuku Marine