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Advice & Info: Kiwi-Kraft 505 Fisherman
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Kiwi-Kraft founder and director Rodney Harris is a Southlander who enjoys diving, hunting and fishing in the southern ocean, lakes and high country.

Initially, building and restoring boats was a hobby for him. He built the first Kiwi-Kraft, an aluminium-pontoon design, in his home garage in 1988, and since then his Invercargill-based company, Kiwi Engineering and Marine Ltd, has gone from strength to strength. These days, a full-time staff of 14 builds around 150-200 hulls of nine sizes from the modern 2000-square-metre workshop each year.

With a range of options, Kiwi-Kraft specialise in customising their hulls to each owner’s requirements, often developing new innovations that are offered in future hulls.

The owner of the test boat, Ron Hamilton, is a retired builder who wanted to step down from his previous larger craft to a smaller, low-maintenance boat he could launch and handle on his own. He chose a Kiwi-Kraft 505 Fisherman from agents Auckland Marine.

Ron and I travelled up to his bach at Russell in the Bay of Islands to take the new boat for a run.

Construction

Pontoon designs like Kiwi-Kraft offer high load-bearing capacity, increased stability and the potential for huge reserve buoyancy. The little 505, with a maximum-weight-rated outboard (90hp four-stroke) and five adults aboard, still has 1368kg of reserve buoyancy – incredible for a craft of this size.

Kiwi-Kraft calls this design their ‘Hush-Tech’ hull. The bottom and transom are 4mm, the deck 3mm, and the pontoons and topsides are 2.5mm to keep the weight down. Under-deck support consists of four full-depth longitudinal stringers, while lateral support is full-depth cross-bracing at 400mm centres. The pontoon-to-bottom join is fully seam-welded inside and out.

Buoyancy is contained in six sealed compartments in the pontoons and under the deck. All chambers are tested to five PSI during construction. Kiwi-Kraft hulls are plan-approved by M&I (Wellington) for survey, and as members of CPC NZ, all Kiwi-Kraft models are built to Coastguard specification. The 505 is rescue-boat certified to a worldwide classification. Small boats don’t get much better than this safety-wise.

Power and performance

The 505 is rated for a 90hp maximum outboard, with 70hp recommended. Ron initially tried it with a 60hp four-stroke outboard, but thought it under-powered. Next he considered a Mercury 75hp two-stroke, but when he found that the 90hp model was the same weight and size, and there was only a small price difference, he settled on the three-cylinder 90 two-stroke, figuring he could run it at lower revs (possibly even reducing fuel usage), but still have plenty of power in reserve if the boat was carrying a big load.

The 90 certainly gives the unit plenty of push. A quick squirt (didn’t want to thrash the man’s new outboard) saw us at 42mph (68kph) on the dash dial, which Ron said reads a little under the GPS speed. The engine was running about 5800rpm at this speed, a bit over the book-recommended maximum of 5500rpm, so the rig could probably stand to go up an inch in pitch from the 18” model being used. Running at about 20-25mph (32-40kph) was a very comfortable cruising speed.

To run smoothly, the 505 needs to have the leading edges of the pontoons trimmed up out of the water. On this particular rig I had to trim the engine out a long way to achieve this, and there was only a narrow band of adjustment between having the boat running sweetly and the prop starting to cavitate. There was plenty of room for engine height adjustment however, with three mounting holes in hand. Dropping the engine one or even two holes should provide a much wider band of trim. By adding a little more drag, this could also help drop the revs back a little. Obviously, with a brand-new rig there is a little work to do to get it set up for optimum performance.

The hull lived up to its ‘Hush-Tech’ name, and despite being fitted with a relatively noisy two-stroke, Ron and I could converse in normal tones. With the bow trimmed right, the 505 was a sweet rider, taking little spray in the half-metre chop. With the bow trimmed a little lower (putting the fine entry to work), the boat cut through a head sea with ease and landed nice and softly – a great little performer, and probably one of the best riding pontoon designs of its size.

Anchoring

Anchoring was a bit problematical. It is not easy to climb around to the bow, with a narrow, hard-to-get-onto platform around the side, and when the canopy is up, not much to hold onto. When you do get there, you need to climb over a big set of bow rails to perch on the tiny foredeck.

There is an opening section in the middle of the windscreen to work the anchor from inside the cockpit, but you still cannot reach the bowsprit or bollard without climbing onto the bow, and that is not easy. Possibly an anchor winch could be fitted and an anchor permanently mounted, or a bow retrieval rope and floating anchor set-up would work, operated from the cockpit.

Layout

This is a small boat, designed as an open dayfisher, and space usage becomes important. There are no berths up in the bow; instead the space is left open for stowage, with a pair of pipe rails doubling as foot rests and helping to stop gear from sliding back into the cockpit when under way. Narrow shelves are built into the top of the pontoons in the bow, and small, hatched dry-stowage spaces are also built into the sides of the forward pontoons.

The ‘screen is tinted polycarbonate, with the centre-opening section already mentioned. Travelling, seated or standing, the helmsman is looking over the top, so visibility is good. A set of clears running up to a high canopy provides protection if needed, and the centre section can be zipped out.

The dash is larger on the helm side and a Lowrance LMS525C sounder/GPS is mounted here. A Uniden VHF is flush-mounted into the dash, along with standard basic gauges and switches.

Seating consists of two upholstered bucket seats on pedestals, keeping space usage to a minimum. A King and Queen option is available, eating into cockpit space, but adding stowage. Further seating (and a good design idea) is a bench seat that hangs off the side shelves and can be shifted forward or aft, or removed altogether. Owner Ron Hamilton is particularly pleased with this adaptable unit.

The space under the transom is divided into thirds. The encased battery is set up on a platform on the helm side with an isolation switch. In the centre, a 25-litre tote tank sits on the deck, and an extra 12.5-litre tank is up on a shelf on the passenger side. An 80-litre under-floor tank provides greater fuel capacity and is worth considering as an option. The sealed chequerplate deck drains back into the inside of the engine bracket, where an 1100gph bilge pump is set.

Over the stern is a wide chequerplate boarding platform. Grab rails are fitted and a boarding ladder is an option. Two cleats were fitted on the transom corner, and a high pipe bracket on the centre of the platform takes a bait-board and can be used as a ski pole. Under the platform, mounting plates for transducers, intakes etc, remove the need to drill holes into the stern.

Fishability

With those big pontoons on the side, this is a very stable hull that, for its size, has a big load-bearing capacity. The chequerplate deck gives good footing, and the relatively high sides offer safety for kids. For basic bottom fishing, the movable rear bench seat offers a good spot to sit while at anchor, and can be removed altogether for drift fishing and casting.

What is essentially a small boat needs to be fitted out as simply as possible, so that working space is not cramped. Four plastic through-gunwale rod holders are fitted, and there is room for more if required. As mentioned, a bait-board can be fitted to the transom-rail fitting.

This boat has a lot of potential, and setting it up to suit your purposes starts at construction stage when choosing what options are required. Personally, I would fit this boat out for fishing as follows: go for the under-floor fuel tank, giving more fuel capacity and freeing up space under the transom to fit an ice box to store the catch and bait; ditch the pipe frame on the back, greatly freeing up workspace and allowing fish to be worked around the engine.

If you ‘really gotta,’ a single (removable) vertical-pipe ski-pole fitting can be added to the back of the transom, which is able to be removed when fishing. Put four vertical rodholders across the transom. Two of these can be used to mount a low-profile bait-board fitted with an extra holder on each side. These four holders can be used for carrying rods when underway. The stability and buoyancy of the pontoon design lends itself to diving, and a boarding ladder is an option.

That is pretty much all that is needed for a good, basic, functional fishing and diving boat.

Trailering

The rig was carried on a single-axel Mudgway trailer. It had zinc-protected leaf-spring suspension, galvanised cradle A-frame box-section frame and galvanised rims. The axles were fitted with optional ‘Bearing Buddies,’ something I always add to my own trailers and a worth-while investment.

The boat is carried on four pairs of wobble rollers per side. Other fittings include a single-ratio manual winch, wind-down jockey wheel and submersible lights. Tow weight is a mere 830kg, and my Mitsubishi Challenger 4X4 hardly knew it was on the back.

All-in-all

Obviously there are limits to what you can do with a five-metre hull. Rated for five adults but ideally suited for two, the Kiwi-Kraft has the makings of a good coastal fish and dive boat, and can be set up to suit the individual.

Stable, safe and sea-kindly, it is easily towed and could be beach-launched with a quad bike. A hull like this has plenty of application right around the country.