Senator RH860

Napier boatbuilder, Senator Boats, is solely represented by Firmans Marine, who handle the fit-outs and marketing of these aluminium hulls.

Initially, the designs were divided between small pontoon boats and large monohulls around eight metres in length, but over the years the demands of customers have seen the lines become blurred.

The largest of the pontoon hulls currently available is the RH 860. The huge reserve buoyancy (2700kg) and stability of these hulls were an attraction for Neville Chandler, who, with his partner Anne Matia, lives at Mangawhai Heads in Northland. Fishing and boating in this region includes crossing the Mangawhai Bar, which can get a mite snarly at times.

I was to experience this myself when Neville and Anne hosted Mark Staines from Firmans Marine and me over a long weekend. As it happened, rough conditions made the bar unworkable for several days. It was only at the end of our stay that conditions moderated enough for us to get out through the entrance, and even then it was a comfort to have the hardtop and those big pontoons. I could see why Neville made the choice he did – the size and abilities of the big Senator translate directly to greater safety and more fishing days when faced with a bar crossing.

Construction

The RH860 is built to survey and has 6mm bottoms, 3mm pontoons, and 3mm and 4mm superstructure. Decks are 4mm chequerplate. The deadrise at the transom is 18°, with the bottom edge of the pontoon forming a down-turned chine. A full keel wear strip is fitted.

Lengthwise, the hull is supported by four stringers, a flat plate across the keel V, and the pontoon construction. Laterally there’s a collision bulkhead forming the anchor well in the bows, a bulkhead at the helm position, two under-floor sub-bulkheads forming the holds in the cockpit, and the transom construction.

There is a massive amount of reserve buoyancy in this hull, a feature I particularly like in pontoon designs. In this case there are four separate, pressure-tested compartments: three in the pontoons and a fourth U-shaped area under the deck. Total reserve buoyancy is 2.7 tonnes, much of it high in the gunwales, which should ensure that the hull floats upright should it ever be swamped.

The sealed decks drain to a sump under the transom wall; water can be removed from here via a 3700gph bilge pump. Two under-deck holds are connected by tubes, with drainage out the back of the transom controlled by a series of bungs. A triple-battery system (two starters and a house battery) are protected on shelves up in the transom wall. The transom has a walkthrough between the twin engines, with drop door. The stern design features a return on the outside to help turn back a wave should the boat ‘take one up the chuff’.

Power and performance

The RH860 is a big boat and rated for 200-300hp. The test model was fitted with twin 150hp Yamaha four-stroke outboards with counter-rotating, stainless-steel, 17” pitch props. Fuel is supplied from a single 450-litre fuel tank with separate filtration for each engine. The fuel port is on the transom top and a surge/expansion chamber is built into the fuel line to prevent blow-back when filling. Each engine has a separate starter battery and selective charging.

After sitting around for several days waiting for the weather to clear, we were itching to get on the water. The bar was still fairly big, but with the wind down to 10 knots, it was a vast improvement over what it had been.

There was a solid metre of breaking, standing wave in the entrance, but this was no trouble; the big pontoon shoulders of the Senator lifted us easily over what could have taken out a lesser boat. Away from the swift currents on the bar, conditions were much better, with an open rolling swell of a metre and a little chop thrown in.

We achieved 34.9 knots (64.6kph) at 5700rpm. The outboards are rated 5000 to 6000 rpm at the top end, so 5700 is ‘in the zone’, suggesting the props are about the right pitch. Comfortable cruising was at about 27 knots (50kph); the big hull just ate the sea, while we were comfortable and dry in the big cabin.

Anchoring

The pontoon tops have a non-skid platform leading around to the bow. The other access is through the hatch in the cabin roof. Because the step-down in the fore cabin is a deep one (giving standing head-height), the chequerplate deck has two steps up to the bow, creating a raised working platform for anyone standing in the hatchway.

This is the easy way to get at the Maxwell 500 anchor winch mounted on the bow, should you want to activate the free-spool facility. The winch is controlled from the helm, and access to the anchor well is through a hatch in the forward bulkhead. A permanently-mounted Sarca anchor is set on a short bowsprit and a bollard is welded to the foredeck – an easy-to-use anchor system.

Layout

Neville and Anne plan to use the Senator as an overnighter, and it is set up for this purpose. The roomy fore-cabin will sleep two adults easily, and a berth infill can also be fitted. A stowage space extends back under the wheelhouse deck, supplemented by small side shelves and space under the berths. A screw-on plate gives access to the wiring and steering in the back of the console.

The wheelhouse looks big and open, well lit by the large windows and ‘screen. The large dash is covered with dark marine carpet, stopping stuff from sliding around and also cutting any internal glare on the 6mm toughened glass ‘screen. All-round visibility is good, aided by two sweep windscreen wipers. Sliding toughened glass side windows allow for ventilation. Grab rails are well taken care of, across the dash, on the console side, and under the cabin roof.

Instrumentation and electronics are flush-mounted in the dash. Sounder, radar and GPS plotter are incorporated in a Furuno Navnet VX2 multi-function unit. Uniden Solara DSC VHF radio and Fusion sound system are mounted up under the cabin roof. A direction-controllable spotlight is set on the forward edge of the hardtop. Teleflex hydraulic steering handled the two big outboards easily.

The helm seat is an upholstered plastic swiveller with storage space underneath. The passengers are catered for with a big L-shaped bench seat, again with internal stowage (further supplemented by side shelves and a hold under the deck). A worktop can be fitted over the top of this seat for tasks like preparing meals, etc.

Behind the helm seat is a galley unit under a second bench seat. It boasts a stainless steel two-burner hob (the gas bottle is stored out in the cockpit), and a 75-litre marine fridge underneath. A hinged, locking door secures the cabin.

Out in the cockpit are more design features for comfortable stay-away trips. A hot and cold freshwater sink unit is just behind the cabin, supplied from an 80-litre water tank. A padded top allows this to be used as a bench seat. The hardtop has a big overhang, giving some shelter to this area.

On the other side of the cockpit is an enclosed toilet/shower. The toilet is saltwater flush with macerator. The shower is freshwater and a hand basin is also fitted. The califont for water heating is immediately aft of the shower, set inside the gunwale.

The wide, Decktread-covered gunwales are at a comfortable height to sit on, and grab rails are fitted under the overhang and down the rear edges of the cabin.

Stowage is taken care of by a big underfloor hold just behind the cabin and by two levels of large side pockets running the full length of the cockpit sides.

Mooring bollards are on the bow, amidships (for the springs) and in the stern corners. A saltwater wash-down hose with pressure pump takes care of the cleaning duties.

It’s a comfortable and workmanlike layout that makes good use of space.

Fishability

With the rock-solid stability of a pontoon boat, good footing on the chequerplate decks, full toe recess right around the big (4.4 square metre) cockpit and good mid-thigh support, the RH 860 is an excellent fishing platform.

An 11-position rocket launcher on the hardtop also mounts a cockpit spotlight, radar dome and GPS antenna. There are nine through-gunwale rodholders, and two drop-in bait stations can be positioned wherever needed.

There is a berley pot built into the boarding platform, along with a livebait tank with a ram-feed circulation system that becomes free flow at rest.

Some ice bottles in the under-deck hold will take care of storing the catch.

A specially fitted retractable davit on the hardtop, with an Anchormax capstan built into the transom to provide the muscle, is used for lifting cray pots. (Some smaller boats have come to grief using this sort of set up, with jammed pots combining with big swells to capsize them, but considering the huge buoyancy and stability of this boat’s pontoon design, it’s a most unlikely scenario here.)

The winch housing built into the gunwale provides an unexpected bonus, forming an ideal brace point for an angler if the boat needs to forward-chase a big fish while stand-up gamefishing – and it’s on the correct side of the boat for the helmsman to easily see the direction of the line, too.

Divers are also well catered for. Dive tanks will fit in the under-deck hold or the top-side shelves. The boarding platform, a fold-down ladder, and the transom walkthrough make boarding easy, and there is a hot shower to look forward to when you get out of the water.

We took the Senator out to the Hen and Chicken Islands. The initial game plan was to jig for some kingfish, but all we could extract were the little guys, and it was a bit windy to drift-fish, so after a quick troll, we settled down for a bottom fish.

You couldn’t complain about the action – we caught a heap of nice trevally, then moved so we could try for a snapper. Owner, Neville Chandler, was happy to skipper us around, and left the fishing to Mark Staines, his mate Richard ‘Bees’ Burton, and me.

Conditions were sloppy, but the big Senator was great to fish from, with good footing, comfort, stability and plenty of room. Neville even made us a coffee and sandwiches without trouble.

I ended up having a lot of fun with a light spin rod, but ‘Bees’ did the sensible thing and put out a small whole trevally on heavy tackle. He was rewarded with a real line burner that turned out to be a 11.7kg snapper – a personal best and bound for the taxidermist!

Trailering

The trailer is a DMW tandem-axle, galvanised A-Frame with 14 pairs of wobble rollers per side. It is heavily built with plenty of strengthening gussets. As the owner beach-launches by tractor, without travelling on public roads, the trailer is basic, but can be fitted with Sensa-brake controls, lights etc for towing. It comes in under the over-width regulations and has a tow weight, with full fuel and water, of 3.1 tonnes. Other fittings include a Power Winch electric trailer winch, dual coupling, dual safety chains, guide poles and a wind-down jockey wheel.

All in all

No one ever said pontoon boats were particularly attractive, but it is hard to go past them in the vital fields of safety, stability and load-bearing. Senator’s RH 860 is one hell of a hardcore fishing and diving machine, built to survey, very definitely blue-water capable, with the added attraction of comfortable stay-away living. If you favour function over form – and most fishermen are practical people – this is a boat well worth looking at.

	This article is reproduced with permission of New Zealand Fishing News by Sam Mossman Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited