Tough Little Workhorse

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday July 21, 1989

By PETER FORBES

At a recent party, a fisherman friend told me he was looking for a good aluminium offshore open boat and asked if I knew one. I was unable to reply before we were driven apart by the party throng. The boat below may be his answer.

The trouble is, of course, that no boat is all things to all men, so I present the following offering with the qualification: each to his own.

The vessel I have in mind is the Sabre 660 Professional Tracker by Savage Alumacraft of Melbourne, a 6.6-metre (21ft 6in) half-cabin (for want of a better description) aluminium planing hull with self-draining deck and either sterndrive or outboard engines.

It is based on construction and design used by professional fishermen and is made for offshore work. Savage says it has extensively tested the vessel on Port Phillip Bay and in Bass Strait, and neither of these is the mildest waterway in the world.

Savage is a long-established builder of boats. The Savage family has been operating the business for 90 years over three generations - and Savage Alumacraft is Australia's largest boat manufacturer and the market leader in aluminium boats.

So it is with respect that I listen to Savage when it says it does not grind off its welds and fill up low areas with body filler to make an aluminium boat look like a fibrelgass one.

"The welds are there for a structural reason and removing them does nothing more than reduce the strength of the seam," said John Savage.

"Given a choice between ground-back, fibreglass-filled seams and the full profile welds retained by Savage, I know what boaties being bumped about in Bass Strait would prefer.

"But more importantly, I believe the Savage customer can see exactly what he is buying," Mr Savage said.

The Sabre 660 has a high freeboard, upswept chines, and lifting strakes that run the whole length of the hull. Deadrise at the transom is a modest 17 degrees, designed to smooth the ride in adverse conditions.

The vessel is not an overnighter and therefore has devoted its interior to workspace, not bunks.

It has a spacious flat cockpit floor with self-draining through transom scuppers and a half-cabin screen around the helm position, which has dual bucket seats. A 135-litre fuel tank is under the floor.

The Sabre is offered with both outboard and sterndrive power configurations. Maximum recommended outboard power is 200hp and the minimum is 80hp.

A hardtop above the screen is optional (adding about $2,000 to the price)and grabrails run along the cockpit sides. Transom doors and a marlin board and ladder are also optional in the version fitted with outboard power.

Pricing varies according to the package: with trailer, sterndrive and self-draining deck, think in terms of about $40,000. With outboard power, various units can be used. With a 175hp unit, plus transom gates, a marlin board, ladder and trailer, the price range is $37,000-$39,000. With two 90hp units, this would rise to $41,000.

Sydney dealers stocking the Sabre 660 are Family Boats, of Seven Hills, and Southside Boat Mart, of Bexley North.