YELLOW 6700

Carves her own path on a hunt for monster king george whiting

When The Captain’s crew first laid eyes on this neatly decked-out destroyer, we decided a little fishing mission was in order. Instead of following the herds of snapper slayers to the concrete ramps, we carved our own little boat chute at a secluded bay opening out on to Bass Strait. Our only company on the weedy shoreline was an old beach fisherman from Portugal and a few early morning walkers stretching their legs chasing runaway golden retrievers.

When Mark Stav from JV Marine, owner of the boat, got wind that we’d been beach-launching his big baby, he fumbled for his insurance policy. “Never fear, Mark”, we proclaimed. “She might be more than 6.5m, but she’s a cinch to tow and piss-easy to throw on and off the trailer. And best of all, she catches fish!” Being of Greek origin, when Mark heard the magic word “fish”, all his fears immediately abated.

KILL TANK TESTING

The 6700 is the second-biggest of the Yellowfin foursome (5800, 6200, 6700 and 7400 class). They haven’t skimped on the fishie features, either – and we put them to good use on a mission for a monster King George whiting. Several were spirited away from their weedy wonderland – with rods doubled over and 3kg mono singing – eventually ending up in the under-floor kill tank.

The tough bait-station configuration managed our mix of pipi and squid baits with plenty of nooks and crannies for the small tackle festival. The inevitable mess (one every whiting fisherman can relate to) was washed away and disappeared out the self-draining decks. Jack – aka Captain Snooze – gave the vee-berth a big thumbs-up. Nick the cameraman plonked himself on the superwide gunwale, which features welded-in rod holders, proceeding to catch a donkey whiting of almost 1kg. Not bad for a Pommy from New South Wales. Unfortunately, we didn’t catch a whiting that demanded we open the transom door – but it was nice to know we had it should the occasion arise.

BASS STRAIT BLASTING

The Yellowfin blasted around the reef patches on the fringes of Bass Strait, slicing over a smooth 1.5m swell. The ride into a head sea is soft and she tracked straight. The 1050kg hull turned a little flatter than we expected, blowing out the props, but we recovered with a handful of trim. Nosing back into the beach, we put the walk-around cabin to good use – a nice feature not found in many 6m rigs we climb aboard. This model had a few more tasty treats, including a pair of Simrads (NSS9 and NSS12), box helm seats, and blue-light disco, and was powered by an Evinrude 225HP E-TEC G2 two-stroke. This rig is fully kitted for any adventure with a price tag of $96,500. Prices for the Yellowfin 6700 start at $85,000.