Coraline 750 Series II Boat Review

Boat Review Date: July 2015
Author: Mike Brown

Overview

Add a couple of metres length to the average sized boat and you have doubled its effective size. The Coraline 750 is a lot of boat and with a standard layout its cockpit area would have been even bigger. The owner though wanted a 100mm longer cuddy and, because Coralines are built in the West, his wish was able to be granted.

The usual cuddy is for shelter and stowage. The extra length allows 1.9 metre bunks; with the infill in place two could sleep in acceptable comfort. This ability would come in handy on the road trips north that are on the agenda. There are no other domestic arrangements on board – they could take up valuable fishing space.

Space the 750 has in spades. The rear lounge not only folds, it is removable to allow thigh contact all around the vast cockpit. That contact thing has been well thought out, with a great depth of metal surface to cosset the thighs and plenty of toe room below the full length side pockets.

The cockpit carpet is removable, but when in place allows access to the self draining kill tank via a press studded flap. With the carpet removed cleaning is easy with a minimum of fiddly nooks. Wash downs at sea are handled by a deck wash powered by boat momentum and a pick up.

A good share of the cockpit is shaded by a cantilevered soft extension of the hardtop, an open style top with clears bridging the gap between itself and the windscreen. The driving area is virtually a backless wheelhouse giving complete shelter to the two seats: tough and comfortable swivels mounted on lockers. The lined hardtop carries the VHF, convenient for the driver. The navigator gets to control the stereo, whose speakers also live in the hardtop. A nice touch was the placement of recesses in the top of the lockers alongside the seats; useful for temporarily housing the oddments we typically carry around with us.

The chosen motor was a 250hp Yamaha four-stroke. Rolls-Royce would probably describe the power as adequate; it struck me as more like abundant. 42 knots flat out and that speed reached briskly. We worked the boat hard and it did the opposite to us – it gave us an easy time. This was partly due to a 20 degree deadrise, and partly to a universal truth: longer boats have an easier motion. The seats helped too, their bucket style giving security and their resilience being well chosen.

 The motor itself went out of its way to be agreeable. Everything worked effortlessly from starting (don’t we take instant starts for granted nowadays?), through gear and throttle movements to steering; everything fingertip easy. Just starting those old two-strokes could mar a day’s boating.

Ancillary hardware is neat and follows the Coraline bulletproof mantra. The cruciform bitts could handle a heavy duty tow; the bowsprit is elegant as well as effective. The boarding ladder is a big cut above the ordinary, raking aft when deployed and provided with deep chequer plate treads. There are even working lights, LEDs, mounted on the rear of the hardtop.

The owner mounted his Coraline on an aluminium trailer made by the boat’s builder. It is an impressive piece of engineering. Massively strong (yet far lighter than the steel equivalent), it is infested with rollers, is exactly tailored to the hull and, as a result, is an easy winching job if local conditions do not allow a drive-on.

Lowdown

Price as reviewed    AUD $130,000

Length overall           8.1m

Hull length                7.5m

Beam                          2.5m

Fuel capacity            450L

Motor fitted                250hp Yamaha four-stroke