We finally found paradise and it’s in The Great
Sandy Straits, Queensland. You will all know it
for main town Hervey Bay and Fraser Island,
we know it for Pelican Bank and some of the
most beautiful water ever seen. Not everything
went according to plan though with some brisk
easterlies making getting out to our staging
location a test for some, but what were we there
for? Testing!
2017 saw perennial runner-up Surtees finally
kick the winning goal but it wasn’t with their
biggest or most expensive boat, it came withtheir mid-range hard top, the 700 Game Fisher.
Our judges all stepped off proclaiming we found
the alloy hull to rival fibreglass in ride, it was
that good. Add in a dancefloor to rival the best
custom build and enough toys to keep all the
boys happy and you have a winner.
Over in ’glass and we had our second back-to-
back winner in Mako. This year the big daddy
284 CC took the gong. Barely trailerable due to
its size, it took on every quartering sea, any swell
and any hamfisted driver and showed them who
was boss. It came, it saw, it destroyed all-comers.2017
Surtees finally knocked it over
and did it with style. The 700
Game Fisher came with a
fibreglass equalling ride and
layout to give a game fisho
a wet-dream.
104 trade aboat.com.au