still safely tow from his Hills District
home up and down the steep climb
to Berowra ramp. Its 2.5m beam kept
it legal and the overall weight around
three tonnes meant his Ford Ranger
could tow it safely.
He also liked the idea of the
Caribbean coming as a well-equipped
package to which he could add his
options list for his ideal fishing
weapon. And although Sylvania
Marina has a solid reputation for
custom work, the fitout was handed
to Spiro Demopoulos at Blue Bottle
Marine because that Dural workshop
is handy to where Barba lives and
he wanted to be involved with the
outcome as much as possible.
Fresh from the factory the C2300
is equipped with desirable features,
like an upholstered V-berth and
marine toilet in the carpet-lined
cabin, underfloor kill tank, livebait
tank, remote winch with 50m of chain
and 80lt of pressurised freshwater,
removable rear lounge and adjustable
seats on fibreglass boxes with inbuilt
esky and storage.
ELECTRONICS SUITE
It’s a great base to establish a
gameboat to the customer’s desires,
and Adam has turned it into
something extraordinary with the
addition of a ute-load of Simrad
electronics and more. A 16in NSS
evo3 screen connects through Airmar
xSonic SS175H-W and SS175L high
and low CHIRP 1W transducers for
sounding and a GS25 antenna for an
accurate GPS fix. Matched also to a
4G Radar and an AP44 VRF Medium
Capacity Autopilot pack and the crew
should know precisely where they
are and what’s around them, even at
night.
Communication is through a
Simrad RS20 VHF radio and the
music system is a fully featured JL
Audio package of an MM100 marine
head unit with LCD display, a mix
of 196mm and 185mm waterproof
speakers and subwoofer, powered by
a 100W M600 Marine amp. That’s an
impressive setup.FISH READY
Enough of the nerdy stuff, what
about the fishing setup? The factory
included the optional six-hole
stainless steel rocket launcher, and
Blue Bottle Marine plumbed the bait
tank and fitted a set of 4.5m Reelax
poles on 450 bases.
Demopoulos also tidied up the
electrical switches, replacing the
old-style standard toggles with touch
panels at the dash and adding a setfor pumps and hoses at the transom.
Then he stuck it on an Easy Tow alloy
trailer to help keep weight down and
installed a set of Lenco trim tabs to
steady the ride.
Launching from Berowra means a
15nm run to the ocean at Barrenjoey,
so a maximum allowable 300hp
Evinrude E-TEC Gen 2 was strapped
on the back to make the trip as fast
as possible. The two-stroke won it for
Barba because of its torquey power,
extended servicing times and the five-
year warranty.
Conservative as it is, the C2300
looks stunning courtesy of its classic
lines and beautifully integrated
narrow-profile hardtop combined
with the soft flowing lines of all
mouldings highlighted by a superb
gelcoat.RUNNING HARD
The long run to the ocean gave us
the opportunity to experience the
speed and economy of the engine, and
once we were out of the slow lanes, I
opened the throttles to an immediate
blast of acceleration.
Interestingly, Barba’s mate has a
C2300 with almost the same setup,
which was along for the test as the
photo boat. But he had installed a
four-blade 15in x 18in RX4 prop to gettradeboats.com.au 125Caribbean 2300