thehorizon.Butthingsweren’tall
thathappy,andaswehit35ktsthe
boat fell off the keel to port before I
gathered it back with a touch of lock
andtrim.Nothingtooscary,butabit
unexpected.
Offshorewemetasteadyswell
and 18kts of breeze shaking up a
1m chop as we veered eastward
intothesea.Welaunchedoverthe
bigger waves for one of the softest
landingsIhaveexperiencedinsuch
conditions, and my faith in the brand
was confirmed. But the tendency
to fall off the keel returned in some
directions, particularly down sea
wherecontinuallyadjustingtabsand
trim was needed for fast passage.
Somethingwasn’tright,andI
wondered if the weight of the high
superstructure had ruined what
should have been an enjoyable ride.“Seeing the boat on its Easytow alloy
trailer for the first time is a bit of a
shock. It’s bloody big”
The team at Bayside Marina were
as perplexed as me and suggested
we talk to the factory about what
might be wrong. As it transpired, I
was heading to Melbourne in a few
days and John Haber arranged for
me to have a drive of a different boat
to see how it compared. According
to Haber, setup is critical and he
wondered if this might explain our
experience. So while I organised the
southern trip, Alex started exploring
calibrations on the Sydney boat.
A few days later on Port Phillip Bay
with Phillip Pierias from Port Phillip
Boating Centre, we got a fill-up at thebowser (boom-tish) and launched at
Altona ramp into sloppy, conditions
under 12kts of wind. Okay, it was a
runabout version and in more benign
conditions, but enough to check the
boat’s behaviour. With Haber and
Pierias along for the ride, there was
plenty of advice about handling the
big Haines. And despite full noise
attacks above 40kts across every
angle of the sea and at 30kts across
the wake of big cruisers I couldn’t
fault the ride. To be fair, the steering
still felt light, and the feeling at
the wheel was a touch flighty, but
trimming the tabs a couple of116 tradeaboat.com.au