ABBS 5.0m Centre Console

[matt fraser]

I've been looking into buying a new plate boat over the last few months, and came across ABBS (Australian Boat Building Service) on the Gold Coast.

They build all sorts of alluminium boats, but their specialty is the twinskin constuction plate boats. The bottom of the boats is generally 4mm plate and the sides are 3mm outer wall, 2mm inner wall, with a 75mm thick closed cell foam sandwiched inbetween. The idea is to deaden the sound that a plate boat makes and give huge amounts of floatation - i dont think much flotation would be required in the floor.

It leaves a nice smooth finished look inside of the cockpit also.

I went and checked out the workshop about 5 weeks ago, and they were building a 5m centre console. I said I'd be keen to see the finished product, so they gave me a call and I went for a run today. The finished boat came up pretty well. It rides really nicely, and it went really well with the 75 ETEC.

I'm not a centre console man, but for a centre console it looks to be really well laid out and set up. What I really liked about it is how clean it looks inside, and how you can easily customise it without having to worry about where the braces are.

Anyway, here are some pics to check out

Cheers,

Matt.

[Mindi]

Excellent Matt...see PM need to talk

[the lump]

Thats a good looking tub! What sort of cabbage are we talking?

[matt fraser]

You'd have to contact Tony direct for the price, but I think he said this one was around $25K on trailer with motor (dont quote me)

Seemed pretty well priced to me.

Matt

[Chimo]

Hi Matt

Looks good but is missing toe holds ie sides need to stop above the floor leaving space for feet.
Alsowhere does water that enters side mounted rod holders end up?

Cheers
Chimo

[Mindi]

Good questions Chimo I am looking at the boat Sat so will post the answers after that.

[matt fraser]

Chimo,

The rod holders drain into the cockpit, you can see them coming below the side decks in the photo that looks from the RHS to bow.

Yeah, its missing the toe holds, but it is a custom boat - built to the customers order. I'm sure you could get them built in.

One slight disadvantage of the twinskin is that you do lose a bit of cockpit space, because the sides are 80mm or so thick.

I'm sure Mindi will have more info on the boat after he's checked it out.

Cheers,

Matt