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Allison 244 Ocean Angler Centre Cab
Gary Howard
IT’S BEEN that long since I’ve been in one of Col Allison’s 244 Ocean Anglers that I’d forgotten what superb boats they are. Our latest test boat came from Coorparoo Marine, and has been decked out as a full-on hard core long range fishing boat. With such a detailed fitout on a proven performance hull, I couldn’t help but wonder why you don’t see more of these boats around the place. The potential of the 244 Ocean Angler is quite diverse, and for what you get for you money they are reasonably priced.
With a pair of 135hp Mercury Optimax outboards fitted to the pod of the 244, you couldn’t help but be impressed with the size and profile of this hard core fishing machine as the long prongs of the forklift lowered the boat from the hard stand into the water of the marina.
From this prospective you get a birds eye view, and a few pictures ran through my mind of extended trips away to remote areas of the coastline. Such voyages are exactly what the new owner had bought and fitted the boat out for.
While the boat was certainly going to be doing a lot of local work, Port Douglas was high on the list as a step of point for a few extended trips in this baby.
THE LAYOUT
The large centre cab format of the 244 Ocean Angler is one of only a few boats that I have seen in this size that are able to offer comfortable and spacious sleeping area below, a good aft deck area for fishing, and still have good width and depth to the walkway around the centre cab without reducing the helm area to a tight little place where you barely have enough room to swivel your chair around.
Deck Area
To accomplish the larger helm area on the deck and the abundant room below to stretch out and have a sleep, the boat has been basically designed into two areas - the aft deck and the helm.
The helm area is a step up of around 25cm from the aft deck, so more of the boat’s beam can be used to make that wide and deep cabin below and keep that walk way around the side of the cab.
The boat has plenty of weight to it and sits well in the water, so there are no worries about this raised front deck area being too high above the waterline and creating instability as you move about.
Aside from the height difference between the helm and aft deck area, they are also visually separated with the aft area being carpeted and the helm and cab area left with the smooth white gel coat finish of the fibreglass.
Looking around in the aft area you will find three big oval-shaped wells in the transom of the boat. The two outer wells are larger of the three with the smaller tank sitting centrally below the bait board.
Cutting Board
Bait boards can be quite a complex little area, becoming more of a work station than anything else, but this one has been left pretty standard. The reasonable nylon cutting board has four rod holders and a smart stainless steel frame to support it all. Rod holders are fitted in various location along the side decks to give a diversity of positions and angles to sit the rods in for trolling or setting out a bait.
Other Features
The inside of the transom and the gunwales are smartly covered and padded with the rear lounge being made of two folding seats either or both of these seats can be removed without fuss.
Most of the power and engine hardware is located behind the folding rear lounge on the two service shelves that are fitted here.
The boys at Coorparoo Marine have done a pretty good job in setting the twin oil bottles and batteries that are needed here with the twin outboards, along with all the fuel filters, power cables, battery switches and cables. They haven’t had a whole heap of room here to do the job but have managed to do it in a compact and neat manner.
I have a bit of a thing about keeping such areas neat and tidy, away from the saltwater yet still be easily accessed and not too awkward to work on.
In rough seas this area can get quite wet as the water is thrown back. If I had one criticism it would be that this area is not covered in well enough and at the very least could do with a clip-on cover that stops the salt water splashing back here and prevents any items bouncing back to the area where all these vitals are situated.
The under floor area of the aft deck has been very well utilised with three separate compartments. The largest being in the centre section to which the owner has had insulated and glassed in to provide a good size ice box.
Two long boxes are found either side of this and can be used to stow a heap of gear or can be used for mackerel boxes as there is adequate length for such fish.
Side pockets provide the necessary room for all those odds and sods as well as regularly used items.
Helm Area
We now step up into the helm area of the boat. One of the big differences here is that the swivel seats are mounted on large fibreglass boxes which have a heap of storage room in them.. Standard, they come with hatches in the front and tackle tray hatches in the back. There are many possibilities for this area though.
The stainless steel framework for the Targa top starts behind these boxes as well, with bars running horizontal across the back of the boxes, mounted to the box, the floor and the main uprights for the Targa.
While this does offer cross bracing it provides the ideal place for the crew to stand and hold onto. In a boat this size you usually have three or four anglers on board - two seated in the helm seats while travelling and two standing behind the seats - and it is the seats or part thereof that they usually hang onto. Here they have a good solid grab rail, and you will find that it will be well used.
The front of the box has a couple of recesses in it to accommodate the EPIRB and fire extinguisher. It’s a good place for them as they are out of the way and away from the salt air yet, like all safety gear, they are easily seen and easy to get to.
Dash and Gauges
The dash area is all on the driver’s side, with the passenger’s side having the walk through down into the sleeping area.
When you have twin engines and a full kit of electronics the whole dash is taken up, so a bit of careful planning is needed to make sure it all fits in neatly and in a practical manner.
The owner of this rig opted to have the Mercury smart gauges fitted. This is the first time that I have seen these gauges and they offer a number of very useful features.
You only need to have the two gauges, though in the case of twin rigs you double up on the tacho. The tacho gauge displays engine revs, hour metre, trim angle, fuel flow, engine temperature, battery voltage, water pressure, and offers a preset troll speed facility. The speedo gauge displays time, temperature, fuel economy, fuel range, trip metre, digital speed, barometer reading, and pre-set troll speed.
That is an awful lot of information, and most of it is very useful. Knowing how much fuel you are using, how much is left, how far you can expect to travel with the fuel and speed current and your economy - for long range trips or weekends away you could class many of these features as a must, or nearly so.
I’m not 100 percent sure about the preset troll speed, but I believe that you can set slower trolling speeds and the revs are automatically increased or decreased to maintain lower speeds. A bit like cruise control, though only at slow speeds.
When it comes to fishing many keen anglers would love to have a barometer on their boat, but on smaller boats it is pretty impractical. Not so here though - the Mercury Smart gauges offer a digital readout of the current barometric pressure.
The gauges, once you have worked out how to use them, could become as useful a tool as your GPS and sounder.
The rest of the gauges and switches in this rig have been kept to a minium, as there isn’t a huge area to put a lot. But what you do have in this case does offer a load of information.
Cabin
When it comes time to walk down into the cab area I just about guarantee that you will be surprised by just how much room there is in here. The bunks stretch out to near seven feet, and two big adults can lie next to each other for a good night’s sleep without worrying that one is hogging all the room.
The cabin walls are lined with carpet with matching bunk cushions, so it looks quite inviting. Below the cushions is a whole heap of more storage space, which is where you would keep a lot of your food and clothing on longer trips.
The entry into the cabin is a tinted perspex door that slides across and behind the steering helm. It does swing open and closed, doesn’t rattle and is lockable.
The walkway around the sides of the cab are just that - walkways that are nice and deep and give you sure footing all the way around. There is no worry about overbalancing or it being to hard to get up to the anchor well. It is one of the best walk arounds that I’ve seen in a boat this size.
The Targa top offers protection from the elements with an overhead rocket launcher for rod storage. Outriggers have also been fitted to this boat.
PUTTING IT TO THE TEST
When it comes to the ride it is bit hard to beat the ride of a heavy deep V fibreglass boat. The 244 Ocean Angler has a very deep 22 degree deadrise which simply carves up the average chop. Even those nasty little deep troughs that you hit with a jar don’t need a second thought.
With reversed chines and a decent reversed spray chine, the boat is very dry. The hydraulic steering allows you to throw the hull around with ease. This might be no big deal in average conditions, but when the sea and wind are up and you have to fight the conditions all the way home, the hydraulics make all the difference.
For a big boat with a pair of 135hp engines sitting on a small pod, the boat sits surprisingly level in the water. The engine blocks were getting a little close to the water level while going slow, though this was the first run of the boat in the water it appeared that the engines they could be lifted another hole or two. This is only a bit of fine tuning, and any dealer worth going to will play around a little with the motor height and even the props to get it all running as it should.
The Mercury Optimax engines were very smooth and super quiet, ticking along super slowly or rocketing the rig to a top speed of 46 knots. Once the engines are run in and the rest of the rig sorted out there is a fair chance that the boat will achieve 50 knots, which is well and truly flying.
While we were out testing we managed to work out how to get those smart gauges to give us a fuel consumption reading, which I know a lot of our readers want us to include.
During our running around - which involved all speeds - the fuel consumption averaged 37 litres an hour. That’s combined, not each engine. Looking at that sort of economy you would have to rate the 135hp Mercury Optimax engines as very efficient. There are two of them working the boat, so they don’t need to work real hard to achieve and maintain comfortable cruising speeds. With 330L of fuel under the floor, that’s a fair bit of travelling that you can do.
We didn’t venture offshore on this particular day, but the 15 knot chop of Moreton Bay didn’t even warrant slowing down for. There was no harshness in the ride, and the waves felt little more than just a slight, soft, bump.
The standard hull weighs 1350kg, so along with the extras, a pair of outboards, and a belly full of fuel, you are going to crack the two tonne mark. That is a fair lump of a boat in the water.
The internals of the hull involve a full fibreglass stringer grid giving strength and durability to the hull, with a three year structural warranty.
The Allison 244 Ocean Angler is worth a closer look if you enjoy open water fishing and are looking for a boat with good cabin room that retains the capacity for fishing around the entire vessel. Packages are available from $63,800 (the customised test boat was priced at $83,000). For further information contact Coorparoo Marine on (07) 3397 4141. |
