My new boat - Fusion 19

When I decided to move back to Oz, a boat was always part of the plan. After owning my UB 520 for almost 10 years and seeing plenty of other boats, I had a good idea of what I wanted in a boat. It needed to be around 6m long, with lots of deck space and casting decks, good dry storage, in-gunnel rod storage for fully rigged fly rods, and a wet deck/scupper set up like my UB - no relying on dodgy bilge pumps for me thanks. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any AU boat option that fit the bill, so it was probably going to be a US import. 

Whilst here in SA I had the opportunity to fish on the FlyCastaway Fusion 17 boats that they use on Sterkfontein dam and was impressed with the ride and the finish, and the way they could be customised quite extensively. I also spoke to a couple of people that have them back in Oz (Pete Fry in HB and Andrew Susani in Mackay) and they gave glowing reviews. As I was going to be bringing my car and motorbike back with me, I contacted the shipper and was comforted to know that going from a 20' to a 40' container wasn't going to make a huge difference (approx 40% increase in overall shipping cost), so I got in touch with Brent at Fusion and started the discussion.

Now Fusion have an agent in AU based in Hervey Bay, but I wasn't prepared to wait till I got back to start the whole process, but they confirmed they were happy to build me a boat but then it was my business shipping it over. Being a short flight away from their factory in Knysna also helped so after working through all the details I took the opportunity to go visit a friend in Knysna, do some grunter fishing there and most of all go for a test ride and a factory visit.

 On the day we went for a test ride, the sea was as calm as can be, too calm for the boat designer James that took us for a spin in his boat. The Knysna Heads are renowned for being incredibly rough, one of the few places in the world that Lloyd's won't insure, and James likes to show what his boat can do. James' 19 had a Merc 225 on the back with a jack plate, and that thing is a rocket - after a number of attempts he got us airborne going through the heads, and I tried as much as I could to unsettle it out in the ocean, to no avail. I was sold!

We went back to the factory; it had just re-opened after holidays and they were cleaning the 4 moulds (15, 17, 19 and 21), and had a walk around, discussed a few more details and the order was confirmed, and the build slot secured!

So after confirming the specs and paying the deposit, the wait started until one day I got a WhatsApp message showing my boat coming out of the mould - happy days!:

I had decided on the following fitout: 

• front and rear casting decks with EVA decking
• no exposed cleats or anything that could catch a line - 5 pop up cleats in total - 1 on the bow and 2 on each of the gunnels
• Front lean post 
• Prep for bow mount electric motor
• In gunnel rod holders - for 10' long rods
• built in esky - front of the console under the seat
• raw water deckwash and live bait tank
• cushions for the full front deck
• Trim tabs

The trim tabs warrant a special mention, as Fusion had never fitted any before, but for me they were a must, like hydraulic steering. Luckily I had a friend travelling to the US for business so I was able to order and have him bring back a set of 9 x 12 Lenco tabs with the LED actuator switches - Fusion were able to fit these for me at the factory.

As the days went past more pictures trickled in showing great progress:

And just like that the boat was ready to be loaded onto it's shipping frame and transported up to Johannesburg - after a number of calls and messages I was lucky to find a tow truck returning to Brits, a town just north of Johannesburg, so the boat was loaded and on it's way to a packing yard in Johannesburg where it would await the container

On the day it arrived I was finally able to see it in the flesh for the first time - and apart from a bunch of locusts picked up near Graaff-Reinet, all was good

And then last week I finally got the call I was waiting for from the shipper - container loading time. I headed down to the packing yard and watched them skilfully load my car, bike and my boat into the container:

Vessel in Durban should be leaving early next week, ETA in Brisbane early July. Motor is ordered and deposit paid, as is the trailer, now I just have to wait some more for the next phase in AU.

In the end it took a bit longer, thanks to the vagaries of global shipping, compounded by Covid...  The container went from Durban to Port Louis, Mauritius, where it then waited for almost 3 weeks before then going to Sydney. It spent 2 weeks in Sydney and then finally to Brisbane, but not without a side trip to Noumea, New Caledonia.... On the 26th of July I finally got the all clear to go and collect the boat, so I went down to Spitfire trailers on the Gold Coast to collect the trailer that had been ready for a while. 

 

 

After a detailed brief on maintenance and set-up from the owner Peter, I headed off to the packing yard in the port of Brisbane to collect the boat. Unfortunately as it was a bonded warehouse I was not allowed to take any photos, but they used a jib arm on a giant forklift to lift the boat off the shipping cradle and onto the trailer. I then spent a bit of time adjusting bunks and rollers before finally heading off to the boat yard for the motor fitout, with a quick stop at home to unload a few extra bits that had travelled with the boat.

I managed to get to Brisbane Marine just before closing time, and left the boat there for the motor fitout. Whilst they started the fitout I was finally able to get the hull registered, which ended up being very straightforward, via a visit to my local TMR office. A combination of COVID cases at the boat shop and public holidays slowed things down, but 10 days later I finally drove up to went to check up on progress of the boat. 

 

Everything was as I hoped, with a few adjustments still required so after testing the motor we took the boat down to the marina for the long awaited water trial. The boat was very easy to launch, and the Mercury 150 ProXS had plenty of torque and power, getting the boat up on to the plane with no effort and in no time. The Minn Kota tested fine so I was finally able to take Invictus home, in preparation for it's first journey on the weekend

That Saturday I finally took the boat out for it's first run, across the bay to Tangalooma and for a good run at speed, and I was blown away by the performance, comfort and stability. Fuel consumption was great, holeshot even too fast so more tweaking required with the prop size to better optimise speed and cruise. I still didn't have a GPS chartplotter installed so difficult to really tell, but everything worked as planned and my wife and son were very impressed

The following week I took the boat back to get a few things adjusted, including fitting a longer pitch prop. I then took the boat up the coast for the first fishing trip - a short morning session on the Noosa river, where both my son and I caught a few trevally - a great maiden fishing trip.

On the way back I took the boat to Rob Wood at SCMED and he installed the Garmin chartplotter, NMEA bus and a compass and everything was pretty much complete. That weekend my son and I went out on the bay for the first tuna fishing venture, and we almost succeeded, but the following weekend we found the longtail tuna feeding and I managed to hook and land a solid 28lber on my 9 weight flyrod - a great fish and a great way to blood Invictus

I'm still tweaking and adjusting a few things, part of the fun of boat ownership, but I couldn't be happier with the way the boat rides. Once I'm happy I'll add some performance stats, but so far it seems to cruise at 24kts at 3800rpm, doing about 1.1nm/l which is great economy. Top speed so far is 42.4kts (GPS speed) and with the 200l tank I should get more than enough autonomy for any trip I will do.

Special thanks to the following people who played a part in this long process:

• Brent at Fusion Boats
• Troy at Brisbane Marine
• Peter at Spitfire Trailers
• Rob Wood at SCMED