Tested | CruiseCraft EX720HT with Yamaha 4.2L 300 DES

Starting at the back, this boat was powered by the first white, 300HP 4.2L DES Yamaha 4-stroke in the country. That’s a fair mouthful, but apart from a coat of white paint, there’s some key differences between this engine and its 4.2L F-series predecessor that shares the same block.

The DES is an acronym for Digital Electric Steering. It’s housed in the cylindrical barrel where regular hydraulic steering is usually fitted, but it’s not some sort of electric/hydraulic hybrid, it’s 100% fluid free and plugs seamlessly into Yamaha’s Helm Master EX system that they launched in 2020.

More about that later, but from an aesthetic point of view, the white motor definitely looks like it belongs on the white Cruise Craft hull.

It arrived at the shoot on an alloy EasyTow trailer, towed by the popular Ford Ranger. As rigged, it just falls under the 3.5 tonne limit allowed on the Rangers, although you’d have to watch this when fully fuelled and packed for a trip. The weight can creep up when you don’t rationalise your gear.

At 300HP, the test boat was rigged with maximum horsepower, although the specifications sheet recommends 250HP for this hull.

Launching was a simple drive-off - easy with a couple of people and plenty smooth with the digital controls.

Yamaha’s Will Lee demonstrated some of the digital features, like push button starting and fob proximity security as well as double-tap trimming, but it was the integration of the rest of the Helm Master EX features that piques our interest, and this Cruise Craft was fitted with them all.

I’m the first to admit that I haven’t driven many boats with autopilot. And after a minute of training, it was easy to set a course and adjust the sensitivity of the corrections. Although this seemed intuitive, Glen Gibson reminded me that it hasn’t always been this easy.

“It used to be a bit of an art to get an autopilot set just right and it hasn’t always been as simple as a couple of touches on a touch screen to tweak it on the run,” he said.

I liked that you could set a speed to fix to RPMs or to GPS speed and as expected, the fly-by-wire was smooth and quiet.

Traction while manoeuvring on the joystick has been helped by direction of exhaust gases to above the cavitation plate. It gives the prop more to grip and less aeration while driving on the joystick or while holding position.

The helm itself seemed custom built to hold the EX controls. Considering that you can only buy Cruise Craft boats with factory-fitted Yamaha outboards nowadays, then this makes sense. There was Cruise Craft’s own, comfortable seating (with cold box storage underneath) and plenty of room to flush mount the biggest of Garmins you’d want in this rig.

A roomy cabin up front was separated by a lockable, sliding door and features a toilet to keep the family happy and plenty of length to stretch out.

There’s a similar amount of room down the back, with a spacious cockpit that’ll hold all of your fishing mates. In fact, the back of this boat is very fishable indeed. There’s a removable bait station across the transom, a transom door and live bait tank on the opposite side. Gunwales are understandably deep and it’s soft underfoot on thee custom SeaDek.

There’s plenty of storage for gear and fish underfloor and a pair of long kill boxes that’ll hold most mackerel. And as a bonus, you can order the optional sun shade extension to keep more of you out of the weather. We think that this retractable bit of shade is a must on any hard top boat!

The hard top itself is solid. It holds the radio gear along the front edge and can rig a radar dome on top with ease. The rocket launcher will hold 10 rods up there and the optional floodlights are great for a night session.

You can tell this fishing boat has evolved over the years to a point where everything is in the right place.

Speaking of history of this hull, you’ll see it described as a 685 in previous iterations. It’s the same hull, just rebadged to fit current measurement and naming conventions.

And although you can access the front of the boat through the front hatch and by walking around, it’s definitely not a ‘walkaround’ design. You need to hold on with every appendage while shuffling around the outside.

“We like to fit everything possible at the factory,” Nathan said, “it means that we have ultimate control over how everything is rigged and that means less problems down the track for the owner.”

We think that Cruise Craft dealers will like this a lot - just add a battery, do your pre-delivery and go and water test it. There are 8 Cruise Craft dealers nationally and the factory is also happy to guide you through the purchase process.

You can do more research at www.cruisecraft.com.au. And, of course, we mentioned the price. As tested, no change from $240,000.

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