Stabicraft 1600 Carbon Fibre Review

The Stabicraft 1600 Fisher Carbon Series was first revealed at the 2015 Hutchwilco Boat Show. According to Stabicraft, words like “sexy” and “stealth” were apparently some of the terms used by boat show onlookers to describe the new model. Once known as the ugly ducklings of the plate aluminium boat world, Stabicraft boats have come a long way.

With the development of Stabicraft 1600 Fisher Carbon Series, this New Zealand boat manufacturer has stepped up even further.

Stabicraft 1600 Fisher Carbon Series

So what’s the deal with this new Stabicraft carbon fibre boat? Like all good inventions, the Stabicraft 1600 Fisher Carbon Series came about by accident. Well almost.

The original plan was not to create a carbon fibre boat; rather, a production problem at the Stabicraft factory needed to be resolved, and carbon fibre material seemed the most suitable solution for this marine application.

“We had too many boats to build last year and we needed to get boats out the door faster,” says Daniel Upperton from Stabicraft Marine. “One way of doing that is to build a composite superstructure and add it on at the end of the build. It helps get the process through a lot faster,” he says. “We also wanted to throw down a bit of a challenge to the marine industry. We put out a pretty radical design — and this is what you get.”

The 1600 Fisher Stabicraft Carbon features a resin-infused carbon fibre superstructure. This component is comprised of five separate parts, in turn joined to the boat. The carbon fibre material is made locally in Invercargill, the same town where Stabicraft boats are manufactured by composite engineering firm Fibreglass Innovations (Daniel says “Gareth down there is an absolute genius”).

“Gareth was one of the guys who really helped us generate the idea of using resin-infused technology and then adding that carbon fibre component, which makes the boat really stand out,” says Daniel.

Price

This Stabicraft 1600 Fisher Carbon package we saw at the 2015 Melbourne Boat Show had a 60hp Honda four-stroke outboard motor. A Maxwell RC winch was standard, as were Arrow pontoons, the Stabicraft Game Chaser Transom, wing-style coamings, and much more.

We’re told this Stabicraft 1600 Fisher Carbon was the first boat in Australia. It is currently available through Melbourne boat dealership MY Marine. Packages started from around the low $40,000 mark; a generously optioned model was around $50,000.