Boat Test Formula Icon 54
As much as we consider them sporting foes, if not the ninth state of Australia, New Zealand’s boat and yacht builders are revered. After all, most things in this world are a product of their environment.
In the Shaky Isles, it’s more often tumultuous seas, howling winds and driving rain and spray than the balmy weather we are accustomed to – at least some of the time – across The Ditch.

Enter Formula Cruisers, a 26year-old Kiwi company attracting the attention of hardcore game-fishermen in Australia – the ones chasing a boat built for the rough stuff, which can be tweaked to suit individual needs, and that doesn’t cost a motza to run. Oh, and with the present exchange rate, you get about 25 per cent more boat for your buck.

With just four boats in its range,  starting with the Icon 54, and running through a 58, 62 and 68, Formula should be considered a semi-custom boatbuilder.
In better times, the yard can trot out eight boats per year. All its boats have enclosed flybridges, with three moulded sides and a rear, aft, clear curtain around the helm station on the 54.  Unlike your average production boatbuilder, Formula works closely with each customer from conception stage.  They happily change internal layouts and, moreover in the case of this boat, cockpit fitouts and fittings to suit specific needs, such as hardcore gamefishing.
Along the way, the customer is given log-in details to their own website, so they can monitor the progress of their boat.

FANTASTIC FITOUT
Kiama Charters, the Icon 54 tested here, was the seventh Icon 54, but the first with a (Black Marlin) tower. It also boasts a no-expensespared fitout for serious fishing that, from my experience over the past 20 years, rivals any I have seen in a gameboat.

“Ordinarily, the 54 takes 24,000 man hours to build,” says Grant Senior, Formula’s general manager, owner, shipwright and marine architect, “but this was a 30,000 man-hour boat.”
Grants adds that he likes nothing better than to be on the floor, getting his hands dirty and finding solutions to challenges. “As for electronics, you won’t get change from half-amillion (Aussie) dollars,” he quips. When I caught up with the Formula boys, the Icon 54 was fresh off the ship. It had arrived in Botany Bay, NSW, whereupon the owner and his son leapt aboard for a quick run to Sydney for our test.
Following this, the boat was delivered to its new home port of Kiami on the NSW south coast. And with that, the fetching fishing village suddenly earned itself a five-star gamefishing charter boat. All those trailerboats at the Kiama and Jervis Bay canyons (18 and 24 nautical miles from the harbour respectively) will be looking on and up with envy.

The owner, who was formerly running a Steber 48, first stumbled on the Formulas at the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show the previous year. He took one look and said ‘this is it’. His list of criteria was headed by quality, and not just price, and on this score he considers the Formulas rated right up there.
As with many Kiwi-built boats, the mouldings and finish are superb.

Rather than gelcoat, the entire hull is finished in two-pack oyster-white paint for extra sparkle and easier maintenance.
He also wanted an enclosed flybridge for fishing in fair and foul weather. Although just 60 nautical miles or so south from Sydney, the weather changes tend to be more severe and brisk on the NSW south coast. Last, but not least, there are length restrictions on boats kept in tiny Kiama Harbour. Keeping within that limit was imperative.

Of course, being a charter boat, the Icon 54 is in 1E and 2B survey for fishing up to 200 nautical miles to sea. There are also plans to take the boat north and, although yet to be fitted, I’m told a heavy-tackle Chatfield (another revered Kiwi brand) chair will be fitted.
With a convertible double bed in the flybridge, the accommodation plan can sleep 11, but it’s been configured to cater for six anglers during extended live aboard charters. An FCI watermaker was fitted to complement the 1000 litres carried onboard.

KIWI CONSTRUCTION

Construction is solid 2.5cm GRP for the hull bottom, with vacuum-bagged Corecell foam composite sides and deck. The flybridge is infused, or bagged, to save weight. The Kiwis enjoy an international reputation for building boats, superyachts and maxis this way.
The hull is an interesting one. It’s a warped plane and, thus, variable-deadrise design, with a sharp 58-degree entry at its forefoot, 21 degrees of deep-vee just ahead of the engines, and with a relatively flat 10 degrees of deadrise at the transom.
Lift is generated by the flat run aft, as is stability. In reverse, the boat scoots back – and around the corner – without digging in like a traditional deep-vee.
All-important shaft angles, which are an indication of efficiency, are a low 7.9 degrees. Thus, the MTUs impart plenty of horizontal thrust and, I’m told, the calculations for a Volvo Penta IPS version give no more fuel efficiency.
The Icon 54 has a lovely profile, with a pretty sheerline and a usefully high bow. More unusual is the gunwale line – that area where the hull sides meet the top decks. Looking down at the Icon 54 from the bridge or tower reveals a huge amount of flare and a graceful, arcing bow, rather than a pointed one. It’s almost reminiscent of an overgrown banana boat.
You will also notice the knuckle in the hull sides. As Grant explains: “It’s free real estate.”
Boosting the volume of the boat in this area allows for more internal storage, while also creating a high spray rail that, during our test, visibly shed water. The Icon 54 did displace plenty of ocean, but most of that was tossed aside with a certain degree of Kiwi disdain.
The engineering is another highlight, beginning with a Seaworth engine vent system from New Zealand, with intakes high up the hull sides, and washable membranes and dorades to shed water.
Access to the engines is via a hatch back in the cockpit, which leads into a utility space housing batteries and the sight gauge for the aluminum fuel tank under the cockpit sole.
There are fuel shut-offs and a manifold system in keeping with survey requirements. The primary fuel filters are from Racor.
A watertight door forward of the utility space reveals the twin Series 60 825hp MTU electronic engines, built on 14-litre, straight-six blocks and linked to underwater exhausts.
There were heavy-duty stainless steel sea strainers, laminated sheet insulation and soft panels in case you have to remove an engine. An oil change system was to be fitted, and I noted CCT cameras and fire-fighting kit.
The engineroom was set up to retrofit one of the ZF gearbox maker’s new station-hold devices that will operate engines and bow thruster and speak with satellites to hold you in position (a story for another day).
The ZF 2.192:1 gearboxes, four-blade ZF Faster 34- by 41.5-inch props, plus big 2.75-inch shafts and rudders, complete the serious running gear.
I liked the abundant servicing room in the big, white engine room, too. But more than anything, it was the Furuno CSH-5041 commercial/ trawler-standard scanner – hey, we’re talking almost $100,000 here
– that caught my eye. Which brings us to that half-million worth of electronics, comprising the latest and greatest of everything.
In case you’re in the dark, the Furuno CSH-5041 is a full-circle, multi-beam, colour-scanning sonar for finding bait and marking fish in a large cone around your boat. Looking at the transducer, which descends below the hull surface when engaged, I reckon the sprats will come up battered and fried.
All told, the boat has 11 electronic display screens, including two 12inch Raymarine screens in the cockpit, four 12-inch screens in the tower, and three 17-inch screens and two 12-inch screens in the custom helm console in the bridge. The transducer is a 4kW model for true deep-water discrimination.
Besides gamefishing, Kiama Charters targets blue-eye, hapuka and bass grouper on the canyons. And get this: an Australian electronics bright spark was responsible for the electronics fitout.
Furthermore, there was CCT fitted in the cockpit, connected to two hard drives to capture the day’s action. “Nothing we asked for they couldn’t do,” explains the chuffed owner, pointing to the huge floodlights overhead and telling me of the underwater lights astern.
The DC power side of things is largely 24V, with a Mastervolt 16kW genset for Crusair air-con throughout. A 3kW invertor looks after the fridges and AV systems overnight.