BOAT REVIEW Purekraft 800HT The Pacific Hammer

Breaking into a sizeable overseas market so soon in a boat brand’s journey illustrates how highly regarded the New Zealand marine sector is around the world. We climbed aboard the test boat a few weeks before it headed away to a fishing-crazy family planning to use this boat in the ocean, lakes and rivers all over their state of California, all year round.
Jarrod Hall is the naval architect and leader of the team behind Purekraft and has a growing history of design success. Purekraft is an aluminium custom boatbuilder, which means that for every new boat, the customer gets considerable input into the layout, features, finishes and options. It is a design-driven approach where every detail matters.

Eight months ago, when Jarrod’s phone rang on a Sunday, little did he know that the latest Purekraft 800HT, the Pacific Hammer, was about to be commissioned. With a nine-month schedule between taking the order and delivery anywhere in the world, the Purecraft team know how to get its boats designed, built and transported to the customer efficiently and accurately. This one is no exception.

Built for action
There can be little doubt that this is a boat built for endless and varied action. The Purekraft 800HT is transported on a custom-built triple-axle trailer, making it an excellent towing option for exploring New Zealand’s coastal and inland waterways. Our test boat was fitted with some pretty cool features.

The boat we reviewed has a conventional hardtop, open to the cockpit in the rear, but an enclosed cabin option is also available. The test boat has a 12V air-conditioning unit under the helm seat, with vents in the chair and the dashboard, all designed to keep the skipper more comfortable during long stints at the helm station trolling for game fish.
The sheer number of rod holders, drink holders and fishability options is impressive. The boat’s game pole ready and has 13 rooftop rod holders, six 360o rod holders for the big tackle rigs, both a foot-operated pot hauler and a downrigger, electric reel power outlets on each side, and a large live bait tank.

The cockpit sides have loads of under-gunwale storage and are home to pair hand-washing stations, one per side. These are knee operated, directing a stream of water outboard over the water – no more messy taps, fiddling with hoses or having dirty water collect in the bilges.

Designed with style
The Purekraft 800HT is a considerable trailer boat that cuts an imposing figure on its trailer. It is slightly understated and unassuming on the water, but looks well proportioned from the bow, mid-ships cockpit and stern transom areas. Step on board, though, and it is abundantly clear that this boat is special.
The 800HT feels long, wide, deep and just very cool. It is a boat you want to spend as much time on as possible and home to so many stylish features, including a classy interior fitout.

Overall length is 8.20m, and most of this is genuinely usable, while the beam of 2.65m provides an enormous amount of internal volume to play with.
A curved one-piece windscreen dominates the hardtop and provides everyone aboard with excellent vision ahead. Both windscreen wipers store out of the way when not in use.
Up forward there’s a large forward cabin suitable for easy overnighting. The foredeck is flat, making it equally suitable for fishing or chilling out in comfort. Double-height bow rails and raised sheerline make the foredeck into a safe space.

The hardtop has an internal head height of 6’5” (1.96m), which is ample for most people. Each side has large sliding windows. The walk-through space is wide, which makes getting around the boat more manageable, especially when underway, a Dometic fridge-freezer unit is tucked under the starboard seat, while the port seat box houses the 110-litre Dometic chilly bin. An amazing design feature has the aft-facing port seat slide out to become a comfortable day lounger.
This feature is a clever design solution to a couple of challenges when living with any boat: where will the chilly bin go, and where can any non-fishing crew relax and watch without feeling like they are in the way?

The boarding platform has a hidden ladder suitable for divers and handy when boarding the boat on the trailer. The engine rigging is extremely tidy. A transom-mounted custom bait station is set at an ergonomically friendly height – great for processing fish – and it also houses a useful tackle drawer, while the retractable sunshade extends the roof length and provides shade for those sunnny California days.

Ease of use
The hull is constructed with 8mm aluminium plate under the waterline and 5mm plate for the rest of the structurewhich gives the boat a solid feel.. With a deadrise of 18o at the transom, a wide beam and downturned chines, the 800HT felt stable at rest and happy to tackle any sea state.

Four batteries, circuit breakers and C-Tek charging connectors are tidily housed in a sealed locker in the transom with great access for maintenance. The batteries are controlled via a BEP smaryt battery hub with the remote switches conveniently located on the dash. There are two wireless phone chargers, cubby holes everywhere for storage, and drink holders galore.
The soft black Seadek used everywhere looks very sharp, and this non-slip solution makes for safer boating in all conditions. The head is in the front cabin, which the sliding door can close off. A black water tank is tucked away under the forward bunks, necessary to meets the strict legal requirements for boats in the USA.

The drum winch can be monitored from the cockpit when in operation and the spotlight on the bowsprit will make returning to port at night a more straightforward operation without the glare of a roof-mounted light.

Performance
While inboard diesels are a popular choice for the larger boats in the Purekraft range, this boat is powered by twin 300hp outboards – 600hp!
The pair of Yamaha F300hp engines showcase Yamaha’s new styling and features. The renowned 4.2-litre engine platform has incorporated technological advancements previously only seen on Yamaha’s flagship V8 425hp XTO.

One of the main new features is Yamaha’s Thrust Enhancing Reverse Exhaust system, which reportedly delivers increased prop grip and thrust for improved manoeuvring in docking situations and when reversing up to your catch. The engine set-up certainly packed a punch during our testing, no matter what we did.
Another feature of these engines is the new Total Tilt system, which allows the outboard to fully tilt up and down from any position with a simple double push of the Up or Down tilt buttons. This makes operation more manageable, and the new mounting bracket system allows the engine to sit higher out of the water when not in use – useful if vessel is living in a berth rather than on a trailer.

The test boat also benefitted from Yamaha’s Helm Master EX control system. This joystick and integrated control system gives precise directional control and allows the skipper to hold station at the touch of a button.
EX stands for expandable, meaning customers can install the complete Helm Master EX system from the outset, or begin with a base-level set-up and expand their boat’s capabilities over time. Upgrades are simple, with no complicated hydraulics, additional batteries, or complex third-party integration components needed.
The joystick control’s suite has three built-in SetPoint functions. Three modes of SetPoint are available to the skipper at the touch of a button: FishPoint, DriftPoint and StayPoint.
FishPoint is the feature fishermen love. The system uses minimal engine RPM and the all-new electric steering to hold the boat in position, allowing you to quickly set the boat and get lines in the water.

DriftPoint is another excellent feature for anglers. It will keep the bow pointed in a set direction while allowing the boat to drift naturally with the wind or current. DriftPoint Track performs the same function, using additional engine thrust and steering to drift along a set track of waypoints plotted on a compatible multifunction display.
Multi-engine set-ups can also access StayPoint, which works to maintain the boat’s heading and position.
The Pacific Hammer features a ZipWake trim system, twin 16-inch Garmin MFD screens, a GT56UHD and a 1kW through-hull CHIRP transducer, a Yamaha fuel and engine management system, radar ,and a Fusion stereo.
During the test session, sea and wind conditions were light to moderate. The performance statistics were excellent. At 1,600rpm and 8.3knots, the engines were barely audible with a fuel burn of 2.1 litres per nautical mile (l/nm). At a slow planning speed of 12.3knots, 2,200rpm, the fuel burn was 2.6l/nm, while at 22.1knots, 3,000rpm, fuel burn dropped back to only 2.1l/nm.

On test day, we quickly achieved over 42 knots. Holeshots, performance and handling are excellent, with plenty of grip in the turns and plenty of mid-range punch for bar crossings. In testing, Purekraft achieved 52 knots.

Summary
Overall, the 800HT proved to be soft-riding and very quiet underway. Its ride and handling instil a level of confidence in its performance that should encourage any crew to get out there and at it. The Pacific Hammer has been cleverly thought out – a boat that will deliver everything for its US owners, whether that’s exploring, chilling, fishing, or diving.