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Good things do come in small sizes – just look at the Brooker 435 Getabout! This handsome little tinnie runabout proves the point you don’t need big bucks to go boating.

As the name implies the Brooker 435 Getabout is about getting you about on the on the water soon and with less hassle.

In many ways this compact tinnie turns the clock back to a time when the average family runabout was smaller, and modestly powered. And at the same time the Getabout manages to incorporate a lot of the modern, convenience features we expect in boats today. For example –very comfortable pedestal seats, wheel steering and electric tilt/trim control on the outboard.

This baby Brooker certainly won’t be your craft of choice for offshore fishing, however will be well suited to boating about the bays and backwaters of your home state.

Most importantly the Brooker 435 Getabout provides the chance to get on the water cheaper and sooner. For less than $20,000 Getabout gives you the chance to explore the waterways, wet a line and take a friend or two along for the ride.

Shrinking the size also helps to make the whole package car tow friendly. Indeed, in most cases you won’t even need a braked trailer.

And mark my word. This will be a particularly nice rig for the older Empty-Nesters. It’s a good size for a mature couple to handle and go boating without too much carry on at the ramp. This small runabout is going to be easy to park especially after you’ve down-sized to a smaller apartment, or townhouse.

The smaller size of the Getabout also suits beach launching – over sand, provided you have suitable four-wheel drive vehicle. And talking of beaches and fun in the summer the 435 Getaway would work just well for younger couples as well. With many young couples start off living in city apartments a boat that fits comfortably into a limited car space makes sense!

Like the new generation small cars the 435 Getabout delivers on styling. Brooker’s design team has made sure the styling is attractive and makes the craft look substantial.

Pricing is also pretty tempting too. Our test boat supplied by Andrew Short Marine cost just $19,840 ex-Sydney with Mercury 40hp, trailer, sounder, bimini and safety gear.

Note that the boat also goes under the brand name of Sea-Al when sold through Andrew Short Marine. However, it’s exactly the same boat in all respects as the Brooker.

DESIGN

There’s nothing particularly radical about this design. However, what the Brooker 435 Getabout delivers looks appealing with modern, smooth topside and pod transom. The latter helps to give the craft better performance, stability and access aboard. The pod forms a natural step and with a folding ladder makes for easy boarding from water, or ramp.

At the same the 435 Getabout provides a traditional tinnie shape that has a shape entry but shallow vee back end. This is the time-proven shape that works because it delivers good fishing stability and doesn’t need heaps of horsepower to plane.

The hull measures 4.45m overall matched to a generous 1.85m beam and hull depth (keel to side deck level) of 96cm. All this means the Getaway can take long 20inch outboard motors.

There’s also plenty of big-boat features in this boat like the enclosed outboard well and transom pod. The enclosed transom is especially handy in places like Botany Bay where you can encounter quite steep wave chop in summer.

And what about that two-tone colour scheme with black beauty topsides? Coupled with the white decks and silver decals the Getabout really is an arresting sight on the trailer.

Brooker has certainly improved build quality too in this latest model. Paint work is very clean and impressive, whilst the hull features a quite robust 3mm bottom and 2mm topside panels. You can’t accuse them of skimping on the build quality and I was pleased to see items like a bowsprit for anchoring.

By the way, the 435 Getabout comes with a matching Brooker trailer that has moulded fibreglass guards, and keel rollers and side support bars. You also get foam-flotation to meet Basic buoyancy standards under the Australian Builders Plate (ABP).

Meanwhile, hull weight of 360kg translate to a trail weight about 750- 800kg go that puts the craft within the tow range of medium-sized cars like the Mazda 6 or the Honda Accord.

PERFORMANCE

We lucked into a fairly nice, warm day for our test. The location was Andrew Short Marine’s marina branch at Middle Harbour where we were able to enjoy a coffee and brochette after our test run.

While the marina is a fairly salubrious setting for small tinnie test the Getabout was by no means of place. Indeed, this small runabout seems ideal for voyaging around the harbour and calling into the many marina cafes that Sydney has to offer. You might even get to catch the odd leather jacket in between!

After launching and driving clear of the moorings I gave the Brooker’s throttle the gun and got her planing. She certainly came onto the plane very readily and this would mean further fuel savings because the boat wouldn’t be struggling to get over the hump.

Running down towards the Sydney Heads I was also able to employ the electric tilt and trim to get the bow attitude just right. This would further enhance fuel consumption and enable us to get top speed upwards of 27 knot – pretty quick for a boat this size.

Whilst there’s no getting away from the fact that boat this size is very sensitive to wave chop we enjoyed a fairly comfortable ride. The trick was to watch the wave patterns and avoiding any high-jumps off extra steep boat wash, or swell.

Helping here is the quite comfortable and padded pedestal seats. They give you good body-hugging support and have adjustment on the driver side. There’s also a deep foot-well to give you extra legroom.

During the course of our test I found it quite OK driving from the seated position, in fact it was more comfortable than trying to steer standing up.

Overall the 435 Getabout impresses as a boat that can handle enclosed coastal waters like Sydney Harbour quite well. It probably could be used to fish near-coastal reefs on good days, however should never be viewed as a true offshore boat. For exploring, cruising and fishing rivers and coastal or inland lakes its spot on.

POWER

The 435 Getabout is rated to take motors between 30 – 40hpof either two or four-stroke persuasion. We tested with the 40hp motor and the results were pretty pleasing. If you carry any sort of passenger load you need this level of power.

We didn’t have a working RPM gauge but we got the following GPS results based on the three popular speed levels:

Low Plane               14 knots  

¾ Throttle Cruising     18 knots

Full Speed              27 knots

These results are pretty good for a boat this size and more than sufficient to cover most boating activities – including pulling the kids along on a ski tube. Having said that, I’d love to see how this boat would perform with a 60hp or 50hp four-stroke. My guess is these motors would give the 435 Getabout a smoother power delivery and would certainly be better on fuel and quietness.

I’m not too sure that a 40hp motor would be sufficient power for this weight of rig and therefore I’d suggest a 50hp or 60hp outboard is the way to go.

And talking of motors, the Getabout shallow bottom means there’s no room for an in-floor fuel tank; however the portable plastic tank mounted behind the rear lounge is quite sufficient. If you need more fuel just add an extra 25-litre fuel tank.

Our test boat also came with full motor fit-up, battery, battery box, mechanical steering and electric start at helm.

DECK LAYOUT

This is going to be a pretty happy little rig for coastal, inshore boating. It comes standard with a bowsprit anchor roller, split bowrail and a moulded fibreglass anchor well. You also get a Tee bollard and also navigation lights mounted on the rear of the bow rails. Meanwhile, you get a tinted Perspex windscreen with centre-opening panel. Combined with a short dash you can easily lean through the opening window and reach the anchor point quite easily.

I might mention the high windscreen gives very effective spray/wind protection over the helm area. On the passenger-side you also get a plastic glovebox and the plain dash has steering wheel, motor gauges and a Humminbird 160 sounder.

Our test boat was also fitted with an (optional) folding bimini canopy and envelope cover.

The cockpit gives you smooth side decks, small side pockets for your fishing gear and a carpeted floor. There are also four rod holders in the side decks, which is a surprisingly generous number for a boat of this size and price bracket.

Another great fishing feature in the Brooker 435 Getabout is the overhead five-pack rod rack or rocket-launcher as most fishos call it. Combined with the deck rod holders this provides a pretty decent starting point for fishing.

On the subject of fishing the pedestal seats can be rotated to become effective angler seats. The rear lounge can also be a great spot to fish from, though most keen fishos will probably pull it out and so they can stand-up casting.

Just what you’d other gear you add really boils down to your style of fishing. I imagine most readers would want at least have a sounder for fish-finding and, perhaps, even a combo sounder/chartplotter so you can find GPS marks.

Really I think you’d be running the risk of over-capitalising the boat if you added much more though a small VHF radio is always good for safety, a berley buckets are also handy fish attractors.

VERDICT

Brooker has been one of the quiet achievers in the tinnie boat market for some time. It’s a company that’s also pretty big into trailers, but has built boats for many, many year’s right back to the 1960s. Most importantly it has always concentrated on the smaller, more affordable end of the market.

The 435 Getaway is a perfect example of the Brooker approach and I believe it’s right on the money for today’s market. Especially with rising fuel costs and diminishing real incomes we’ve got to be very smart about our future boat purchases. Sure you could buy a much bigger second-hand boat for around $20,000 but will this boat give as economical, or hassle-free boating.

The argument for the 435 Getabout is very similar to the argument for the smaller four-cylinder car. There’s just no question it’s going to save you money in the long term and it’s probably going to give you just as much fun.

Brooker has done a great job on the styling of the Getabout and I think it’s going to start getting some first-time boaties off their butts and out on the water this summer.