Check out the new IV707 Explorer getting put through its paces and get an insight into the design features that go into every Innovision boat with founder Simon Minoprio.
Here at NZ Fishing World, I am lucky, and sometimes unlucky enough, to spend a good amount of time at sea on many different boat brands.
Nowadays it’s often to create boat video content, which is how I first ran into Simon Minoprio, the founder of alloy boat company Innovision Boats.
No longer considered ‘new’ to the market, Innovision have been producing what I would class as boutique custom boats for several years.
The boat market is booming at the moment, and customers placing their orders are no strangers to having to now wait up to six months or more for the right boat to be built, and sometimes even longer depending on the availability of anything from windscreens to outboards that have been held up due to the old C19.
NZ boat factories are often at capacity, and with a shortage of skilled fabricators and other limitations, waiting for your baby boat to finally pop out of the factory must seem like a long time for those lucky enough to be on the receiving end.
One brand that I know will be worth the wait, after having been on several models in varying sea conditions, is Innovision.
Marketing Innovision boats is easy. With a plethora of alloy rigs on the market, some great, some not so great, it’s often hard to tell a new story or find a significant point of difference.
Not so with the Innovision boats. Their distinctive look, which most people seem to either love or hate, immediately peaks some sort of response.
A plumb (vertical) bow, that is immediately flared wide and a cabin roof set extra high, immediately puts a lot of cat swinging room up front where other conventional sloped hulls have none. The cabin space on even the smaller models really has to be seen to be appreciated, and easily accommodates bunks or high volume storage.
The first impression on board the Innovision boats is that they are at least a metre bigger than the model number on the side suggests.
The first equal impression, is that the build quality on these boats is absolutely top notch. There’s nothing rough, flimsy, or impractical on board at all. Everything from bait stations to cockpit details has had extra thought and effort put into making it a superbly crafted product.
The ride of these boats is what Simon Minoprio is most proud of. With a history of competitive sailing, and a pretty determined can-do kiwi attitude, Simon knows what he wants his boats to be and has achieved his objectives nicely. collaborating with highly acclaimed boat designers to turn his computer designs into reality.
Although the boats are somewhat snub-nosed to the eye, they actually feature a particularly sharp entry to the water which will cut into, and through the wave, distributing the water down a deeper V, long waterline, and out through a wider transom, which in turn also offers a high degree of stability.
I’ve seen Yamaha, Suzuki, and Honda on the back of Innovision boats, so engine choice is up to the buyer to some degree.
Having moved factories a few times now, to cater for upscaling production, Innovision are now a front runner for must-consider if you are looking to go alloy.
They make a sensationally built, incredibly stable and roomy fishing platform, that performs really well in a decent sea, offers a huge scope for personal customization, and are fast building a popular following.
Like all good things, extra quality and customized craftsmanship comes at a cost, but from what I’ve experienced there are other alloy boat builders out there charging as much for less performance and lower build level.
Innovision boats are competitively priced for what they offer, but are not for the masses, much like Alfa Romeos or Porsches, but therein lies part of the appeal to those that are fans.
If you want to check out the Innovision range, their website is HERE
We recently set to sea for a quick blast on a new IV707 Explorer, and I filmed from a little 515 Active walkaround, as we bounced about in a fairly lumpy swell off Omaha that the camera tends to flatten.
The 707 did a bit of flattening also, making short work of anything that was thrown at it as you can see from the video. I’m flying a drone at 20 odd knots less than a metre off the wave tops from inside the cabin at one point, which is a great testament to how smooth the ride was in those conditions. This just isn’t possible in some boats.
Check out the video, and a bit of an update on the Innovision range in action.
Scott MacDonnell
NZ Fishing World
