The combination of a better ride achieved by the all-new EVO Advance hull design, and more interior space provided by a redsigned transom, makes the new Stacer 479 Nomad a great fishing boat.

I’ve always liked Stacer’s Nomads. It’s one reason we’ve tested several previous models here in BBB. I like their simplicity. While other brands go for all the bells and whistles, Stacer has always kept its Nomads simple — although simple has never meant they miss out on the essentials that go into making a great fishing boat.

Our Managing Editor, Alex Julius, actually came up with the concept of this boat while working with Quintrex on what became its Top Ender line of fishing boats. A couple of decades later they, and their many imitators, are still some of the best fishing boats money can buy.
Interestingly, since it’s been added to the model range of virtually every tinnie builder in the entire industry, AJ’s original Top Ender has come along a bit. Originally it was just a tiller steer pointy bow dinghy hull with a casting deck in the bows and a narrow casting deck of sorts across the transom.

Various versions are on offer these days but, in the main, they boil down to an either or choice between two: one with tiller steer and casting decks bow and stern and this one with a side console and a bow casting deck only.

Both have great applications in barra and bream fishing where your territory includes both open choppy water and lure casting to structure, around tidal run-offs etc. For bass fishing, the Nomad/Top Ender style is in the main useful on impoundments only. Nonetheless, when any other type of fishing that includes choppy open water and lure casting/trolling is considered, this style of boat remains one of the more versatile options available. In short, as an all round fishing boat with some application for family/social use, it’s hard to do better than a boat like this.

Stacer actually do both versions, their tiller steer Nomads earning a self-explanatory TS designation and the side consoles are called MP models due to the addition of what Stacer call a Mod Pod transom.
I prefer the TS Nomads because of the aft casting deck and, with the motor mounted directly on the transom, there is more efficient useage of interior space. While the Mod Pod transom offers a (demonstrably safer) full height aft bulkhead, It also consumes an excessive amount of precious interior space.

To their credit, Stacer took note of comments from myself amongst others, and developed an improved version of the previous Mod Pod transom seen here in the latest 2010 model of their 479 (4.8 metre) MP Nomad.
I’m impressed as the new transom virtually doesn’t interfere with fishing space inside the boat at all, while maintaining battery stowage inside the transom itself and providing space for a reasonably-sized live bait well in the covering portside board.

Whilst minimising the Mod Pod arrangement, there’s still enough checker plate around the outboard mount itself so you can step on it when boarding over the back. As fishing boat backsides go, this is one of the best I’ve ever seen.

The rest of the boat’s interior is largely unchanged. There’s heaps of stowage beneath the casting deck, the aft section of which has a rotomoulded liner and can be plumbed as a live-well, or used as a fish box.

Stacer’s side console allows space to stow an icebox or tackle box out of the way. The comfortable bucket seats have extra sockets where the passenger seat can be located forward or aft to trim the boat, or be moved up onto the higher deck in the bows. And up on the foredeck right in the bows a large anchor well now features a drop in divider.
Now here’s another clever bit of thinking: the divider is made from a butcher’s board type material so can serve for cleaning fish. For those who use a cast net for catching bait, with the divided well there’s room for the anchor rope plus a place to dump a muddy messy net without spreading crap all over the carpet.

The shade top you see on our test boat is a standard item and, while some may think it will get in the way (which it certainly will when fishing from the aft end of the boat), there’s no arguing with the shade it offers when erected. It can nonetheless be stowed flat across the transom where it’s pretty well out of the way (or removed altogether with the aid of a screwdriver if you must get it out of the way for some reason) and that’s about as good a compromise between essential protection from the sun and fishing space as you can get.

There’s a good-sized pocket along each side of the 479 Nomad’s cockpit, and these have been kept tucked under the side decks enough not to interfere too much with leg support if fishing rough water from the cockpit.
So is the 479 Nomad’s interior all good? Only nearly.

I hate to keep harping on about this, but once again I have to drag up the same old question about where the two or three rods (and more) my fishing mate and I want to bring aboard when we go fishing will go. There are two rod holders in each side deck. But to my mind they’re there to hold rods while fishing; not for stowage.

How someone as switched on as Stacer can present us with a boat this good while continuing to ignore a very basic requirement of every keen person who goes fishing beats the hell out of me. And I’ll leave it there because I’ve said it all so many times before.

Moving on to happier topics, for 2010 Stacer has redesigned the bows. The latest hull is called EVO Advance and it involves a finer rake which in turn has influenced the bows’ sharpness and, more importantly, the deadrise angle at that critical area where the hull encounters surface chop.
It takes a hard look to see the difference but, once you know it’s there, it’s obvious enough…although not as obvious as how much these new bows have improved the rough water ride.

Let’s not get too carried away here, this is still a tinnie with a moderate deadrise hull but, as moderate deadrise tinnies go, few of them are in the same street. Yes the improvement is THAT dramatic. It’d be interesting to compare it directly with a Millennium-hulled Quintrex of similar size. Although probably unrealistic to expect EVO Advance would approach the ride quality achieved by the finest bows in aluminium hulls (achieved with way more stretch forming — to both the flare above the chines, and that critical area mentioned before where the hull cuts through surface chop) the hull under this boat has certainly set a standard for competitors to aspire to.

That EVO hulls carry their stretch forming further back along their bottom has always made them notably fuel efficient and, when combined with the Mod Pod transom, rather fine handling hulls (eg for hard turns around narrow channels) and thankfully that doesn’t seem to have changed with EVO Advance. Stacer has only made a good thing even better here.

While more expensive than the 60hp standard fit, our test boat ran an upgraded 75hp Mercury two stroke, swinging an 18 inch pitch Vengeance stainless steel propeller. I liked the 75 and would suggest most readers would too, especially people with reasonable to long distances to cover to reach their fishing spots.

The 75hp cruised effortlessly and economically at 18-20 knots (around 
30-35kph) between 3500 and 4000rpm. Flat out, the top speed was 34.7 knots; call it 70kph, at 5800rpm; and here’s why I liked the power upgrade: all while loaded with two adults and little else. You could load this boat with heaps of gear and still travel economically in the motor’s mid-range over the considerable distances the standard 
77 litre fuel tank allows; with ample top speed in hand if a fast move is deemed appropriate.

All in all, albeit if we step around the lack of rod stowage, Stacer’s latest 479 MP Nomad can be described as one great fishing boat.