Campion 545i Bowrider Review

Champion Campion   

More room, more power, adds up to even bigger thrills

In the November edition, the Modern Boating team took a Campion 545i Bowrider for a blast around Sydney Harbour and ended up lunching at the excellent Boathouse restaurant on Blackwattle Bay top boat, great meal! And while she wasn’t the biggest boat out on the harbour, this spritely 18-footer more than made up for it with plenty of grunt and vigour.

But those wishing to upgrade to a larger model which doesn’t mean taking more people to lunch… unless you want to now have the opportunity to get behind the wheel of the 545i’s bigger sister the 595i.

This Canadian-built Campion has all the features of the smaller 545i and then some, but her larger 21ft 6in length and 8ft 2in beam give her a lot more interior room to play with.

Performance & handling
The moderate-vee hull is light and easy to handle at all planning speeds and can be flicked confidently into corners with a predictable outcome. Like the smaller boat, but to a lesser degree, the 595i displays a gentle porpoising action at higher speeds, which can be easily trimmed out. The APEX hull design gives good lift and ‘hole-shot’ and responds well to trim. According to the team at Campion, powered by the optional 350 Mag MerCruiser, or the 5.7lt GXi Volvo, she’ll howl along at well over 50mph.

This bowrider had a big swim platform and ample power. She’s an all-rounder that will also offer plenty of pleasure to the wake boys and the kids with the tow toys.

Interior layout
The dash was blessed with an array of instruments, which included fuel, oil, speed and tacho and switches for everything from the quality stereo to the cockpit lighting.

The vessel’s interior had some well thought out features. There were loads of stainless steel drink holders and grab handles and the carpets were removable for easy cleaning. To aid stern access there’s a removable centre cushion in the sunpad, which keeps dirty feet off the upholstery.

Other features included the extended swim platform and a foldaway swim ladder. The boat has plenty of storage from simple things like storage pockets in the rear of the seats and the large under-floor lined ski and board locker to a cavernous in-dash glove box.

No wood
Campions use integrated fibreglass stingers, so there’s no structural timbers in the vessels. They also use a Kevlar layer to further strengthen the 3D-Weave fibreglass hulls.

Prices start at $59,900, including trailer, rego and all the safety gear. With a price tag like that, the Campion 595i Bowrider is a value-for-money bowrider that offers a standard of finish and performance to please the whole gang.