BOAT REVIEW Assault 610 Adventure RIB

The  610 Adventure is a sports boat, an all-rounder suitable for general family boating and ideal for a seaside holiday home.
We launched the RIB at Half Moon Bay before heading out into the inner Hauraki Gulf on a spectacular warm, sunny autumn afternoon.

Confession time: when we slipped the 610 into the water we left out a couple of bungs, filling the hull with water deep enough to slosh around on the deck. It was a foolish mistake but easy enough to make with an unfamiliar boat.
As a result, our first order of business was to rid the boat of excess seawater…
The Assault 610 has a fully moulded deck liner featuring integral seat bases which provide internal dry storage, a folding centre console with an acrylic screen and a stainless-steel grab rail, an anchor locker in the bows that doubles as a bow seat and a moulded fairlead with a roller and cleat fixed to the tube.
There’s ample seating, including a dual helm seat with a folding backrest, a bench-style full-width rear seat, a forward-facing seat in front of the console and a bow seat. Non-slip is moulded into the deck and the tubes feature textured black non-slip PVC on their upper surfaces, as well as substantial rubbing strips around the perimeter and plenty of grab handles.
Power for the Assault 610 Adventure is a new model Yamaha F90 four-stroke outboard. While reasonably lightweight, the Assault is quite a large, solidly-built vessel, so I was interested to see how it went with just a 90hp outboard.

In short, the new Yamaha coped admirably with the load. Hole shots were not startling –  I suspect there was still some water in the hull ­– but once up on the plane the boat performed very well. Later in the afternoon we loaded five people on board and the 610 still got along very nicely.
The new Yamaha 90hp features a large capacity 1.8-litre block, which helps explain why it copes so well with five passengers, and its power delivery is very strong across the rev range. The best combination of fuel efficiency and speed was between 3,500rpm and 4,000rpm where the 610 loped along at 18-20 knots. Top speed was a little over 30 knots. The PVC fuel tank inside the aft locker holds 100 litres and there’s provision for another 60-litre tank under the seat in front of the console.
The Assault 610 Adventure rides softly and it’s quiet too, especially since the F90 is such a quiet engine. It holds tight in the turns, only leaning over until the tubes come into contact with the water. There’s not a lot of freeboard at the transom, but any water sloshing into the moulded well drains easily enough via the scupper.

The rigging is nice and tidy and the steering is light, which is not always the case with a centre-console. There’s space on the dash for flush-mounted electronics, in this case a 10-inch Garmin MFD, a VHF radio and a switch panel.
The integral helm seat is quite close to the console – fine when sitting down, though the seat base is quite low, but a bit cramped if you like to drive standing up. I found myself with one knee on the seat a lot of the time.

Rear seats are comfortable and easily accommodate three abreast, while the seat in front of the console is the plum position on a nice day like we enjoyed.
The Assault 610 Adventure is supplied on a DMW single-axle, multi-roller trailer. All up, towing weight is around 900kg.
Welded not glued
Assault RIBS are constructed using high-quality German manufactured Mehler/Heytex PVC fabric that’s then welded rather than glued for the strongest possible, most durable joints. Thermal welding results in a permanent bond that is stronger than the material it joins.
Mehler/Heytex PVC fabric is highly resistant to ultraviolet (sunlight) damage and more resistant to abrasion than Hypalon and PVC tubes are easily repaired.
The Adventure 610 features five sealed chambers for safety and peace of mind should the RIB suffer a puncture.  Carrying capacity for the 610 is 1,500kg or 11 people.

New Yamaha
The larger Assault 610 has the new Yamaha F-series four-stroke F90 outboard.
The Yamaha F90 is a 1.8-litre four-cylinder, 16-valve, inline single overhead camshaft engine based on Yamaha’s F115B. It has a larger capacity block than the old 1.5-litre F80-F100 it replaces, but is more compact and 10kg lighter thanks to the adoption of a single overhead camshaft design (SOHC) actuating four valves per cylinder. This valve train design was first seen in Yamaha’s award-winning F70A introduced a few years ago.

The powerhead, valve train and combustion chamber design, along with lean burn technology, deliver fuel savings of up to 10 per cent over the previous generation engine, according to Yamaha, and the new F90 is said to be quieter too.
From our experience with the new outboard, Boating can confirm it’s an exceptionally quiet unit, and smooth running as well.
The new Yamaha F90 is available in two shaft lengths and is fully compatible with Yamaha Command Link digital gauges, as well as third party multi-function displays, GPS units and fish finders through the NMEA2000 protocol.