BOAT REVIEW Everyman 840 CC Team Effort

Team Effort, an 8.4m walk-around centre-cab, is ample illustration why the company is growing fast. A dedicated sport-fisher with stay-away credentials, it’s MD and Sales and Marketing manager Russell Spiers’ personal boat, fitted with all the bells and whistles, but its configuration and detailing incorporate the pooled knowledge and expertise of every one of the crew at Everyman Boats.

The whole team pulled out all the stops to have this boat ready, taking it from delivery of the aluminium plates to the first on-water trial in just five weeks. Team Effort was used as a demonstrator for the latest Simrad marine electronics technology at the recent Navico Conference. Getting her finished in time was a marathon effort, explained Russell, but the Everyman crew pulled together and delivered on time.
Shortly after the Navico event Team Effort raised plenty of eyebrows at the Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show, generating at least one order for a similar vessel destined for Vanuatu.
It’s been a couple of game fishing seasons since Russell has had a boat of his own and he and his partner Jo are busting to spend time in this one. They’ve already enjoyed a couple of over-nighters onboard.
Designed by Jarrod Hall, the Everyman 840 CC is suitable for either outboard or inboard diesel power. Based on Everyman’s 820 hull, stretched 300mm to compensate for the extra 110kg of a V8 engine, Team Effort has the grunty Mercruiser 370hp V8 turbo-diesel powerplant and Bravo II leg. It would perform fine with the smaller 270hp V6 Mercruiser, says Russell and the boat destined for Vanuatu will have twin Honda 250hp outboards.
Great layout
The walk-around centre-cab layout is a real winner. This boat is large enough to pull it off – in smaller craft the cabin always feels cramped or the walk around side-decks are too narrow, or the foredeck is barely useful. In the 840 CC the cabin feels quite roomy, with decent, even generous, sleeping accommodation down below and a toilet. Russell has opted for a tandem, bench-style helm seat, comfortably upholstered with well positioned footrests that works equally well whether standing up to drive or standing. Vision through the wrap-around curved windscreens is exceptional.
The helm seat folds forward to reveal the galley unit, with stowage for eating utensil, pots and pans; the 12V fridge is under the seat. A feature of the centre-cabin is plenty of storage, for odds and ends, but also for larger items under the floor, plus an upturned lip on the carpeted dashboard to stop items sliding off.

Although it will see use mostly as a day-fisher, with more than a nod towards game fishing, Team Effort is set up as a comfortable over-nighter. There’s a hot water cylinder fed from the engine heat exchanger, a cockpit shower on the starboard side and drop-down clears to enclose the open-backed hardtop. Small skylight hatches in the hardtop ceiling and sliding side-windows provide ventilation. A privacy curtain for the forward cabin is option.
Team Effort is an out and out sport-fisher. She’s game rigged, including top-quality Reel Rods roof-mounted telescoping game poles on American Rupp Revolution bases, tuna tubes built into the transom, a live bait tank under the transom step-through and rod holders across the front of the engine box, which along with the deep, double-tier cockpit side pockets, are ideal for stowing rods in a hurry when there’s a billfish hook-up.

This Everyman has most other fishing styles covered too. The aft platform, which extends across the stern and is caged for security (drop-down gates/boarding ladders either side of the platform were yet to be fitted), addresses a PVC bait board. The platform is the logical place for straylining over the stern, handy to the wash down inside the cockpit aft on the port side.
The cockpit itself is massive. Marinedeck 2000 covers the cockpit sole, extending into the hardtop. It looks great, feels warm and resilient under foot and remains cool on a hot day. “It’s the best on the market,” insists Russell. The coamings right around the boat are topped with grey Ultralon.

The cockpit has plenty of underfloor stowage, though one of the lockers may be converted to extra fuel capacity: Team Effort currently carries 350 litres, but Russell is still getting to know the vessel and has yet to determine its range. “I want to be able to go out for a few days at a time without having to re-fuel, so I may add more capacity,” he says.
Deepwater fishing with electric reels is becoming common; Team Effort has 12V power outlets around the cockpit to accommodate this style of fishing. Through coaming rod holders are welded, nicely positioned and angled and there are sinker/drink holders (big enough for water bottles) set into the coamings. As befits a blue water boat, the gunwale is high enough to offer plenty of security. There’s plenty of freeboard, but drop-in transom doors for the cut-outs are still to come. The stern platform probably precludes too much aggressive backing down anyway.
Generous scuppers, also fitted with high-capacity bilge pumps, deal with any water that does land in the cockpit. There are two automatic bilge pumps under the floor, one forward and the other aft under the engine.
More space
The beauty of a centre-cab is the ability to easily access the foredeck, effectively increasing the fishing space and angling versatility of the vessel. Access forward is excellent with an easy step up out of the cockpit, wide side decks, roof mounted hand rails and a good-sized casting platform forward. Aluminium railings ensure you stay inside the boat when fishing from the bows, though they are perhaps angled out slightly more than is ideal. Railblaza mounts provide addition rail-mounted rod holders.

The bow is the perfect place for a couple of anglers to cast lures or for a fly fisher to wave the long wand. Even the cleats, two per side, are flush-mounted pop-up types, so there’s little to tangle a fly line. There’s a solid bollard on the bows for anchoring and solid cleats in the boat’s aft corners.
Twin anchor lockers complete the 840 CC’s dual fairlead, one for the permanently mounted Excel plough anchor and the other to accommodate a grapnel anchor for fishing over foul ground. A Quick rope-chain capstan is operated from inside the cabin.
V8 grunt
Team Effort is a pretty potent performer. The V8 Mercruiser and counter-rotating propellers ensure effortless hole shots and brilliant acceleration throughout the rev range. Mercury technicians were aboard Team Effort during the morning of our review, finishing the engine commissioning, which went off without a hitch.

The engine installation is nice and tidy. The engine box is completely sealed when closed and it does a good job of deadening engine noise when the boat’s underway. All the main service points are at the front of the Volkswagen-based Mercruiser, so they’re easy to reach, while the batteries, switches, engine blower and the diesel filler with overflow protection are mounted high up on a shelf under the engine cover.
Team Effort goes really well. We saw a top speed of around 39 knots but we were pushing a bit of tide and the boat had four adults aboard and a full tank of fuel; Russell has seen 43 knots at 4200rpm displayed on the Simrad MFD, one of two new 12-inch Simrad NSS Evo III displays flush-mounted in the helm console. As well as a powerful 1kW through-hull transducer for dual-channel Chirp sonar, Team Effort has Structure Scan, Wi-Fi, GPS-chartplotting and 4G radar. The Simrad autopilot is controlled from just inside the hardtop where it’s also easy to reach when in the cockpit, acting as an extra crew member when setting lures, for instance.
Russell has gone all out with the electronics package on this vessel. The NSS Evo III are among the first in New Zealand and the wiring alone for the electronics, lighting and accessories  is so heavy it has affected the boat’s trim ever so slightly, causing a slight list to starboard. It’s hardy noticeable and easily countered by a touch of tab (Lectrotab), but Russell will address it when he fits three deep-cycle batteries for the 36-volt Minn-Kota electric motor planned for the bow.
The Minn-Kota will allow him to ‘anchor’ Team Effort when fishing in deep water, or ease the boat along a shoreline while casting softbaits and other lures.

Team Effort handles nimbly for a relatively large trailer boat, responding nicely to the helm and promising a comfortable, stable and forgiving ride – as is so often the case, sea conditions of the day of our review were very pleasant! There was no spray to contend with, but a pair of washer-wipers will keep the windscreens clear of rain and spray.
The hull is solidly constructed with 6mm hull plates, 4mm sides, cabin and decks, four full length longitudinal stringers and cross-members at 900mm centres. With 350 litres of fuel in its belly, Team Effort weighs in at a smidgen under 3500kg on the road. She’s carried on a custom Everyman aluminium dual-axle break-away trailer with electric over hydraulic brakes.
The hardtop is strong enough to stand on – initially Russell had visions of carry a pair of kayaks up there, but with the radar dome, aerials, cockpit and foredeck floodlights  and game poles, here is too much else going happening. He’s found they fit nicely on the side decks either side of the cabin.

One for the team
Russell is rightly very proud of Team Effort and the Everyman crew, who really went the extra mile to have this boat ready in time. While Russell is unlikely to relinquish the boat in the short term, the concept definitely has plenty of potential, as the level of interest at the recent boat show confirmed. With one order already, Russell expects there will be more Everyman 840CCs leaving the company’s workshop in the near future, with 2017 shaping up to be the best year for this boatbuilder since setting up shop in 2007 just before the Global Financial Crisis.
Like all of Everyman Boat’s  10-model range, the 840 CC can be fully customised, or built to survey if required.