Fishing/Dive boat options
Had a change of heart from buying a jetboat to buying a family type boat, (been saving for a while) especially since the cook thought having a jetboat in my case at least, was a tad selfish and the family would see little of it.
She is probably/normally right.
To keep her happy I have decided for now, to look at bigger boats.
I am thinking 5-6m boat and it has to be easily towable due to where we live.
We used to have a 440 Kiwicraft. I didnt like it much. (To small imo, unless only a couple were fishing/diving out of it.)
Ramco, Fyran and McClay boats seem to be well priced and well setup and my cup of tea. Stabi's are nice, but way overpriced and lack deckspace in 5-6m class boats due to the design imo.
It will be mainly used on lakes around home for the odd salmon, trout and perch. Water skiing and biscuit for the kids.
It will see heaps of Jacksons bay for diving, blue cod and bluenose and up the Sounds and Nelson area for snaps and scolly's.
Yarning with JoshC has even got me keen on maybe taking it to Stewy once or twice.
Keen to hear from you out there that run 5-6m boats, what motors you run (4 or 2 stroke) and why.
Cheers :D
Fishing/Dive boat options
Southern sports make a very nice boat, unless Mclay have sorted their stability issues out, the last 6m cuddy cabin I went in was a night mare .
We were heading down the southern sports line when we built our boat, but they weren't too keen on a jet in a bigger boat.
So we ended up building a Seahouse hull, 7.6m, 212 hamilton unit, now has a slightly tweaked LS2 with around 370 horses. Not big on electronics, just a decent sounder, radio equip etc. Just use hand held GPS while at sea.
Perfect for diving around, launching on the beach, in and out of our bars that are only a few inches deep at low tide, and still good for a bit of river work.
We'll easily fish 4-5 people, and I usually limit pob to 7. Any more and we start getting in each others bubble. Big dive platform off the back, awesome for getting in and out off. Underfloor dive tank storage, and heaps of storage up front.
Very safe rough sea boat, been out in 5-6m seas on numerous occasions and she handles it brilliantly. Some people hate jets in following seas, but decent hydraulic steering has sorted any of those issues out. Loves flat seas though, easily cruises at 40-45mph at 3900rpm when it's flat. Rough sea cruise 15-25mph depending on wave size!
Spent this weekend at Moeraki grocery shopping for big cod. Out most of Saturday and yesterday avo and used $200 worth of gas, or $25 each for the weekend. Not too bad I thought.
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