New boat incoming

Finally get to own my very first boat the bank granted me a loan to get my self a 3.9M boat and trailer package with 15hp outboard from fish city as well as consolidating a couple of long standing credit card type (q card and Forlongs) debts into something that was easier for me to manage at a lower interest rate. so now I have myself something I can go and putt around kawhia harbour, tauranga and the hauraki gulf to get access to better fishing grounds as well as surfcasting trips on the south side of kawhia entrance

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Originally Posted by hunter308

Finally get to own my very first boat the bank granted me a loan to get my self a 3.9M boat and trailer package with 15hp outboard from fish city as well as consolidating a couple of long standing credit card type (q card and Forlongs) debts into something that was easier for me to manage at a lower interest rate. so now I have myself something I can go and putt around kawhia harbour, tauranga and the hauraki gulf to get access to better fishing grounds as well as surfcasting trips on the south side of kawhia entrance

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Can be a slippery slope that.....I started with a free dingy and a free non going 2hp.....probably 30k later I still havent caught a legal kingfish! :D

Enjoy your new boat, thrash it mercilessly every chance you get and wash/flush it well and it will look after you.

Happy fishing 308, good to hear from you!

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Originally Posted by Maca49

Happy fishing 308, good to hear from you!

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Yeah I have been a bit of a stranger maca been busy working my arse off I don't hunt or shoot anymore and I am a lot happier with a fishing rod in my hand these days

Oh and :useless:

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Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Oh and :useless:

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You will have to be patient and wait till Tuesday when I pick up the boat they have ordered a trailer with a spring kit on it so the boat is not banged around on the trailer while travelling, the trailers in those packages have no shock absorption in them as they were meant for short trips from home to the ramp so I got a free suspension upgrade as well as a few other freebies and a wicked discount on a lowrance hook 7 gps and fish finder, and I upgraded the motor from 15hp to 30hp so I can use it to dredge for scallops during the season as well as go fishing outside the east coast harbours. I only had to make up $73 difference out of $15K the whole lot with out discounts and freebies would have been damn near $17K, for a 12 footer it has a 1.83M beam on it.

I always found I catch more fish in small boats (under 14ft), but way more knackered afterwards due the battering. My buddy that I often go fishing with has just bought a fucking enormous Surtees 7 odd meter thing, so the joke is we're going to go and not catch fuck all, further away hahahahaha

nice:cool:

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Originally Posted by hunter308

You will have to be patient and wait till Tuesday when I pick up the boat they have ordered a trailer with a spring kit on it so the boat is not banged around on the trailer while travelling, the trailers in those packages have no shock absorption in them as they were meant for short trips from home to the ramp so I got a free suspension upgrade as well as a few other freebies and a wicked discount on a lowrance hook 7 gps and fish finder, and I upgraded the motor from 15hp to 30hp so I can use it to dredge for scallops during the season as well as go fishing outside the east coast harbours. I only had to make up $73 difference out of $15K the whole lot with out discounts and freebies would have been damn near $17K, for a 12 footer it has a 1.83M beam on it.

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Good stuff.:thumbsup:

I wouldnt buy any trailer without suspension and I live less than 2km from a ramp.

5hp would tow your dredge fine but the 30 will be great for when you and a large mate go fishing with all your gear,60-80l chilly with baits ,salt ice ,burly,drinks,food,long line,floats ,traces,weights,anchors,cray pots,cookers,life jackets,flares,oars,anchors ropes ,lines, radios, gps it just goes on and on.
15 would struggle good call on the upgrade.

Also good call on the gps sounder, in a small boat you need to be able to mark channels, holes and bars so travel in dark/fog is less exciting/expensive.....the advantage of small boats is getting in and out of shallow water bits.....expect to mark your prop....just dont fuck it :D bit of rubbing on sand you will get away with but if its a rocky bottom get out with the oars. I treat props as consumables on both my boats simply because of where i fish/launch.

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Originally Posted by Tommy

I always found I catch more fish in small boats (under 14ft), but way more knackered afterwards due the battering. My buddy that I often go fishing with has just bought a fucking enormous Surtees 7 odd meter thing, so the joke is we're going to go and not catch fuck all, further away hahahahaha

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I was out on an old 12ft ramco ranger last saturday with a mate of mine he borrowed the dinghy off a mate of his by the end of the day I could not wait to get out of the bloody thing and when I stood up I was as stiff as a sailboard and still bloody sore the next day including my arse from sitting on an aluminium bench seat all day.
My boat has got plastic swivel seats a nice flat floor and a 1.8 meter beam as stated in a previous post which gives extra width to the boat (I wouldn't class this one as just a dinghy) and a gullwing style hull with wide chines and a shallower v in the transom area to give nice stability when on anchor and meant to give a softer ride when moving, dead rise is 11 degrees variable. In fact the FC boats have received a lot of praise on the fishing.net forums, another boat shop in hamilton had a second hand FC390 on their yard last week and was sold 3 days after they had put it on the yard so they are quite popular.

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Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Oh and :useless:

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It now has a pic :P
Attachment 66611

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Originally Posted by hunter308

It now has a pic :P
Attachment 66611

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Good shit :thumbsup:

I am in the starting blocks of building my own dingy, it wont be as pretty as yours but should be just as practical and suit my individual needs better.

Hope to see some fishing reports from you soon:thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Good shit :thumbsup:

I am in the starting blocks of building my own dingy, it wont be as pretty as yours but should be just as practical and suit my individual needs better.

Hope to see some fishing reports from you soon:thumbsup:

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Lets see what happens this weekend, BTW the beam width on this one is 1.83 meters, dead rise is 11 degrees variable, draft 300mm, gunnel height is 550mm (and filled with closed cell foam chips to act like pontoons if the boat ever gets totally swamped), gull wing style hull with medium v and extra wide chines in the transom area and positive bouyancy under the floor if you are looking for some ideas for your dinghy build for extra stability. The live bait tank is passive which means you can leave the drain bung out and the tank will only go up to the waterline of the boat and no more, it has a drain bung each side of the tank and one at the front that you can take out for washing down to get rid of the water from the livie tank you just start the boat and take off once water is gone put bung back in and head for the ramp . The ally is around 3mm thick on this one and there is not one rivet holding things in place it has been fully seam welded all the way around including rod holders

Cool boats. Fishing Weapons is what they are. I have a 430. :cool:

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Originally Posted by Chur Bay

Cool boats. Fishing Weapons is what they are. I have a 430. :cool:

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I would have been keen on the 430 this is all I could afford this round as the old saying goes start small and work your way up

Now you have a boat the weather is going to be shit house:ORLY:

The boat got blooded today I caught a 30cm pannie my other half got the other 4 and a I got a small eagle ray which got sent packing with a souvenir

best fish of the day went to my partner Joyce with a 3kg snapper
Attachment 66803

Well done guys! What way to blood the new boat! Great to see You both slaying the fish... dont worry hntr308 it only took three years before I managed to outfish my lady!! Well done man !! new boat and a happy partner!

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Originally Posted by stingray

Well done guys! What way to blood the new boat! Great to see You both slaying the fish... dont worry hntr308 it only took three years before I managed to outfish my lady!! Well done man !! new boat and a happy partner!

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Absolutely mate it was actually the first time she has actually enjoyed being out fishing which made me enjoy my day even more, we learnt a few good lessons today especially with steering a tiller steer I was all over the show to begin with until I got the hang of turning left to go right and right to go left by the end of the day we had the boat planing along at 12-13 knots quite comfortably once I had mastered the back to front steering you get with a tiller steer, we did get caught in some very lumpy conditions earlier in the day while we were heading for a channel we wanted to try out during an outgoing tide the boat was stable in it but not in a rush to have that again for a while at the time we were out in tandem with a mate of mine who was in his own tinny as well as being experienced and a qualified skipper and he was giving me some good pointers on how to handle that sort of stuff.

:cool:

Things have been pretty quiet for me since Easter weekend ended up going down with the flu and had to go on antibiotics. So to pass the time seeing I could not go to work I ordered and installed a fixed mount VHF (scored a brand new Lowrance Link 5 for $250) and 1.5 meter antenna seeing the handheld was not cutting the mustard on Kawhia harbour plus I do have intentions to start doing some missions outside Tauranga harbour as well as fishing the bottom end of waiheke so I can not afford to have communication gear that can not be relied on in my boat. Big difference when I can pick up the boats calling in bar crossing reports in both kawhia and raglan as well as my request for a radio check being acknowledged by Raglan coast guard from my driveway in Te Awamutu. With the left over change I enrolled in the home study courses for VHF operators and day skippers certificates.