New to Boating: Advice for First Boat?

[tropicalfisher]

Bought 7 years ago from Sydney for $12500 from memory
Just sold for 9000.
It was 23 years old
Traditionally Fiberglass is heavier so needed more hp but with modern technology and better motors hp is on par with old motors vs new technology on newer motors i think.

For a boat of 200 kg and/or 1000 kg, how much pulling power should the car have to be able to pull it up a ramp? I read that the tow rating should be 1.5 x the weight of the boat.

[efendy]

Hi TF,

I've been in the same "boat" including the PhD part. I agree 100% with other posters.
I bought a boat a few months ago for $2000, a 4.5 meter fibreglass runabout. while the hull is in very good condition the motor caused problems. Check out the relevant thread here: viewtopic.php?t=17053
As someone said above, you buy someone else's problem if you buy something cheap. My post-purchase research fuelled by buyers' remorse concluded $5000 above is a good bracket for good fibreglass runabouts. Cabins are obviously more expensive.
Regarding doing a PhD and hooking up with fishing: I was unsuccessful to finish my PhD on time and fishing is one of the reasons apart from having a family, kids, jobs. Hopefully you won't have those hindrances as you're quite young. Fishing is very addictive and might mess up with your experiments Just a warning from somebody who has gone through the same.
Good luck with your PhD and fishing. Make sure you write as many papers as you can as it's the main selling point after PhD.
Cheers

[Trumpeter]

Agree with the above

The boat show is great so you can see all the options

I was fishing out the rip on thursday....it started off shithousre and when I left it was bordering on horiffic

You need some experience bf you go there

Sounds like a plan. No fish is worth risking your life, I'm sure. Are currents/conditions as bad at Queenscliff as at the Rip? Queenscliff is supposed to have great squid and whiting.

Queenscliff is not as bad as the rip but is still subjected to strong currents and is not a good place to learn at. There are plenty of productive whiting and squid grounds before you get there that are safer for small boats.

[purple5ive]

im not sure where you got the information for your research from.
But. Polycrafts are one of the best boats you can buy for stability. (and I wouldn’t bother with a tuff tender even for the bay unless its an extremely good day weatherwise, its too small and sides are quite low, so you will get wet a lot) Polycraft are heavier than normal tinnies of similar size though.
Im not able to comment on tinnies and glass hulls in terms of value for money, but the polys can’t be beaten around quite a bit and still keep going.
With your budget, your going to be hard pressed in finding something decent to be safe in the bay, let alone the RIP.
Even if you get a good hull, you have motor and trailer to worry about. Don’t skimp on the trailer cause if its not going, you cant go fishing period…
Also maintenance and upkeep will cost you a bit of money, don’t forget also that you will need the room to store the boat and trailer, ramp fees, cleaning the boat after (min $15)
It all adds up mate.

i would strongly suggest maybe going out on someone elses boat first (not a hire boat) to get a good idea whats involved in owning a boat. from initial preparation, to launching, fishing, retrieving and then cleaning the boat after, theres quite a bit involved and you dont get to know all this with a charter or hire boat because the boat is already in the water and you dont have to do anything but go fishing and return it back to the hire people.

if you are hell bent on a boat then id look for a second hand tinny in the 4.2m range in tiller steer for saving some money. make sure the motor and trailer are also half decent. then fish along the shallow reefs and drop offs for pinkies/salmon/flathead/squid and whiting.
forget the kings, gummies and snapper unless you can find an extremely good day for snapper.

another optioin is to make some good friends here and go out on their boats as a paying deckie [(your dad may or may not miss out pending your skippers vessel capabilities)
(usually snapper and smaller trips costs about $20-30)] few of the lads offer a chance for other to go on their boats every now and then, and generally if your a really good deckie, you will get asked first before it being posted on here.
cheers

[cobby]

For that cash you're looking at a small older tinny or an old original glass boat. The tinny would be doable, but generally under 4m, fairly old and limits its use in the bays thanks to minimal freeboard and it's general small size. The glass boat will be in the region of project boat classification, meaning it'll most likely need fairly extensive fibreglass repairs, and that's before contemplating the power side of things with the usually older motor.

Even this is over budget, motor perfectly fine by the looks but boat is ratshit and needs a lot of work to it
http://www.boatsales.com.au/boats-for-s ... ss=Premium

Upping the budget gets slightly more in these 2 examples, plus side they can actually be used straight up but will most likely need work in the not to distant future. At this size I'd consider these at the lower end of the almost every day bay boat size

http://www.boatsales.com.au/boats-for-s ... ss=Premium
http://www.boatsales.com.au/boats-for-s ... ss=Premium

[Hydroman]

Firstly and most importantly, welcome to Melbourne when you finally move. Moving in the winter will be painful but I suppose we whinge a bit here about the cold (at least I do) and is not as cold as parts of America. I hope you enjoy your stay and all the best with your studies.

A boat which is stable at rest will not necessarily be good in the chop as typically what makes a boat good at rest is the opposite to what the boat needs to carve through the chop. A deep V hull is fantastic for carving through the chop but the downside is they are very tippy at rest.

For you budget, I would honestly think the Kingies are out of question as you will need something a bit bigger than the budget will allow.

As far as the tow vehicle is concerned and with respect to your question, you really do not need that much power to pull the boat out of the water as strange as it sounds. You do need the power for the hills etc. My advise.....when buying a car, have a look at the towing specs.....if its inside the weight of the boat, you will have no issues at all as there have been a whole heap of engineers all over the towing capabilities of the vehicle which power is probably the least of the concerns.

Cheers,
Terry

[smile0784]

Bought 7 years ago from Sydney for $12500 from memory
Just sold for 9000.
It was 23 years old
Traditionally Fiberglass is heavier so needed more hp but with modern technology and better motors hp is on par with old motors vs new technology on newer motors i think.

For a boat of 200 kg and/or 1000 kg, how much pulling power should the car have to be able to pull it up a ramp? I read that the tow rating should be 1.5 x the weight of the boat.

I put it this way unless you have a 4wd pulling a heavy boat you don'tneed to worry the ratio.
For example a holden comadoore or food falcon sadan weigh 1.8 ton so a tow would need to weigh 1.4 ton.
Those cars have a tow rating of 1.8 ton before you have to do alteration to your car so may as well buy a awd or 4wd in my opinion cos once you put 2 guys plus gear food and drinks and fòod you be around the 1.8 tom.

I use to have a 2010 sports wagon and that pulled my boat up fine and the total weight of boat motor and trailer was 1.2 ton.
Use to pull car fine when fishjng every day only thing was it was a bit under powered going up the big hills to bermagui when car was loaded up with 4 ppl and all the stuff for a weeks holidays

[Wolly Bugger]

The other consideration is the towing package.

by this I mean the tow bar, they have a rating, my first tow bar was rated at 750 kg, when I up graded my boat, I needed to upgrade my tow bar that is at 1600kg.

In addition I need to have my rear springs lifted and stiffed.

If the boat trailer has electric brakes, then you need a electric brake controller fitted to the car. Anything above 750 kgs needs to have brakes.

Some Automatics need to have an additional cooler for the transmission.

[tropicalfisher]

Thanks, all, this was all incredibly helpful. Efendy, the thread where you went through the same process is very helpful, and it is good insight about the Ph.D. I don't have family in Australia other than my dad (and no kids) so hopefully I will find time to squeeze fishing in.

Purple, my research comes (to a significant extent) from threads and forums, where members post about their experiences. The Polycraft boats apparently are durable enough that during early shows, visitors would be allowed to take a sledgehammer to them to try and break them.

Sounds like it may be best to see if there is anyone who we might be able to go out with for a day, to learn the works and such. We'll figure out the best way to go about doing that.

[tropicalfisher]

Firstly and most importantly, welcome to Melbourne when you finally move. Moving in the winter will be painful but I suppose we whinge a bit here about the cold (at least I do) and is not as cold as parts of America. I hope you enjoy your stay and all the best with your studies.

A boat which is stable at rest will not necessarily be good in the chop as typically what makes a boat good at rest is the opposite to what the boat needs to carve through the chop. A deep V hull is fantastic for carving through the chop but the downside is they are very tippy at rest.

For you budget, I would honestly think the Kingies are out of question as you will need something a bit bigger than the budget will allow.

As far as the tow vehicle is concerned and with respect to your question, you really do not need that much power to pull the boat out of the water as strange as it sounds. You do need the power for the hills etc. My advise.....when buying a car, have a look at the towing specs.....if its inside the weight of the boat, you will have no issues at all as there have been a whole heap of engineers all over the towing capabilities of the vehicle which power is probably the least of the concerns.

Cheers,
Terry

Excellent advice. I am happy to leave the kingfish in the water for now. And I imagine it is quite a bit colder in the United States than in Melbourne; the wintertime (which coincides with Melbourne summer) is regularly below 0C.