Another Toy

[hazmail]

As opposed to your style of wide, long and low bass boats, a 14'-15' boat is quite popular here, with lots of freeboard for the chop on the bays, and wide decks for stability. In the past few years, “big” U.S style ‘bass boats’ (Stratos,Bass Trackers,Triton’s etc) are becoming more popular, and time will tell weather they are really functional in the short coast chop, and BIG swell on the coast- a Stratos could cost as much as $60,000 or more, so that’s another reason to buy Aluminum and local.

These days small glass fishing boats are unheard of, we bash them around a bit, on the rocks and oyster beds, and Aluminum stands up pretty well. Something I noticed when over there, is a lot of the Aluminum boats are still rivetted (works of art), which is a thing of the past here, everything is welded, probably not as strong, but easy to build, and easy to repair - some makers, still have problems with stress fractures in welds etc, which probably would not be a problem with rivets.

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This is an Aluminum boat I bought recently, 14.5' x 80" beam. My old one was the same make and length, but was getting a bit cramped @ 65"beam, so I went for a wider boat, and hopefully, it’s still something I could handle by myself if necessary.

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It came with tiller steering, heaps of pockets and ample deck space, but I like the idea of being able to let go the steering, so out goes the tiller. If I get rid of the tiller, I had to have a console, I personally don’t like them either, as in a 14' boat, space is at a premium, so, similar to my last boat, I’m making a hybrid steering system. When not in use the steering can be folded up (forward and vertical), out of the way, and give me all that side of the boat to fish, and I can easily spin around 360 deg in the seat, without bashing my bony knees on anything. Also when folded up, it allows the boat to be steered from a standing position, which is a real advantage when sight fishing the salt water flats/creeks on the coast, which can be very shallow (2') - I recently spent 5 hours, waiting for the tide to come in, stuck on a mud flat in the middle of a creek, no fun in the hot sun, with no bait and nowhere to go.

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Old Boat with old version of steering and seats

I have been in denial for years, but now have installed a Minn Kota (my first electric), and am trying to get hold of a remote for it (about $350 here), which is another reason I won’t need a steering wheel/console in my face. I will also replace the seat pedestals, with gas lift office chair stems, they get a bit rusty, but are sssooooooooooooo comfortable when bashing through waves, and they have height and tilt adjustment, at the end of the day, my backside will thank me for these - I get plenty of laughs, but only from those who have not sat in them, best thing is they cost $5-$6 at the recyclers - chuck away the “office seat” and attach your boat seats, they usually screw straight on, when the pedestals get a bit dodgy, go to the recycler, and get another one, they take about 10 minutes to change.

I have removed all the stickers (took a day), floor and have most of the cables and hardware ready to go, so will keep you posted. pete

Edited August 1, 2008 by hazmail
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[Spike-A-Pike]

Thanks Pete - I'm looking forward to seeing your progress. I spent a good part of last summer working on my 1985 Tracker Tournament V-17. It's a riveted Aluminum 17.5' x 72" beam that is comfortable for 2 and can handle 3 okay, but that's getting tight. I replaced the forward and mid decks - they were plywood and I replaced them with pressure treated 13/16" plywood. They feel good and stable now. I replaced the center console with a current Tracker model and it looks good there. The wiring was a previous owner's spaghetti factory and you never knew if the switch you had just "activated" or "deactivated" was going to do something for you or to you. Normally, nothing happened. I put in all new wire circuits and switches; the component lights and pumps all worked. My son keeps telling me I over did it by adding more trim switches in addition to the one on the throttle... But it's handy to get the motor up when your at the other end of the boat and it makes putting the transom saver in a piece of cake. All the seats got replaced and up graded for my bad back - I may have to investigate adding a gas shock... but hey, there's always tomorrow and I wouldn't want to rush my "planning" and screw it up. Good luck Pete and I'm looking forward to the updates.

[fishface]

Love the pink crocs Pete! Nice boat too. Keep us posted.

[rjbass]

Pete,

Love the steering system and seat ideas, but the crocs have to go man!!! lol

Rod

[Lincoya]

Hey Pete,

Nice looking boat but I have to agree.... It's time to replace the "custom crocs", too.

Gene

[hazmail]

Gene, Hi- what a coincidence, I found a book yesterday, I think/hope you might like, will post it in the next week, so it should arrive for you to while away the winter, while I am enjoying the sun for a change - only 1 more month to spring??but it snowed on the mountains again yesterday. pete

[Troul Hawk]

400 drops Del Bubble Gum

[hazmail]

For me, Maryville say's it all.pete

[Troul Hawk]

LOL. Never quite seen it that way before..........ya got me.

Keep us posted with your customizations. Does that boat have live wells in it? Because I fish a lot of tournaments, I had the need to add a custom pump-out system ( it was a pain in the hinee to get the weigh in bag full of water from the lake or dip it in the live well).

I don't know if that is something you would use down there, but it would go along well with the other bag of tricks you are putting together on your new ride.

[hazmail]

T.H- yes it has a ' plumbed' live well, BUT that's going too, it's too big for my requirements (about 12 gallons), I would only be using it for bait not catch, so something about half this size would do for what I use for bait - besides I could use the extra storage space. What size wells do you guys use there??pete

[Spike-A-Pike]

On alot of the newer boats have some pretty good sized live wells, 35 gallons seems pretty common these days. The one on my boat is around 14 gallons. Up in Wisconsin, there is viral hemorrhagic septicemia disease in Lake Michigan, Wisconsin waterways connected to Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes. To prevent VHS disease from spreading into other Wisconsin waters, it is illegal for anglers to transfer or transport live fish (bait or catch) from lake to lake. Basically all bait buckets, live wells, and buldges have to be drained on the boat ramp. The laws for noncompliance are harsh and so far the measures seem to be working as no new VHS disease outbreaks where identified for 2008 even with all the flooding.

Edited August 3, 2008 by Spike-A-Pike

[hazmail]

Bruce - I just googled 'VHS disease', thought it must have been the thing that makes my old tape player run slow ! !

No laughing matter, I can only imagine the fish losses in all those lakes there, and the $$$ losses attached to them- it's probably only a matter of time until we get it here. Sometimes I wonder weather these diseases (foot and mouth, mad cows etc) are not intentionally spread, to gain a market advantage by another country.

I know a few people who work for customs here, and the stories they tell of people smuggling in salami's, fruit, pets, pickled eels, you name it. There is big business in smuggling OUT snakes, lizards,crocodiles and all sorts of parrots, to collectors all over the planet, god knows what they are taking out with them.

Every few weeks you read about some get rich idiot trying to get something out, here's one guy who tried to smuggle eggs of "sulphur-crested cockatoos, nine were pink Major Mitchell cockatoos, and seven were galahs" - in the past week I would have seen 1000's of these birds flying around here, probably worth $1000 each over there, diseases and all. pete

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18885539-2,00.html

[Lincoya]

Gene, Hi- what a coincidence, I found a book yesterday, I think/hope you might like, will post it in the next week, so it should arrive for you to while away the winter, while I am enjoying the sun for a change - only 1 more month to spring??but it snowed on the mountains again yesterday. pete

A book?!?!? I hope it's has lots of pictures! Thanks. I'll look forward to getting it.

Gene

[clamboni]

Pete.......$1000 for those birds here is a VERY conservative estimate. Depending on how rare the bird is I've seen birds for sale for up to $30,000 US. And they sell. Usually anything black will sell for a lot higher, but there's a lot of rare species that'll sell for over 10k.

The Sulpher cresteds are pretty common, so they'll actually sell for around 1000, but the major mitchels would probably go for close to 10k.

Edited August 8, 2008 by clamboni

[Vodkaman]

Every trip to the shopping mall in Bandung, Indonesia, I find locals with caged wildlife, lemurs, snakes, baby owls etc. selling for next to nothing. Some stuff you only see on David Attenborough documentaries. I find it frustrating, as they will all be dead in a few weeks.

You would expect in a tropical rain forested country like Indonesia, to have a dawn chorus like Australia (just incredible). Not so, apart from cockerels of course, the pain in my butt, I don't like being woken at 04:00 and they always seem to crap on my porch, not the owners.

What was the subject, oh yes, good luck with the boat Pete!

[clamboni]

I find it frustrating, as they will all be dead in a few weeks.

People buy the captured wildlife wanting a cool pet.......then they realize that wild animals just don't make good pets. It's a shame. I can't imagine my African Grey being released or just killed because some ahole thought it'd be a good idea to take a wild caught bird home.

[hazmail]

Clamboni - Black Cockatoo's like these?

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Edited August 11, 2008 by hazmail

[hazmail]

I have spent most of the past few weeks waiting for parts to replace the tiller steering (cables, controls etc), pulled up the floor and got rid of a few mice, which were eating the polystyrene under-floor floatation - They must have got a shock, coming from balmy Queensland to freezing Calwell, a bit like going from Florida to Kansas City in winter (about 16 hours drive)

[clamboni]

Clamboni - Black Cockatoo's like these?

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Yes, actually, I'm pretty sure that is the same species I've seen once........Thestore had two of them at one time. I want to say they were $27k each, I think the same person bought both.

Edited August 11, 2008 by clamboni

[hazmail]

After the big bush fires here in 2003, there was quite a few of these around here (mainly Yellow tailed and a few red tailed cockotoo's), they came out of the mountains because all the pines (amongst other bush) was all burnt out, they used to roost near a fire station I was working at, and eat in a small pine forrest across the road - there were about 80-100 in the flock. I think the birds pictured are from further south of here, and are quite rare (not my photo), about 1000 birds left, so there is a big push to save their habitat. Clearing farmland here is forcing a lot of birds to the brink, mainly parrots, as they usually nest in knot holes in standing dead trees. pete

[Spike-A-Pike]

Pete - It looks like the boat is making good progress with the tilt steering. Are you moving any electrical; trolling motor, fish finder, GPS, nav lights, bilge pumps, and that sort of kit? I added a couple extra wiring circuits in case I decide to add something later. I added two extra trim switches (one at the bow and one a stern) to get the motor raised in shallow water or in some of the thick weed beds and for busy days at the boat ramp, I can raise/lower the motor to put the motor support bracket the trailer and the gear housing.

Are the trees in the mountains starting to return or has a lack of rain slowed their progress too? I hope you got a few inches of snow the weatherman was mentioning - it all goes into the water table.

The poaching and smuggling is a global problem. People only see it as easy money for very little effort; and as you said, there is no telling what diseases they are taking with them. And what about the animal's ability to survive such a drastic change of environment - are there any mortality estimets?

[hazmail]

Bruce- Trim switches?? I have one on the control handle, one on the gunnell, and one on the motor, no doubt about it, one on the bow would be handy, I will be making up a bit of a loom to power the electric motor in the next few days so might add that - I am just waiting for a circuit breaker and a 4 way battery switch.

That fire here was so hot, it baked huge boulders grey and spalled huge slabs off them -that's hot, also sterilized the ground and they say it will take years until anything will grow on some of the Western slopes. Rain only adds to the problem, with erosion etc into the dams, but a bit of snow would be good (snowing up there now). Even the native trees (to about 100'), which are able to stand a pretty severe fire, were baked, there is whole mountain sides, covered with dead tree trunks. Some others (Wattle about 10') have done really well ,as they rely on fire to germinate the seeds, so the shrubs were burned but the seeds germinated and have taken over in some areas. As for the pine plantations, all gone @ about $2 billion in lost timber and closed down a big ply mill here, it was packed up and shipped to Malaysia (maybe V/man is working there). But this is all nothing, compared to burning 506 houses that same afternoon.

Don't know much about the bird mortality numbers, but quite high from what is in the news papers. They get young parrots, and somehow put them to sleep, slide them into a tube (cardboard I think) and supposedly carry these tubes in special coats, with appropiate pockets - anyway from what we see in the papers, even when they arrest them on the way out at the airport, there are a lot killed, but I suppose at some of these prices, they figure 1 survivor out of 10 is worth it. pete

Edited August 12, 2008 by hazmail

[Swede]

Thats a sweet boat you got there Pete good luck on the work .I might post pics of my own aluminumboat ,both prework & when all is done on it .

[hazmail]

I finally got the right steering cable, attached the steering module to the bulkhead - this is picture with the steering down (seated pos) , it will go even lower for storage, when the cover is on.

Steering in the up position, which is high enough to steer while standing.

A hole where the live well was, it’s now a 4' x 3' deep storage area, and found a box in the back shed that fits nicely.

Finished the wiring today for the electric motor, with 2 X 120 A/h batteries

All I need to do now is get the steering powder coated and fit the throttle /shift controls, sounds easy!!! pete

Edited August 26, 2008 by hazmail

[mark poulson]

First of all, beautiful boat, ugly shoes.

Second, if you're going to use the livewell for bait, you might want to just put in a formica strip the height of the livewell, and long enough to overlap when it's in the livewell.

On our SoCal lakes, shad are the predominant baitfish, and they last much longer in a round livewell, or one that has softer corners.

The formica, coiled tight when you put it in, and then released to open as much as it can, is rigid enough to hold a semi-circular shape against the sides of the livewell due to it's natural spring. That is, it wants to straighten out by itself.

I did it in my Tracker livewell, and the shad lasted all day.

Since my Tracker was totaled by a hit and run driver last March, I've replace it with a small Ranger fiberglass boat (17'7") and the livewell is peanut shaped, so I haven't even tried to refit it for shad yet.