greg123

It was definitely not a cuttlefish. It did not have a cuttlebone, and as I said the mantle was about 1.5 to 2m whereas the largest cuttlefish mantles get to 0.5m. Also I imagine the marine biologist onboard would be quick to correct us if it were a cuttlefish.

It was just on the shelf line. Not sure exactly where we were at the time. Yeah the flesh was about 4-5 inches thick.

Hi Raiders, I thought a few people might be interested in this. Last weekend during the Port Hacking GFC tournament fishing on Tantrum we came across a dead giant squid. It was missing its tenticles (A marine biologist onboard explained that sperm whales are often the cause of this). The mantle measured about 1.5-2m. We ended up dragging as much as we could on board although it was pretty fragile and broke up while it was pulled with gaffs etc. We stopped dragging lures for about an hour and used the squid as burley for sharks with no success. This is the best photo I could get as my hands were soon covered in squid slime. Sorry theres no other object with it to give it's size some context.l

If you have a look at Peter Pakulas website there's a section called 'between the lines'. It has chapter by chapter outlines of the common game fishing techniques, set ups, rigging, safety and so on. It's a good starting point for a beginner. Just keep in mind that many of the top boats use different techniques to those mentioned and will write some of them off completely. Anyway there's no bible on the sport and you'll just have to learn the different ways of doing things as you go then pick the ones you prefer for whatever reason.

Hey Burnsy I'm setting up a 19foot boat for game fishing and would be interested in how you've done it. Any chance you could post or send me a few pictures of yours? Cheers

Ok cheers Huey. Any chance you could give me the dimensions of the unit if you have them handy?

Does anyone have either one of these in a trailer boat? I just spoke to a mate who put the in hull version in his 43 mariner and says it sounds pretty poorly over 10knots. Might be the installation but I'd like to hear if anyone else has some experience with these. Cheers

Ok that's what I was wondering. Yes of course not drilling the hole is preferred. Sounds like the in hull is probably best Cheers Huey

Thanks, will do. My only issue with that is the temp sensor which is very important for the sort of fishing I'll be doing. I will probbaly keep a 200/83 transom mount i have currently running with an Elite 5 however I'm not sure how good the temp sensor is in those??

Hi, I just bought an HDS5 (Gen 1) and I'd like to upgrade the transducer as I'll be mainly fishing offshore towards the shelf. Does anyone have any suggestions/experience with this? I've done a quick search and found two that looked good: A bronze thru hull (B164) with temp sensor, and An in hull (M260) without temp sensor I've heard that furuno uses the same transducers as lowrance. Will the plugs fit perfectly? Any other suggestions are very welcome. Cheers

I recently did a sea survival course and asked our instructor the same question. Apparently they won't go off in 'light spray' but if you hit some bad weather and take a decent amount of spray then they can go off. From memory its just a bit of chalk like substance that dissolves and releases the firing pin. I ended up going with manual (I have a 20 footer and we fish out wide) because I wear it when we're outside and occasionally end up completely soaked on the ride home.

If your outlet is lower than the gunwale don't forget to put in a riser loop in the hose to the outlet to prevent reverse syphoning of water into your boat in case the water level is above the outlet. You can put the outlet just above the waterline if you want but you will need to use a riser loop and seacock. A lot of boats have it this way to prevent oily/dirty bilge water dripping down their fancy paint jobs etc but you might not need to do it this way with an alloy fishing boat. Also try to get an outlet that is not made from plastic. I know a lot of boats out there use them but after a bit of exposure to the elements they end up cracking near the rim and leaking. Get a stainless one as it won't react with your alloy hull too much especially after you use sika to seal it in.

Hi Raiders, Does anyone know of somewhere I can get a few parts re-chromed. I've got some gunwale rubber caps and handrails that need to be tidied up. I heard somewhere that the process isn't actually done in NSW anymore. Is this true? If it is, does anyone know the cost of this process? Cheers, Greg

Just filled about a hundred drill holes in my boat. If the diameter is any larger than about 5 or 6mm you will need to dremel the gelcoat away around the perimeter so you have an area about the size of a 20c coin indented from the surrounding surface. Cut a piece of fiberglass matt the same size and epoxy it in. You will be left with a slightly concaved surface. Then fill in this slight concave area with your preferred marine filler and block sand flat.

I'd say the bottom of the sump is about 10-15cm above the bottom of the hull judging by the gap between the bungs.

Hi Raiders, I'm rebuilding a Vickers 570 (Fiberglass cabin type boat that's about 20 years old). I'll be using it for offshore fishing and want the bilge systems etc to be as good as it possibly can. Currenlty if any water was to come over onto the deck it would flow to the stern and ultimatly into this bilge sump(a lowered box section at the transom that has the bilge pump in it) where it would be pumped out. The bottom of this sump is above the bottom of the hull. I.e. water cannot get down to the bottom of the hull through the deck. My question, in regard to safety, should a large wave come over the stern etc is should I cut the bottom of this sump out so that the water could drain through right to the bottom of the hull? This is what a couple of guys told me to do who work at a boat repair/restoration type company. I can see their logic as on one hand you wouldnt want that water to make the boat top heavy and start listing more than it would normally. But on the other I do like the design of the water all collecting in one place that I can see and dirt/leaves etc not making their way into the depths of my hull never to be seen again. The idea im leaning toward at the moment is to cut out about 2/3rds of the bottom of this sump but then raise the edge of the hole a little. This way if I want to use a deck wash to clean blood off etc the small amount of water can drain into what's left of the sump and be pumped out with a small pump. However, if it's an emergency situation with water coming over the sides it will overflow the raised sump and spill over the raised edges and into the open hole so it can be pumped out with some bigger pumps in the very bottom of the hull. I'm sure a fair few of your boats would have (or have had) this type of deck design. What are your opinions on this? Any help would be very much appreciated. Cheers Greg

Yeah I think I might end up putting some insulating between the two metals. He doesn't want to use the plastic ones due to quality reasons I think. The Location is part of a footrest so will be under a lot of kicking bumping. To be honest I'd rather use his filler over the plastic anyway.

What does everyone think about those Noble boats? A guy up the road from me has a very nice hardtop one that looks pretty well built and designed. I don't know much about them though. Are they custom or just a low volume manufacturer?

Unfortunately I don't think stainless will do due to corrosion issues when stainless and alloy meet in a wet/salty environment. (Galvanic corrosion). The builder doesn't want to use plastic either. If I can't find one for under $100 I guess I'll have to either relocate the bulky alloy one or insulate a stainless one really well.

Anyone know where I can get a good quality aluminum deck filler for under $100? I'm having a fuel tank/seat box type structure fabricated but the standard filler the fabricator uses is pretty bulky and rises 40mm above the surface. Cheers

Mate I used to use a handheld on my boat before I installed the fixed VHF and I got about 4 miles out with reception. I recently bought an ICOMM23 handheld VHF as a backup in case the boat is lost etc. Works pretty well and is waterproof and floats. If I were in your position I'd be getting a handheld (if not both) because if you do get swamped you won't have much time to send out a mayday (coming from personal experience unfortunately)

Hi raiders, I've come to fixing up the deck on my Vickers 570 project. My problem is that the large panel that covers the underfloor tank is pretty useless and doesn't seal properly and is rotten etc. Essentially it was a ply panel that was glassed and had an alloy strip bolted to its perimeter that acted as a lip over the rest of the floor to hold it in place (see pictures 2 and 3). The alloy strip was under too much pressure and over time it seems like it has come apart from the panel. Not a great design. Anyway, now I need to make a new panel that is both neater and better designed. The problem is that the tank is sitting very snugly between the stringers (see picture 1) and there is no lip for a panel to sit on on the top portion of the walls of the cavity that the tank is sitting in. I don't really want to cut into the stringers because it would increase the risk of rot. The most obvious alternative is to put a lip on the inside but I want to be able to get the tank out every now and then for cleaning/inspection etc. Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3 I like the look of this panel from a Grady White. It looks like it's been screwed down and then sealed. If anyone has ideas please feel free to help me out! Cheers

Cheers, I've spoken to Gary about getting a rocket launcher and the tank done and he seems to do great work. I'd like to get a few quotes for the tank though just to see how many ideas I can pick up and so on before going ahead as it's a fairly unique design.

Hi I'm looking to get a custom fuel tank made up to serve as a seat box as well. Does anyone know a good fuel tank fabricator I can contact? I would assume alloy would be best for this.

In that case I think you'll like it. Yeah the Navionics Gold maps are great! Enjoy