[quote name='adam' date='Nov 23 2003, 12:12 AM']who here owns a boat, and what was your first boat?
how much did you pay for it?
what would make a first boat for me?
[right][post="946"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]
I bought my first boat from a car yard that had taken it as a trade-in.
Fibreglass 15' Huntsman runabout with Square-cowling Chrysler 70 Hp on the back and Evinrude 6 Hp Aux. Cost about 4 Grand. About 10 years ago.
All seemed OK (nice detailing job) but................
When I finally got it onto the bay (PFB) the whole boat shuddered when at revs.
It turned out to need some fairly expensive surgery. (Replacement of main shaft or something similar, as well as new impeller, etc. etc.) About $800 to fix. <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':au:' />
An annoying thing was that the motor was a long shaft model without power tilt. When leaving from the ramp, had to get into fairly deep water before I could lower the main motor to get going. Bottom of skeg (bit on bottom of outboard) reached more than 18" below bottom of boat. (If memory serves correctly) Boat would churn up sand in anything approaching waist deep, so had to hand tilt motor and use aux for manouvering if traffic was busy near ramp.
The long leg did have one advantage. If the weather was a bit lumpy, I could still go fairly hard without the prop sucking any air when bouncing over the waves. <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':th' /> YeeHaa!
A piece of advice in relation to auxillary motors: Don't ask your dopey mate to tilt up the auxillary motor if he doesn't know what he's doing....
I did once, and he seemed to be having a bit of trouble. I asked him if he wanted me to do it. ( I was driving the boat in some lumpy weather and the aux motor was occasionally coming into contact with the water and sending spray forward into the cockpit).
After some time, he seemed to have accomplished the job and the spray ceased coming into the boat. About 15 minutes later, when approaching the Patterson river, I looked behind us to see if any other boats were behind us. Something looked odd. I could see the auxillary motor mount. Unfortunately, there was no motor sitting on it... <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':au:' /> <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':th' />
My dopey mate had not only tilted the motor, but loosened the mounting screws <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/oops.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':th' /> and the *$^%$#%#$ motor had come off and was now sitting somewhere at the bottom of PFB.
My mate didn't have much to say on the ride home, <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/whistling.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':th' /> the atmosphere was decidedly icy.
Needless to say, he never got invited out in the boat again!
Anyway, back to the boat recommendations........
I would rather have had a tinny when trying to single handedly put it back on the trailer when there was a crosswind.
Usually, the only other occupant of my boat had four legs and tail, so it was useless asking him for help. ( He did like barking at fish and seagulls though)
Line her up, clamber back to the winch, start cranking. Bow comes off rear roller as boat blown sideways. :blink: Stop cranking, slacken cable, wade back to boat, straighten her up and start again. Gurus with flashy ski boats waiting their turn on ramp to launch, but just standing and watching. No offers of help. :geek
So I slow down my efforts. If they don't want to offer help, why bust my gut trying to get out of the way for their convenience. <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/innocent.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':au:' />
My advice for a first boat would be a 12' tinnie with 9.9Hp - 15Hp short shaft outboard.
Could get one of those roof rack loaders for the boat if you don't want to have the boat on a trailer. Depends on how much work you want to put in when going fishing <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':th' />
That's only if you don't intend in going in anything approaching rough weather. Room enough in a 12 footer for 3 adults or 2 adults and a couple of smallish kids.
I have nearly convinced myself to go and buy another one myself. I just have to convince the missus that it's a good idea!
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