Thread: Fishing/Dive boat options

Originally Posted by R93

Yup should have remembered what I seen on the boat I worked on.
Apart from the skip all the motors were yamies.
Trashed. Winched up and left. And they at least operated like that for months on end.


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They would have most likely been 115hp Yamaha "Tuna Specials", never seen them for sale here but I think it is specially made for the Pacific Island region. If it keeps going on a "seiner" speed boat for more then 12 months I would say it design is not flawed. I have never seen motors treated so badly, ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Any flaw would be evident in the first 5 minutes of thrashing.

Originally Posted by mikee

They would have most likely been 115hp Yamaha "Tuna Specials", never seen them for sale here but I think it is specially made for the Pacific Island region. If it keeps going on a "seiner" speed boat for more then 12 months I would say it design is not flawed. I have never seen motors treated so badly, ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Any flaw would be evident in the first 5 minutes of thrashing.

True. They got thrashed by fellas that had no idea.
Don't remember the size of them but I was working around Kiribati and the Marshalls.
So most probably 115's
Portuguese fellas mainly drove them. Mad as cut snakes at the best of times.


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Lots of good bloody good info on this thread so far. Maybe the mods can sort a permanent section for boaties and potential boat owners.

Southern sports make a very nice boat, unless Mclay have sorted their stability issues out, the last 6m cuddy cabin I went in was a night mare .

We were heading down the southern sports line when we built our boat, but they weren't too keen on a jet in a bigger boat.

So we ended up building a Seahouse hull, 7.6m, 212 hamilton unit, now has a slightly tweaked LS2 with around 370 horses. Not big on electronics, just a decent sounder, radio equip etc. Just use hand held GPS while at sea.

Perfect for diving around, launching on the beach, in and out of our bars that are only a few inches deep at low tide, and still good for a bit of river work.

We'll easily fish 4-5 people, and I usually limit pob to 7. Any more and we start getting in each others bubble. Big dive platform off the back, awesome for getting in and out off. Underfloor dive tank storage, and heaps of storage up front.

Very safe rough sea boat, been out in 5-6m seas on numerous occasions and she handles it brilliantly. Some people hate jets in following seas, but decent hydraulic steering has sorted any of those issues out. Loves flat seas though, easily cruises at 40-45mph at 3900rpm when it's flat. Rough sea cruise 15-25mph depending on wave size!

Spent this weekend at Moeraki grocery shopping for big cod. Out most of Saturday and yesterday avo and used $200 worth of gas, or $25 each for the weekend. Not too bad I thought.

Originally Posted by JoshC

Southern sports make a very nice boat, unless Mclay have sorted their stability issues out, the last 6m cuddy cabin I went in was a night mare .

We were heading down the southern sports line when we built our boat, but they weren't too keen on a jet in a bigger boat.

So we ended up building a Seahouse hull, 7.6m, 212 hamilton unit, now has a slightly tweaked LS2 with around 370 horses. Not big on electronics, just a decent sounder, radio equip etc. Just use hand held GPS while at sea.

Perfect for diving around, launching on the beach, in and out of our bars that are only a few inches deep at low tide, and still good for a bit of river work.

We'll easily fish 4-5 people, and I usually limit pob to 7. Any more and we start getting in each others bubble. Big dive platform off the back, awesome for getting in and out off. Underfloor dive tank storage, and heaps of storage up front.

Very safe rough sea boat, been out in 5-6m seas on numerous occasions and she handles it brilliantly. Some people hate jets in following seas, but decent hydraulic steering has sorted any of those issues out. Loves flat seas though, easily cruises at 40-45mph at 3900rpm when it's flat. Rough sea cruise 15-25mph depending on wave size!

Spent this weekend at Moeraki grocery shopping for big cod. Out most of Saturday and yesterday avo and used $200 worth of gas, or $25 each for the weekend. Not too bad I thought.

Now that is a nice boat!!

Cheers mate. Here's a few more pics of how it's set up if anyone's interested.

Even nicer up close, but Josh have you noticed some sod had put the steering wheel on the wong side!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have put Autopilots on Jets and with good steering systems they go real good.

It's a jet boat Mikee, they're all left hand drive! No point owning left hand drive boats all your life, then when you've built the biggest and most expensive one changing it!! Auto pilot sounds interesting, be real good on a flat day.

Originally Posted by JoshC

It's a jet boat Mikee, they're all left hand drive! No point owning left hand drive boats all your life, then when you've built the biggest and most expensive one changing it!! Auto pilot sounds interesting, be real good on a flat day.

I know, "was tongue in cheek", my brother has 2 jet boats and dad has had them for 40 years. I would have had one too but since I don't live in Mid Canty any more an Outboard is better. I am kinda the "Black Sheep" owning an OB powered boat

I know, everyone mentions it too! Haha. I bet you are. That was another one of the main reasons it was built as a jet, stick with what you know etc.

Dam you boat thread ! I'm now looking at boats I can't afford

The best thing you can possibly do is when you finally take the boats on your short list for a sea trial is to try and pick a day when its NOT flat ass calm and load them up just like you would when actually going out. ie gear / people etc. You will get some funny looks / comments but every boat will go OK generally with 2 people and bugger all else on a flat arse calm day.

The time to find out if your new boat is a shitter in the handling dept IS NOT fully loaded in a big following sea when the weather changes unexpectedly.

Originally Posted by mikee

The best thing you can possibly do is when you finally take the boats on your short list for a sea trial is to try and pick a day when its NOT flat ass calm and load them up just like you would when actually going out. ie gear / people etc. You will get some funny looks / comments but every boat will go OK generally with 2 people and bugger all else on a flat arse calm day.

The time to find out if your new boat is a shitter in the handling dept IS NOT fully loaded in a big following sea when the weather changes unexpectedly.

There must be proven setups that perform in all conditions though?



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Originally Posted by Munsey

Dam you boat thread ! I'm now looking at boats I can't afford

Way to GO!!!

Originally Posted by R93

There must be proven setups that perform in all conditions though?



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To an extent but everything is a compromise.
Deep Vs ride nicer goin into a sea but take more power to plane are less stable at rest.
The god awful roll and bow steer in a following sea from a quarter has more to do with bow shape and buoyancy or displacement in the bow section than v . Some boats can be down right dangerous in these conditions.

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