OSM skellige for sea fishing? or do i go elsewhere?

MarcinG

Hi all.

I'm looking for a compromise : boat light enough to be launched easily with 1-2 people and non 4x4 vehicle but still be seaworthy. fishing 2-3 occasionally up to 5. osm 510 caught my eye. Main reasons:

It seems to have low power requirement (15hp being max) - whats the truth? i have seen them with 20hp+ outboards fitted? what kind of speed could i expect with 15 HP? Or whats the max i could put on it?

Ballast tanks would make me believe it should handle waves quite well without loosing much of speed (i had an inflatable boat fairly quick - up to about 38kmh and when on rough water i had to reduce speed greatly in order to keep my last meal in my stomach). boat is 250/300kg empty + has 30 gallons ballast tank.

for +- 5/6k i could get one with trailer and brand new outboard. This is the max i would like to spend.

I want cuddy cabin of a sort (or at least a spray screen), seaworthiness, easy to launch in places like bray. no need to be crazy fast if it would do 20kmh in most fishable conditions i will be happy. Don't want a RIB - too little room around for fishing gear. Don't want anything with 50hp+ outboard as i think it would be bad on fuel and expensive to service.
Mostly fishing around coastal line not planning on making trips far into the sea.

Any suggestions?

bluezulu49

According to O'Sullivan Marine the Skellig is a displacement boat rated for 6 to 15 hp engines.
Displacement boats have a top speed calculated as 1.34 times the square root of the length in feet of the boat at the waterline in knots.

Thus for a boat with 16ft waterline max speed is 1.34 X 4 = 5.36 knots or about 6 mph. Waterline for Skellig is likely to be slightly shorter, as would it's top speed. Adding more power will increase the tilt of the boat (nose up) but not the speed and may invalidate your insurance.

I was faced with a similar dilemma and settled for a Seahog Trio with a 25 hp engine. This boat has a cathedral hull, a small cuddy with flyscreen, weighs 285 kilos empty without engine and I have measured it's speed as 34 km/h in calm water. Additionally it is fairly light on fuel, is easy to launch and quite stable side to side when fishing.

Downside is that it slams in choppy water and while rated to carry 4 people, is tight with more than two fishing.

Not sure about launching in Bray as the harbour appears to dry out at low tide.

MarcinG

Thank you. You said very things i was afraid of. I'm not thinking of fishing in gale winds but how waves are affecting actual speed? Asking this because if i would have to slow down 4 times in slightly choppy water i would rather get another inflatable for less than 20% of price and use it only in perfect weather

MarcinG

ps according to OSM longliner is also displacement hull and one of sellers on adverts said it plains with 9.9hp no problem. Is it possible?
I guess not just asking. Longliner would be another nice option - take down cuddy for pike fishing (so you can cast any direction) and put it on for sea.

bluezulu49

MarcinG wrote: »

ps according to OSM longliner is also displacement hull and one of sellers on adverts said it plains with 9.9hp no problem. Is it possible?
I guess not just asking. Longliner would be another nice option - take down cuddy for pike fishing (so you can cast any direction) and put it on for sea.

I cannot find reference to longliner on O'Sullivans website ( or on adverts). Any boat described as having a displacement hull will not plane.

If you want speed you need to buy either a semi displacement or planing hull.

I understand that Orkney made some semi displacement boats but would look for a makers plate and check with them before I bought anything as there are apparently copies in circulation without makers names.

I dislike the side to side motion of a monohull boat, especially in the sea and that is why I went for a cathedral hull. When the waves get up it is necessary to reduce speed but the boat will still plane and your speed is restricted to the level of pounding you are willing to take.

The ability to quickly get back to port if conditions deteriorate was a major factor my decision to purchase my current boat. It also helped that I had been out fishing in that boat on a number of occasions and knew it's capabilities and limits.

MarcinG

My bad. I think when it comes to longliner i think i saw it described as "it is like strongliner" which is displacement hull.