new fishing boat

MarcinG

Hello.

As usual trying to find an answer to not full known question


Living in shankill co dublin fishing on sea around dalkey/bray area in summer and for pike/perch in winter. mostlikely number of occupants 1-3 with occasional say 5.

So far my experience:

started with sheelin 17ft. Plenty of room good stable boat but too slow (especially on the sea - i can only launch it in dunlaoghaire or greystones and it makes for long journey to get around dalkey islands etc...)
Flushing outboard was convinient as all i needed was barrel with fresh water.

Next bought honda honwave 3.8 inflatable with V inflatable deck.
Easy to carry, could launch it anywhere but V of hull made in next to impossible to put gear anywhere else than towards transom. Floor was not rigid enough for 2 adults to fish standing (say for jerkbait fishing) and 0.8 bar in floor made pump choice very limited + over few years i destroyed few pumps... On calm day it would go +- 18kts with 15hp.
But on rough water couldn't go fast as every time i jump on crest of wave boat will not continue on
Additionally i was getting sick of worrying of puncturing floor with dropped lure etc...
And for inflating/deflating loading/unloading plus flushing engine (on separate bracket) i can easilly add 2h per day of fishing.

Next i bought bigger (4x1.82m) inflatable boat with aluminium floor - it sorted most of problems of honwave - flat floor, low pressure etc. But problems on rough water were exact same and additionally quality of materials seems lower than hanwave and started to have problems related to folding it very often. Decided to let it go.

I know that there are super heavy duty inflatables available (ie mercury HD) but they very expensive and heavy.

Now i'm thinking of buying a boat again. It has to plane without need for 40hp or more (i have 1 year old short shaft 20hp it would me nice if it could do the job). I would like flatish deck and some sort of dodger (nice foldable, certainly not cabin taking 1/2 of deck). Ideally i would like to be able to launch it from sand on low water without use of car or if not it has to be fast/good enough to go at at least 15-17 kts on slightly rougher sea (not planing on fishing in gale but i have 10-15km from solid slip to my fishing spot). Would prefer new.

First i thought of some cheap 14-15ft aluminium boat (they are +- 2k new) but 57kg (my current inflatable is 87kg and it seems too light on waves) and total depth of 55cm sounds to me as a lot of trouble on rough water/high speed. Am I right?

Slightly heavier aluminium boats are twice more expensive (ie smokecraft alaskan is 5k and weights 122kg) with lower load capacity (said boat 850lbs). Are they good enough to compete with below boats:

Orkney coastliner/longliner (yet to see them in real world)
seems like right job. Any place in Ireland have them?
Maybe 2nd hand fastliner (which despite being quite old was still expensive and may be bit too big for my needs).

I also noticed erne boats redfinn5000 which made nice impression (again i'm yet to drive up north to see it). Any opinions on that one?

Anyone making some sort of recommendations? Budget in mind i guess would be +- 6K with trailer (and outboard swap if needed).


ps never fishied/intended to fish in weather which would made me stressed in any of the 3 boats i had in the past but at the same time it made them very very slow (idk if it counts for indicator of how brave needs to be and not sure if without ballast tank or 500kg worth of boat one can avoid significant slowing down).

fergal.b

You probably know more about this than anyone here:) did you look at O'sullivans Marine they have some good sea boats at a fair price. https://www.osmarine.ie/boats_and_marine_parts/boats-for-sale-in-ireland/o'sullivan_boats


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MarcinG

yes but i thought most of them were displacement...

fergal.b

Maybe something like a sea-Nymph https://www.adverts.ie/boats/aluminium-boat-14ft-sea-nymph/13113259 not many boats will get up on the plane with a 20hp and a few lads and gear.

MarcinG

seanymph in this size is precisely why i ask about stability of small light boats on high speeds. Friend of mine became airborne and then dunk himself in cold water on Lough Ree when their boat hit crest made by other boat. Their engine was AFAIK 15 HP. I have been told that without removing benches and putting heavy decking in that boat was unpredictable if wave hit it sideways. But I couldn't tell if this was a particular boat or all light crafts like that.

fergal.b

Might also be to do with weight distribution, I also went airborne on the Ree and lost a Boat





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Tom44

One or two boats here.

https://www.donedeal.ie/boats

Tabnabs

Orkney's are everywhere and have a very good following. You'll pick one up and sell it for about the same price, always a good point in my book. Cuddy, open boat, tiller steering, wheel steering, options to suite any budget.

MarcinG

Tabnabs wrote: »

Orkney's are everywhere and have a very good following. You'll pick one up and sell it for about the same price, always a good point in my book. Cuddy, open boat, tiller steering, wheel steering, options to suite any budget.

I dont know which oarkney huls are planing. It looks to me that only fastliner is( i keep it as option but at23 yrs old it is still 4400euro and being 19ft long im affraid it will take more than 20hp to plane and also maybe slightly too big for me as a.) I will tow it with long wb transporter B.) I madtly use it with 1 or 2 passangers). And all new ones are also planing (coastliner and longliner new fastliner too expensive). No one bothers to put full description in add. I tried to look up longliner2 or coastliner2 in ads in irl and uk but finding only promotional videos and things.
I emailed oarkney as which hulls are planing and got no reply so far.

pedroeibar1

I’m probably coming across as an old f@rt but I have a few issues with this. For starters I would not fish off Dalkey Island in any Honwave. The overfalls off the magazine fort where people fish are just too dangerous for that type/size of inflatable.

I understand/accept the need to get to a fishing ground fairly quickly to maximise time fishing. However, why the infatuation with speed? Boatspeed for smallcraft is primarily dictated by weather conditions – waves are obstructions that can be tackled only by a combination of appropriate speed and hull size & shape; a semidisplacement hull is a big help. You need to throttle back in smaller boats. That is why I agree with the Orkney advice above of Tabnabs. Also I think it is pointless to stand up in a small boat when seafishing. I’ve even seen idiots in the boats out of Bulloch standing up to cast a line of feathers! Think what it does to the centre of gravity.

You’d probably get wider boat type advice in the angling forum.

MarcinG

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

I’m probably coming across as an old f@rt but I have a few issues with this. For starters I would not fish off Dalkey Island in any Honwave. The overfalls off the magazine fort where people fish are just too dangerous for that type/size of inflatable.

Agree to certain degree but i did for couple of years and never got close to danger im aware of.

I understand/accept the need to get to a fishing ground fairly quickly to maximise time fishing. However, why the infatuation with speed? Boatspeed for smallcraft is primarily dictated by weather conditions – waves are obstructions that can be tackled only by a combination of appropriate speed and hull size & shape; a semidisplacement hull is a big help. You need to throttle back in smaller boats. That is why I agree with the Orkney advice above of Tabnabs.

Because for heavier boat closest launchable slip is in greystones in slow boat it is close to 2 hrs each way(i think my sheelin was doing about 10kmh max). And also i want to use boat on say ree or shannon in winter when days are short and you may want to travel more than few km from slip.

Also I think it is pointless to stand up in a small boat when seafishing. I’ve even seen idiots in the boats out of Bulloch standing up to cast a line of feathers! Think what it does to the centre of gravity.

Mentioning of standing on boat was in conjunction with pike fishing using jerkbaits and twitchbaits- to animate them sometimes you must pull towards yourself but when rod is pointing up lure comes to surface and when rod is pointing down it wont. Quite hard to get any sort of pull with rod pointing down when you are not standing.

You’d probably get wider boat type advice in the angling forum.[/quote]


Every advice is welcome. As i was not aware of existance of semi displacement hulls willl have to google it. Ps and when we talk of orkneys is anyone doing them in Ireland? Wanted to look at new longliner and coastliner.

Ferris

An alternative to aluminium boats would be the Bonwitco make, they pop up regularly for sale and I believe that they plane with modest hp. Stability and seakeeping would have to be established but I don't think that they're too bad at all.
https://www.donedeal.ie/boats-for-sale/bonwitco-300-river-boat-and-trailer/18732463?campaign=3
The best SIB (inflatable) for seakeeping is the Bombard Aerotec. But they're heavy to move, most people use transom wheels. In reality, due to the performance, you're gonna be hanging on in one of them but some people use them in coastal waters very successfully. They have an inflatable floor so its common to put rubber matting over to protect. Should go very well with a 20hp short shaft.
The other option is a RIB like an avon SR4. Unbelievable seakeeping for its size and will take up to 50hp. Extremely stable but will require a long shaft outboard.

Jim from Cork

From the spec you have issued it sounds like a Warrior 150 or one of the smaller Sea Hogs would suit your bill.

A quick look on Done Deal on Sea Hog shows a few available - https://www.donedeal.ie/boats-for-sale/seahog-sea-jeep-fishing-boat/18582409 - looks a clean enough example (Obviously I know nothing about the advertised).

When you get something more solid than what you were used to the tendency is to push the boundaries... ie: head further out etc... so there's a good chance you'll change again!

hoytedow

God bless Ireland. Since last here I built a new boat. Taking waves at too high a speed will crack a small boat and put one at risk but I had to learn the hard way. Its all fixed now but it could have ended badly.

MarcinG

I'm starting to realise that all boats good in sea will be not so good on fresh water and since versatility is a priority i think im passing on likes of warriors/seahogs (see no deck large enough for 2-3 people to do pike spinning from so it would almost call for 2nd boat - with new outboard etc...). I might change my mind (shall try some deep water fishing not so close to shore with results) but so far i had very little luck at water deeper than 100ft around bray/dalkey mostly i caught annoying whitening... And also realising that going at speed in 14ft boat may net be as doable as i would like it to be

MarcinG

ended up buying tehri 6020C with 20hp outboard. we will se how will i get on.