car topper, trailer, or don't bother

Well I picked up my dingy Friday. I have secured a 3.5m car topper that came with a trailer. The trailer is for a 4m boat as it seems quite well built, also has the spare with a hub attached, so perhaps will handle the riggers of Landy adventure. It came with a Mercury 8 hp light weight, so also makes sense as a car topper motor. Bit down on horses but it will do.

Ranga tells me boat stands for Bring On Another Thousand. And we'll, he could be right. I dropped the motor off at the local shop on the way home. Ol mate at the shop welcomed me to boating and asked if I had met my second wife yet as he wheeled the motor away for a service. Still good to have a starting block.

Spent today putting a new round of Timkin bearing in the trailer, and re clearing the paddles.
Got a trip to the beach around the time the motor is back from the shop, so me thinks a beach launch could be the maiden voyage. Ahh Harr me hardies...

ENJOY.
Andrew

well done Jason.

If you find the 8 to be a bit sluggish, try a different propeller, a smaller pitch prop makes a big difference on small capacity engines. Solas will usually let you trial a prop so you're not out of pocket if it's still not good enough.

There is a big weight difference once you go bigger than the 8 light.

Hi guys, being a mad fisho, that doesn't eat fish, and a mad ummm, mad person, I have had just about every sort of tragedy that floats.
I have had tinnys, wooden boats that were small, wooden boats that were big, the same with fibreglass.,,, I now have finally come to my senses and own a ...ummmm...largeish fibreglass boat...ok...forget that I can be sensible.
The bestest fun I had on the water with my friends and kids was with a thing called a coleman scanoe...there are other names for them, maybe old town or something like that.
They are light, wide and stable... I believe they are rated to 3.5 hp outboard.
Mine had a ummm 15hp ported polished bathtub racing outboard which in my maths was 3.5hp.
I fished 5 miles offshore(ran out of bravery, was heading to the banks off shoalhaven heads)... have fished in NSW QLD and VIC with it, my kids had the best fun sans motor. I fished the Noosa river extensively and had a ball, and to top it off it cost 1100 bucks secondhand.
If I saw one I would buy one again without thinking.
Have a squiz online at them, they are something different and fun.
Dean

well it seems a good time to buy a boat, the boat show is upon us in Brisbane.

Looking for some advice on perhaps some pretty simple stuff, but I know very little about boats.

Rod hoders, are $30 stainless steel ones that much better than $3.50 pvc ones.
I'd like to put two in the rear corner gussets of the stern.

Is a water filter required with portable plastic fuel tanks. I guess at $10 it's cheap insurance if it works.

bimini's, I'm looking at a 4 hoop 2.2m one that will basically cover most of the open are of the boat. I keep thinking of kids comfit first, so hopefully they will keep coming. But is that too big? Does it become a PITA for using a rod. The 3 hoop at 1.80m seems to cover the driver and the mid floor of the boat, so in my mind not so great for a people using the front seat.

How far or hours do you think a 12lt tank will get me with a 8hp. Lets work on full noise. Some guy told me that's piddly, but he had a 200 that uses 1lt per mile. :eek:

also looking at a boat cover for the new transport requirements for open loads.
Spare bungs, a fire extinguisher perhaps, and some mesh storage slings that hang on the side. A fish finder will have to wait.

The guy that taught me to fish.....we used the tinny to get to a spot, I was never allowed to fish out of the boat

He had two small tanks.....use one running around until it runs out, you than know the second one will get you home on a straight run. That was his theory but from memory we rarely swapped over the the second tank. It was a 13 footer or there about forward steer.

If you want to play with a fish finder I have one siting on my desk at work, brand new used once. Will organise to drop it over

Quote:

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Originally Posted by newhue

well it seems a good time to buy a boat, the boat show is upon us in Brisbane.

Looking for some advice on perhaps some pretty simple stuff, but I know very little about boats.

Rod hoders, are $30 stainless steel ones that much better than $3.50 pvc ones.
I'd like to put two in the rear corner gussets of the stern.

Is a water filter required with portable plastic fuel tanks. I guess at $10 it's cheap insurance if it works.

bimini's, I'm looking at a 4 hoop 2.2m one that will basically cover most of the open are of the boat. I keep thinking of kids comfit first, so hopefully they will keep coming. But is that too big? Does it become a PITA for using a rod. The 3 hoop at 1.80m seems to cover the driver and the mid floor of the boat, so in my mind not so great for a people using the front seat.

How far or hours do you think a 12lt tank will get me with a 8hp. Lets work on full noise. Some guy told me that's piddly, but he had a 200 that uses 1lt per mile. :eek:

also looking at a boat cover for the new transport requirements for open loads.
Spare bungs, a fire extinguisher perhaps, and some mesh storage slings that hang on the side. A fish finder will have to wait.

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Plastic rod holder are fine unless you have a 7' rod with 50lb braid and something big runs off while the drag is set too high, they may (do) break, for what you are doing plastic is fine.

Water filter - never had one on the tinnies until I picked up a load of water from the 98 browser in manly, now all our boats have them.

Beware the cheap whittworths/BIAS Bimini kits, they are cheap. A few mods make them usable...

During the boat show (brisbane & sanctuary cove) BIAS & Whittworths run 15% off everything in store, they do it each boat show, so this weekend, and plan in future - save your big list...

12L big enough? depends on what you want to do. Our old catamaran had a pair of 9.9HT yamahas (4 stroke). At full throttle (which they spent all their life) they used 2.7L/hr. From experience of changing from 2 stroke to 4 stroke on the 7m platey, the same hp on the same hull with same load and operator, there is a 50% difference (31L/hr-21L/hr) So at a guess, add 50% minus 20% for the 2hp missing. 2.7 x 1.5 x 0.8 = 3.24L/hr. IMO this would be a good safety as 2 vs 4 stroke consumption is closer at wide open throttle, our 50% is at the 2 engines sweet spot - the best we could get from each. That's 3-3.5hr of flat chat running. 12L lasts several outings @ camp in the 3.6&15 honda running pots and drifting for fish.

thanks Harlie,
I was looking at a Wittworths bimini, and yes aware of the sale this weekend. Will go for a snoop around BIAS and see what's going.
The 4 hoop is $299, cheap and cheerful is it, kind of fitted the budget with 15% off. If I knew someone with an industrial sewing machine I recon I could make a much sturdier for half. You may have planted a seed here mate.

Weeds, thanks very much, be good to have a play.

Hey Jason,, you don't need an industrial sewing machine to that type of work.
Just make sure you have the right needles for the job, a standard cheapie will do the trick.
We've made a boat cover for one of my old tinnies, using the "taught-liner" material. Did it easily.
Just go easy and take your time.

Agree with chops, I’ve used the wife’s sewing machine for boat hooding vinyl and it works fine, you do need UV thread or the thread will fall apart after couple years in the sun.

If you are thinking of making something really strong, I did a cover with double rolled hem & 50mm seatbelt webbing in it, the standard sewing machine needed realignment at the local service center after that and I was banned from using it. :( But the cover stands up to real punishment without issue.

The cheapo bimini kits are ok but people I know that have bought them have needed to replace some of the clips and fittings to get them to a usable state. Put them up and they found things moved (straps loosened / bows flexed) when underway and the wind get going. Not really a show stopper but keep it in mind. Lets be honest, what are you going to be doing? Your tinnie won't be getting along at 30kns, and you won't be out in strong winds?? So with a couple of mods it will be fine.