ATrezise

I know he fixed it, was just after pics of where the water came in on his boat. I cant find any similar spots on my boat.

Update. I think the water I found after a short trip was water that had been sitting in the reverse chine section. Ive since pressurised each side of the boat and found several small holes in the deck area, under the seats. It would appear some other seats had been once fitted. The boat was a demo boat and had 8 hrs on it when I bought it. The section referred to as dodgy glass work by the original poster appears to be well fibreglassed on mine.

Hi, Dragging up an older thread. I saw another post where you have sold the 1800. What was the eventual outcome of the water saga ? I have an 1800, have since 2010 and it has water in the sealed sections too! Just wondering how you solved it or did you sell it still leaking? The water in mine is NOT fresh water, its salty. I have drained and dried the sections, then with 3 hours on the water, mostly at planing speeds I had more salty water in it. Very confusing as all screw holes in transom are sealed properly. Now to put it in the water again and look inside at the same time to see where its coming from. Andrew

I may be wrong here, but I thought an Ali boat was supposed to be set up on the trailer so that 99% or more of the weight sat on the keel rollers, and the side rollers or skids stop it from rolling side to side. It looks to me in those transom pics, that the keel isnt supported, the side wobble rollers are set too high, or the keel rollers are set too low, which may/will go a long way to also explain the bow catching on the rollers when trying to put the boat on the trailer. If the keel at the bow is resting on that low keel roller the wobbles are way too high. All the other advice, esp re calling to see Huey, is good. BTW I have the same hull as you Caine, only mine is the Tiller steer version, Stessco Catcher, great hull.

Trim of the motor ? Does that make a difference. ? I can trim my 40hp tinny so that it goes along with the Stbd side low. Trim the motor up and it evens out.

Thats true, Id forgotten that about the fuel. More to do with transporting dangerous goods that they cant carry them, but the other reasons are valid. Should be OK if it is completely empty. I sent you a PM Sammy

Id give Ballina Removals a call. They have a fleet of trucks up and down the highway to Sydney almost daily. They have a website, ballinaremovals com au, so I just found out by searching whitepages online. I dont work for them or even know anyone who does, but I live and work in Ballina, just down the road from their depot.

Just how slow do you need to go with a downrigger ? My Etec40 does about 2kts at idle, give or take.

I have succesfully used Metho to rinse a tank. Having said that with a small tank I dont see why using water to flush it and allowing to dry completely could be unsafe. I have just recently seen about a tablespoon of water in my 21L plastic tank. (last time I took the near empty tank out to refill it) Ill get around to flushing it out before I go offshore again.

Huey, You make it sound so simple. I wish my dealer did. If only I had a work related reason to be coming to Sydney, Id tow the boat down and have you do it. I am the boss so I might just have to invent a reason

Put simply, you need to work out the total current for the lights etc, multiply that by the max number of hours you want to run them and then roughly double it to get the battery size you need. You should never aim to flatten a battery. So If you have std nav lights with say 10 watt bulbs, they will draw roughly .8amp each. A spotlight with a 100 watt bulb will draw approx 8amps but hopefully wont be on for too long and a 1000gph bilge will draw around 5amp (according whitworths catalogue) but again wont be on for long, hopefully. Nav lights for 4 hours = 9.6amp, spot light for say 1hour = 8amp and the bilge for 10 min = .9amp. Therefore 18.5ah req'd. Go for a 36ah battery. If you go bigger still you will have a much bigger safety margin. If you change the bulbs in the nav ights to LED festoon bulbs they will draw only milliamps and you can use the 18amp you have your eye on, however agm are very expensive and not really needed for calm water. If the engine can charge the battery whilst crusing between fishing spots, even better. I have LED nav lights, a sounder/gps, interior lights (again LED), a 1000gph bilge pump, a VHF radio and my battery is used to start my motor and I have a 750CCA (cold cranking amps) or approx 55ah battery and Ive not had probs.

Hi Huey, I have sent an email to Garry, but no reply as yet. Im still tossing up whether to get the guage and wire loom from you for my Etec 40. The only factor weighing now is the local dealer seems to think its going to cost a couple of hundred to install. Claims to have used about $100 worth of extra wire and connectors to install it in another guys tiller steer boat. For what they're quoteing I could almost tow it down to Sydney and get you to do it. Andrew

Hiya's, Yesterday I installed a permatrim on my boat, a 4.2M Stessco Catcher with Etec 40 Tiller. It predicatably made a big difference. Ah something happened in the upload of vid, Ill try again soon. http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q153/Bi...permatrim1a.flv Andrew

Maybe the bigger Etec's are quieter out of the water, but . . . . my 40 is still pretty noisey when flushing. I certainly wouldnt attempt to flush it late a night and not annoy a neighbour. Theres a Skeeter with 200HO Etec near my work, about 50m away, and I can hear it when they flush the motor, its not as noisy as my mates 15yr old, 140 Yammy 2 stroke, but . . . not whisper quiet. As for the smell, well the Etec 40 certainly doesnt have the traditional 2 stroke pong, but its not "completely" free of the 2 stroke smell. I can smell it slightly if trolling downwind for a while, but definately no smoke and definately not the sickly 2 stroke pong of much older motors. Having said that, I can smell someone smoking a ciggy 200m away if the wind is going my way.

I have a quick question that Ive been unable to find an answer for on the Minn Kota website. Do the minn kota bow mount motors have reverse ? A friend has a 55lb JW bowmount and it has no reverse, you need to spin the motor around to effect reverse, which when drifting in towards oyster leases takes time and has caused a few scratches and bumps. I think having a button to push with your foot, to stop the boats motion easily and quickly would be good. Andy