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

I need to clarify the story I was given by the local tech guy for the failure of the injectors. Like most manufacturers BRP source parts from outside companies. Apparently an entire batch of injectors were made with too fine a voltage tolerance. Instead of operating at a range of 13.1- 13.4 volts for example, these faulty injectors were set at 13.20-13.25 volts and so intermittantly would miss. Now which motors had these injectors installed was not known, so rather than replace every injector in every motor, they replace every injector that proves to be faulty. Dont quote me on the voltage figures, I dont recall the exact settings he mentioned, its just that they're too sensitive. Dont quote me on this either, but he also mentioned that the BRP guys had told him that with most of the problems reported around the country, they're (BRP) finding it is faults with the way the motor was set-up by the dealer, particularly in the software used by the dealer on their laptop or service PC. Rather than genuine mechanical or electrical errors. Sammy you're right about BRP needing to send some warning shots. Maybe they need to visit the dealers more frequently too, to keep an eye on things better. Andy

Warnie, Im not concerned because the injector issue is a known fault. BRP admit it. I know personally two mates who've had both injectors changed on their Etec 40 and 50. These motors run fine now. One injector was changed on mine, once I was out of run-in period (4hrs) at about 7hrs run time,(apparently the computer only showed the one injector playing up the first time round) It was running pretty bad but never stopped. Now the second is getting changed because of a slight miss Im still getting. The motors done about 9-10 hrs now. The missing isnt in any way so bad the boat is unusable, its a very slight miss, like one piston, once, then maybe 30secs or 2 minutes itll miss again, sometimes it seems to go for many mintues before a miss. Sometimes there will be a few in a row. If you are in choppy water, you dont even notice it. My above reference to 'run-in period' was when I did the long trip. When this injector gets changed, I plan on doing the trip again to test it out. I expect the fuel economy will be even better this time. I should point out that the second injector unit is getting changed on my word that its missing. A many hundred dollar part (not sure and dont care) without the tech even plugging in the computer and running my motor to see if its faulty. Id call that pretty good support from BRP. Maybe you just gotta talk to the right people.

I just want to add that so far my experience with my ETEC 40 and warranty issues has been good. I have had one fuel injector changed and last week after going for a long cruise I still had some miss firing and rough running. I took it back to the dealer once again, this time the BRP rep happened to be in the shop. He told the tech at my dealer to replace both injector units and to change the injectors spray nozzles ? to a wider or finer spray ? ? Not sure on this last one but as soon as the parts arrive it'll be fixed thats all I care about. My fuel economy is fantastic too. A few weeks ago I did just under 100km in one day, mostly at high speed cruise or WOT and used less than 30 litres, and the first part of the trip was still in run-in mode so using more fuel. Andrew

Ive just got to add my 2 cents here. I read lots of threads on this and other forums that were very ANTI ETEC. I went ahead and bought one anyway. A 40hp tiller on a 4.2m Stessco Catcher . Now I may not have done a lot of hours (about 15 now) and I have had to have one injector changed (but thats a known fault that some are bad, not all, but some) and the throttle was initially set-up wrong (dealer issue) so its not been all smooth sailing, but Im very happy with its performance. It starts first time everytime I push that button, within milliseconds of turning over it starts. I havent tried starting it by hand yet but must do soon. A mate and I did just under 100km in one day (in a river) at a range of speeds from flat out (52km/h or 29kts) to idleing along trolling at 5-6 km/h and used approx 25L of fuel. I vote ETEC.

Anyone up for some fishing in Ballina tomorrow, Tuesday 3rd July. At short notice Ive got the day off and have no crew. New boat, 4.2m with Etec 40, gps and sounder. All the gear and no clue. Someone want to show me how ? Andrew

Finaly got it on the water today. An AWESOME boat. Rides so so so much better than a quintrex 4.2 dory I went in last week. It handled about a 1 metre swell and some peaking waves (about to break) very easily. A mate who was on board with me thought it was fantastic. Id post some pics of my fit out so far but havent yet taken any and there seems to be no interest in the Catcher from this forum, so Ill keep a good thing to myself.

My boat arrived at the dealers today. Some welds look a bit rough but they are complete and sound.

Hi Nick, Ive got a Catcher on order, should be ready this coming week. Im putting an E-Tec 40 on mine and also got extended wide decks on the gunwalls and chequere plate foredeck ala the RV model. Ill post some pics and a review here later. I went for a ride in one to make my decision and found it fantastic. Good Deep V hull, handled chop with ease and nice and dry. The guy who owns it (the one I tested) says he still hasnt got wet in it other than from rain.

Simon, What happened ? Did you find a boat yet ? or is your head spinning and you cant sleep at night, constantly thinking about the options for the boat and what you can really afford etc etc ? ? Ive got 2 little boys that I hope can grow to love fishing and boating like I do, and just ordered a boat to suit my growing families needs and mine We're getting a Stessco Catcher 4.2 with side decks and an Evinrude Etec 40 tiller. My long term idea is to make it a small centre consol but funds are limited now, so tiller will do. The ETEC won the race in my choice for a new motor based on its ultra low emissions and great fuel economy. The Catcher for its deep V hull and 3mm bottom skin.

My god, that has happened in only 2 weeks ? ? ?