Billy2014

No, that's alright, I can take it and to an extent you are right, no disrespect was meant to the pros - I am sure that most pros will adhere to the rules, like you, I have also known some pros - My experiences have been somewhat sour though, pros incidental catches such as Blue Marlin, not released as they should be but instead, pushed through the transom mounted mincer for Tuna berley, nice. I didn't see the pro measure any fish so I guess some may have been kept that were slightly under and of course, keepers as well, the risk you take to keep as efficient as you can and keep dragging them in....Anyhow, absolutely no disrespect intended but I do know what I saw that day.

If you can get the GPS coordinates to save as gpx files then it should be easy, I use Mapsource from Garmin because I have it already. Sorry, I made an error in the previous post, 'winging it' Lowrance format files are usr files NOT udp! To convert gpx to usr files you can use the Lowrance GPX to USR Geocaching Utility To convert usr to gpx files you can use GPSBabel I am using version 1.5.1 and it works perfectly. If you do a Google search on above you will find the downloads. Just a note, Mapsource Garmin native files are gdb files, you basically do a 'save as' to gpx. Cheers, Bill.

For anyone interested, I have an elite 7 HDI and also use Garmins map source software on my PC. You can spend all the time you need loading waypoints on you're computer using mapsource, save the file as gpx format then convert file to udp, copy to a micro sd card, load into lowrance, go to waypoints and load from card, done! You can also go back the other way, save to card from lowrance unit, convert udp file to gpx then load into mapsource. This has saved me hours of stuffing around. If anyone would like proper instructions please let me know, I'm happy to pass on. Sorry don't have all the info here, typing on my tablet at the moment. Cheers, Bill.

I was there too and noticed that same commercial boat was keeping undersized Kings, do they have a different size and bag limit to us? There were also a couple of other boats bagging rats that looked undersized, marginal call but they certianly weren't measuring them like we were and we threw back Kings which were 10mm under sized but most were around 55cm.

Nice work mate, great fish! We were at Longy on Sunday, caught and released rat Kings only. I was really dissapointed to see a pro boat doing some sort of long-lining thing, keeping all undersized Kings. It wasn't just the pro's, we also saw another two boats keep a few undersized Kings caught on lures while we were there. Really sad to see....Anyhow, don't want to spoil your party, it's lovely Kingy fillets for you :-)

G'Day, I did a bit of research on this and I am pretty sure that under 6m, you are required to have basic floatation i.e, the boat may flip upside-down but won't sink down to the abyss, just bob around. Level floatation is also a bit misleading, it's supposed to keep the boat upright if swamped but manufacturers don't test this offshore in a swell, only in calm bays. I built my tinnie and as part of the design I was required to install 1.25m3 of foam under the deck for 'basic' floatation and I will at a later date, install some more foam under the gunwales to try and achieve an even better result. The best foam to use is closed-cell polyethylene boards, flexible, easy to cut and fuel resistant. Expandable foam isn't so great for aluminium as it can cause a reaction with the metal and pre-mature corrosion. In a boat the size of yours I would only be guessing around 1.1m3 of foam if you can get access or at least as much as you can get in and the amount required by standards depends on the weight of the whole rig with people in it. Better to be safe than sorry, once swamped, scuppers, drain pipes, gaps can fill with water quickly and sink a boat if the water isn't removed with scuppers underway or a bilge pump so at least with the foam you have a bit more peace of mind. Cheers, Bill.

Im almost ready to head out and have a go as well, still a bit to sort out though but your video has me fast tracking things now :-)

I really enjoyed watching that, great stuff!

As Juggs mentioned, where is servicing more convenient? Personally, I'd get another Suzuki , Honda or Yamaha over a Merc, timing chain on the Suzuki is a big plus. Also, why do you feel you need to upgrade so soon? The Suzuki still has at least ten more very faithful years in her. I'm not a fan of etec or two stroke but that's my opinion and I don't believe in only servicing every 3 years. If I had one donk on the boat, headed offshore regularly I will not wait 3 years for servicing, it will still get done once a year.

Hi Guys, i did the course about 100 years ago, it was run by Spectrum Management Agency back then. Basically you went over the handbook for radiotelephone ship station operators then sat for an exam over a few nights. Back then I believe it was compulsory if you wanted to use VHF, there was also no such thing as a mobile phone so we also used VHF Seaphone for ship to shore calls, was pretty cool then, a bit like smoking, not so cool now I contacted the ACMA, they also have the updated handbook available as a PDF - I have no idea whether the course is still compusory for VHF, I am thinking not though..... Attached is the letter from ACMA and with it came all the stickers, reference cards and a DVD worth watching, good refresher. Its also worth contacting your local marine rescue on 16 initially and get your radio checked once and a while. https://www.amc.edu.au/handbooks I thought that all channels were actually open but there were only a few that recreational users are supposed to use? The stickers tell you which channels but I wasn't aware of your VHF radio being electronically blocked in any way but I could be wrong as I have never tried the commercial channels. Anyhow, ACMA have all the info on VHF; www.acma.gov.au/vhfmarine Below is the email I received from them; Good morning I refer to your request for the VHF marine radio channel sticker. The sticker has been mailed to you. Just in case you have not seen it before, I have also attached a link to our marine radio e-bulletins. http://www.acma.gov.au/Citizen/Consumer-info/All-about-spectrum/Marine-and-Amateur-Radio/subscribe-to-the-marine-radio-ebulletin-i-acma Scroll down past the subscription section and the previous bulletins are available from there. We would love you to share it with your colleagues and friends. Of course complete the subscription section if you think it will be useful for you. The most recent bulletin was published in January and included a link to our latest information video “Digital Selective Calling” You can also view it on our VHF marine radio information page www.acma.gov.au/vhfmarine. We are also happy for you to share or post on social media sites any of the links on this page Thanks for your interest in marine radio. If you have any comments or require further material please let us know at marineradio@acma.gov.au

Hey Vic, I hope you got out during your holidays, weather was pretty good. Yeah, too late for beakies now, you would have to work a lot harder for them. I still haven't tested the riggers yet but I am almost done with the gamefish gear, tying doubles, teaser is nearly done so I will be pretty keen to get out and fine tune it all over winter and hopefully fine tune it on some tuna as well! Going out with two boats sounds like a great idea so I am definitely looking forward to that! It's been a long while but I am guessing, August, September, October for the yellowfin. Last Yellowfin I caught was cubing off Browns, last century, August 1995, haven't been out for fin since, small fin but what amazing memories! Cheers, Bill.

Great stuff guys! Really is awesome when you can get out mid week.

No mate, the trailers are made in the Telwater factory I think. I saw them down in Nowra at one of the main dealers down there.I tried looking for some photos of them but the website pics are very small. From memory though it looked very simple bolted up. If I am not mistaken, I think the A frame and draw bar are all galv steel then the main frames were aluminium but don't quote me on that one. It would kind of make sense too, no curving of aluminium T6 required and the bits of the trailer that spend more time in contact with salt water are aluminium. Got me curious now, wish I had a Yellowfin dealer close by!

T6 is structural, builders scaffolding is usually T6 tubing and they weld those. Weld T6 with 5356 filler and it will be very strong providing joint design is right. I saw a trailer under a new Yellowfin boat, it was a hybrid aluminium and galvanised steel design. Most of the members apart from the running gear are aluminium and the forward frame was galvanised steel all bolted together. That's how I remember it, took a photo of it I think, somewhere....

Which members are meant to be curved, main frames? I know the cross frames are good if they are curved to get the keel rollers down. do you have a design? Can the main frames or A frame be welded?

Nothing wrong with a decent galvanised trailer. I don't think T6 is bendable without weakening it so I am guessing the commercially made aluminium trailers aren't using T6 members either where they are bending.

Hi Gazza, Mate, that looks amazing! I am very impressed and wouldn't mind trying that sometime myself, it will be a very strong boat. Nice design too, I will be following your progress :-) Are you definitely planning on building an aluminium trailer? I've thought about this too, was just a little concerned about the structural side of things and getting it registered. Cheers, Bill.

Hi Gazza, What sort of composite boat are you building? Glass? Cheers, Bill.

The 8k is for one kit, pdf & hardcopy plans, builders plates plus delivery, cutting files are usually CAD files that can be sent to people like onesteel for cutting with their CNC machines - Bending can be done yourself if you have access to equipment, seeing the plate is 5083 structural grade plate, you need some pretty serious machines, I paid a few dollars per bend, got a fabricator to do it for me. There are other kits that have some tube parts pre-bent but then the sides of the boat are only 550mm high, priorities I guess, there is always a compromise or catch somewhere. CNC Marine kits have no pre-bent parts, all pipe bending is by the owner, all kits would require bending of flat parts though, some people don't even bother bending, they just cut and weld the corners of everything, bent corners are pretty nice though using a 1" dia rod as a die. 1" will also ensure that the harder 5083 aluminum won't crack when bent, higher tensile strength material means a larger bend radius is required.

G'day Gazza. Yeah - What I tried to do was run a MIG bead, usually 100-150mm long to avoid too much heat build up in one place. Beads have to be staggered, sequenced, front port, rear starboard, rear port, front. starboard, centre port and so on and so on. So many opinions on staggering sequencing so I won't go into it. Main thing is to make sure to never weld in one area for too long or the boat could twist and be a write off, aluminium can and will twist easily under heat and be very hard to recover from. Back to your question, once the MIG beads are all run I left small gaps so I could run a TIG bead, reason being is that MIG isn't great at start and stops and starts are where you get poor penetration, stops sometimes have craters. Yes, there are ways around this too with good technique, pre-heating etc and MIG is perfectly fine but I would suggest using a carbide tipped burring bit to drill out MIG starts and stops, remove the potentially bad bits before you finally join the beads up. At the end of the day, all you want is a water-tiight hull and welds with good fusion all the way through, not just the middle bit of the bead. TIG on the other hand allows you to control heat input much better, you can melt-in the existing MIG start or stop so you get a nice and smooth transition. With the cost of both my welders, gas, rods and wire consumables, the entire hull build was 15k, I can now sell the MIG and recover some money or sell both TIG & MIG- For smaller plate hulls they were quoting me 18k plus this and plus that so it was out of my budget. "Oh you want it like this do you, 700MM sides, built-in catch tank, custom canopy? That will be another $5000 thank you". I guess if I lived in QLD or WA things could be different, I am sure there are builders out there that I don't know about. Also, welders were asking for $100/ hr to weld the kit for me! How much time it would take is a pretty big unknown unless they do that sort of stuff all the time. Also, my canopy is very custom, the entire boat can fit into a 2.1m high carpark, that sort of customisation is difficult unless you can do stuff yourself so the welding experience I now have probably out-weighs the fish I didn't get to catch last year, maybe... :-D Cheers, Bill.

G'day Antony, Thanks - No, I had no idea but I like to learn new stuff and did a lot of research and practiced beforehand on lots of scrap, probably spent 6 months practicing before I touched the boat. Had a few 'old timers' give me some priceless advice as well. Had to refine technique and equipment first and also tested the welds until they wouldn't break, even under my steel sledge hammer Once I was happy that my two sided welds could withstand being T boned by a harbour ferry I decided to start on the boat kit. Cheers, Bill.

G'day Gazza, I used a Cigweld 250i professional single phase MIG with a euro fitting push-pull gun, great for aluminium, smooth 1.2mm 5356 wire feeding. The TIG is a Cigweld AC/DC pulse TIG 200amp machine, really nice, single phase so not a pro version. The MIG was good for most stuff but for the finer welds and repairs I found the TIG much easier to use, the MIG gun is just really quick and can fit in almost anywhere. Aluminum just needs so much more heat so things can get out of hand very quickly, not sure what electrodes you are using for TIG but 1.5mm should be good on a very low amp setting using a 1.6mm electrode (2% lanthanted) sharpended and 5356 1.6mm rod, and if you have pulse which helps control heat input (not essential) and also pump up the AC frequency, I think it's just trial and error. I have successfully welded an aluminium can together so anything is possible. For the build I used 2 x G size bottles and I think 4 x E size, Supagas is the cheapest here in Sydney and good service. Now that I have an addiction to welding, I am just keeping a small bottle of argon handy all the time, D size I think. Home building is by no means for anyone, its really hard work and my space was extremely limited. I did look long and hard for a commercially built plate boat but when I compared apples to apples, the commercially built boats ended up about 5k more even after welders, tools and consumables were taken into account. Aluminium has dropped in price too, kits a a fair bit cheaper now. The other driver for going DIY was that I could do things in stages as funds would allow, as it turned out I got it done pretty quickly in the end, once you see the thing start to take shape it gets very exciting! I would suggest to anyone that they have decent carpentry skills and tools, lots of building space and a good bit of time, it's a very satisfying feeling being on the water with a boat you made yourself. The really hard bit which is the 1/2 kilometer of cutting is already done for you so these pre-cut CNC kits are excellent. Cheers, Bill.

Hi Everyone, I'm new here but it looks like the place to be. To anyone that may be interested or ever thought of attempting this themselves, I have just finished a home made plate boat. http://billsboatbuild.blogspot.com.au/ The blog dates back about 12 months or so, right to the beginning. Cheers, Bill.