frankS

Happy new year to all members. Fireworks must have been easy to get this /last year as there seemed to be much more bangs and cracks than previous years around my place, the park opposite was going till well after 12,30 am usually quiet by about 12.10. People were very well behaved and organized in small groups, it reminded me a bit of the old days. Just no bomb fire. Frank

Larkin. It's your money and I understand that you may be loyal to your friend. The offer is there with no pressure, just trying to help you save heaps of dollars. I do have one of those stainless steel flip up spring loaded brackets as well. Cheers Frank

Larkin.Don't spend that much money on a new transducer. I have a Garmin GT52HW-TM here that you could try out before you outlay any dollars. It has some scratches and is used but you are more than welcome to come and collect it fit it try it out for a few sessions and then IF it does what you want it to do you could give me some dollars ( whatever you think is a fair price for 2nd hand tranny ) . Also have a spare head mount bracket I would throw in with the deal. If you find it is not suitable for your needs after a fair trial, just return it and all will be good. Has Stainless steel mounting brackets not plastic. Can take some photos if interested. Frank

Hi Noel. it's either raining or too bloody hot lately to do much of anything outdoors. Trailer should get you through a few more years. I need to pull my finger out and do something around here, got too many projects happening. Frank

Thanks guys. I haven't exactly kept in touch with the regulations of fishing in NSW. Was talking with an old fishing mate and planning our next trip out when I mentioned getting some new balloons and he said we were not allowed to use them these days. I tried to look it up on google but couldn't find a decisive answer . Just talking about going out to the jibbon bomby and drifting a floating bait over the bommie like we used to do back then. Frank

Are you still allowed balloons for fishing in NSW open waters ?. Frank

Looking forward to some photos. Frank

Don't know if this is any help or not Frank

Hi guys I have a new project to play with, well not new I have had this boat sitting in my back yard for about 18 months or so but now that I have sold my Brooker I thought it was about time I started doing something with this one. I still have the 4.85 Savage Scorpion I can use while I am working on this one and I do still have the aluminium Trailer build not quiet finished. Yeah I know what you are thinking " why not finish one thing before you start another", well it's just what I like doing, crazy yes I know but that's the way I am . The boat is a 4.4 Quintrex something , I have a 30hp 2 stroke Yamaha motor to put on it and I have a few items already such as switches , nav lights, bilge pumps, I intend to turn this boat into a side console and it will be painted and decked out ready for fishing with most of the bells and whistles you can have in a 14 ft boat. It will then go to the highest bidder, I will probably never use it myself. I have got a fully registered trailer for it and the boat is fully registered already so looking for a quick sale once finished. The seat I have to fit behind the side consol so I guess this will determine what colour the boat will be. Need to find more seats to suit. Hope a few of you guys follow my progress as I go. Frank

Going down to Bermi tomorrow so it will be a few days before I get around to charging it. Not taking the boat but might use the 13 footer that's down there to just fish the harbor and river for a few hours. Frank

Dunc. Havent done it yet, lazy arse. My plan was to back boat up onto the front lawn run extension cord out to boat take charger to boat and charge battery, none of which got done, didn't fancy running electric cord out onto wet grass. was planning on going fishing tomorrow but now those plans have been cancelled. If my mate turns up at 4.30 in the morning he will be disappointed.. Been doing some work in the workshop and had a few set backs so fishing will have to take a back seat for a while. Frank

Thanks for the reply. I do have a pretty good charger My thoughts are to set this on about 2-3 which I guess is around 15 amps or so and run it for a few hours to boost some charge into the battery and then I do have another small CTec charger which I would use to trickle the final charge into the battery. Just want to know IF my line of thinking would be the right way to go about doing it. Frank

Thanks for the reply but I can't see where these figures come from. I can understand the 15 being 15 amps but where does the 0.3 come from ? and the 136 ? I unfortunately left school at 13 and maths was not among my best subject to start with. Could you explain to me this formula. Frank

OK guys just a quick one. To charge a 180 amp hour from flat to full charge. How long would it take at approx 15 amps charge going into the battery ?. Just want to see IF my maths are correct. Frank

Personally I would steer clear of that boat. The trailer is set up more for a alloy boat than a glass boat . Cheap is not usually cheap in the long run so buyer beware. Frank

The Squid are completely avoiding any offers i present to them. Thye only thing I didn't try was the old-fashioned spike but next time it will be the first thing in the water. There were a few small throw backs during the day but it was good to see nice sized fish come aboard for a change. Frank

Tried the bay again today, early start just as the sun was coming over the horison, once again headed straight for the weed beds off kurnell same as the other day, could not catch a Squid for the life of me, must be doung something wrong. Drifted over the drop off in Yarra and picked up some nice little Flats 4 in total between about 45-50cm each didn't measure them as I feel IF you have to measure a fish it's too small to keep. Kept drifting the 16 metre drop off and picked up a further 8 Tailor around the 40cm mark all keepers so my mate will be stoking up the BBQ and alfoil for a Tailor feed or two. Sorry again no photos as I didn't bother getting the camera out. Enjoyable day with some good eating flesh for a bit of a change. Hardly used the electric as this was a fishing day not a toy playing day. Frank

I have trouble lifting it. Will try and weigh it tomorrow. Thanks everyone for the input and help on this one. I am not too worried about the energy used now that everything has been explained to me. I will just use it when needed in future. BTW I only set the charger to 2 or 3 for about 45 minutes then rest it and if it needs more charge I put it on again. I think 3 is approx 15 amps going by the guage. Will also measure the battery. Frank

Only thing I can think of is make sure you have it locked in place. the shaft has a groove in it that the black slider control knob slots into ( Height control ) make sure this drops into slot. Frank

Yes I realize that after your explanation earlier. I thought it would do much better but I do realize it's a pretty big boat for 12 volt electric and I did put it through it's paces to check it out, normally i would not push it to it limits like I did. I bought this electric mainly for it's spot lock feature and it's tracking feature. It proved itself to me as a good investment as a spot lock. Things may be a bit different off shore with a moderate chop. I am just going to have to take my battery charger with me when I go away for days on end and charge it each night. PS I do have the other 115 amp battery from my other bow mount, I might throw that in the boat as well as the 180 amp when I plan on doing a long day. Frank

The electric motor is connected to the battery via an anderson plug and nothing else is connected to it. Frank

Fab1 OK mate, that sorta makes sense to me the way you put it. I did have the leckie going constantly most of the time I was out there, varied speed of troll and power from setting 2 right up to 10 ( max ) at times and a few spot locks to test the thing out. It is a reasonably large boat for a 12 volt electric motor and now I realize how much battery it can draw I will not use it as much in the future. Yesterday was more about testing the electric and my new 9" Lowrance sounder out, spent most of the day playing with the new toys rather than concentrating on catching fish, so I will use that as my excuse for having an ordinary day as a fish catcher. Frank

Pardon my ignorance but how do you go about doing a " draw test " ?. and what do I need to do this test ?. Battery bought as a 180 amp hour . Frank

I bought the battery as a NEW battery about 12 months ago and has been sitting in my workshop with just the occasional 12volt drill being used from it. Charged it up to full capacity the day prior to putting it in the boat. The charger unit is a 100 amp charger for majority of charge then I put it on my small Ctec charger for final trickle charge which red full charge before putting in boat. The battery The charger Charger size comparison gas bottle is full size bbq bottle think 9kg so it's not a toy charger Frank

Hope someone can help me with a possible battery problem. I tested my new Watersnake bow mount electric motor out yesterday. It is the Geo spot gps 65 lb 60 inch shaft model the boat is a 4.85 savage Scorpion 2 people on board with light breeze and low chop in Botany bay. Approx 5 hours use both trolling at verious speeds from 1.7 k's per hour up to 4.8 k's per hour and a bit of spot lock that used the motor to hold position . My battery is a 180 amp hour which was fully chargged to start with. At the end of my 6 hours on the water approx 5 hours of using the electric my battery went down to one light displayed on the motor and the remote told me the current had dropped down to 11.5 volts. This seems excessive power loss to me as I used to run my old bow mount on much small boat all day with a 115 amp hour battery sometimes 2-3 days away using electric motor on and off without the battery ever being fully discharged. I bought the battery on line from an Auction site so I am thinking that maybe the battery is some how less than standard and it may have been a reject battery some how ?. What is the thoughts of other electric motor uses ? should a large battery last longer than 5 hours use on a 4.85m boat ? Or am I just being Perrenoud and expecting too much from the battery ? . Frank