Fishop

Nice mate you sound like my long lost twin. I have same size boat and motor. I want to put side guides on my trailer so its easier to load when im on my own (alot of the time). I like your seat setup I need to do something like that to try and save some space. I was also looking at the auto trim tabs and i moved batteries up under my feet recently as well!!! I also might be looking at a new transom/stringers. Was wondering how much it all cost you? Did you get it done professionally or did you do it yourself? Cheers

Thanks Frank, We still get 4 tides yes. I just had a play around with my navionics app and I may have found the answer. The further north I go the earlier the tide is shown to change. There were a bunch of tide markers way out in the reef and the further north I went the earlier the tide. If I went east at all the tide time didn't change much at all. Now just have to work out what 30 kms norths works out to in terms of the tide. Thanks!!!

I wasnt able to locate any spots offshore with willyweather. It kept taking me back to Bowen. Any ideas?

Great thanks, ive got Windy, Windfinder and Tides near Me apps and none of those have them. Haha. Ill try one of those.

Weather Bureau as in the BOM?

I am trying to work out how to guess the approx tide times for locations offshore. :) Is there any easy or rough guide to working this out? ie the further east or north you go the later the tide time.??? For example, I live in Bowen, Qld. Im trying to work out the tides near Holbourne island which is approx 30km north of Bowen. If Bowen's low tide is at 1440, what would I expect the low tide time to be 30km north? Is there a hard and fast rule or does it all depend on the position of the Sun and Moon at that time of year? Abbot Point is approx 20km North West of Bowen. Comparing the two tide tables, Abbot Point is between 0 and 15 minutes earlier than Bowen with tide changes but it changes throughout the year so I am guessing it does depend on where the sun and moon are on each particular day. The reason I ask is that the fishing is excellent out at this location but is extremely hard when the tide is running and you are trying to get the bottom in 50m of water. The fish also seem to like the slack tide. Ive asked a few locals but surprise surprise, they either wont give me a straight answer or they dont want to tell me. 😂😂

Looks like ill go back to 91 unleaded and save myself 18c/litre!!! Ive read that about the mandatory additives on other websites like racq and nrma and whatnot, but then other sites will say the complete opposite, so who do you believe!!! So frustrating, the internet has made it so everyone has easy access to information and misinformation!!! Our local fuel station is a caltex and their site specifically says that the higher octane has more and better additives, basically trying to convince you to pay the higher price.

The argument is that higher octane is cleaner fuel. the fuel companys will openly say that their higher octane fuel has more cleaning agents etc etc just so you buy it. Only way to tell if this is true or not is if you had say a catamaran and bought 2 new engines with separate fuel tanks and filled one with 98 and one with 91 and then opened them up after 1000 hours to see if there is any difference! 😄😄😄

Also straight off the yamaha website, http://maintenance.yamahaoutboards.com/fuel-fuel-system/ "what can I do to protect myself from the damaging effects of ethanol" dot point 2 "add fuel stabiliser" dot point 3 is "use ring free". 😂😂😂

This is just one of many conversations had regarding ethanol fuel. I'm not saying it right this is just what I'm reading.

Im on a few US boating groups on FB and alot of the boaters over there complain that lots of stations now only sell ethanol blended fuel. I think the newer motors are designed for ethanol fuels but lots of them still use additives like "ring free" and "stabil" and never let the ethanol fuel sit for long at all. Would suck to be them.

I bought my first boat 2 years ago with an unbraked trailer. I was a little oblivious to the rules I just assumed if a boat was on a trailer and already registered then it was legal. Turns out my boat probably weighed closer to 2T than 750KG and I was way overweight. When I called carribean to ask about the weight of the boat they said it was 625KG from factory!! In QLD if the boat/trailer are under 750KG then you dont need to get it inspected when changing hands. The trailer was old and rusty so It was the first thing on my list to upgrade but when I started looking into it a bit more I realised how "illegal" I really was. I also read a news article recently about someone in NSW who crashed his car with an overloaded caravan and killed his son and wife and now he is being charged with negligence in their deaths!

I wish I went cuddy cab as opposed to half cab. Lose alot of space for fishing. Although it is nice to put all your gear up the front knowing it will stay dry.

The Rule of Thumb! Now you just need an analogy to relate holden = small and ford = big!!

I would review local dealers in your area and choose based on that. All models (yes including mercury, haha) have good and bad stories and I think will last just as long as each other if you regularly service them. A good honest repair centre would go a long way in my eyes. I will be basing my next purchase on that as I had somewhat lost faith in my local dealer (new owners now so maybe my mind can be changed) Also, if its brand new you are never really going to know if a particular brand is reliable or not. They are constantly changing technologies and it takes 10 years to really find out if a model is reliable. They might change a few things thinking it will be OK, only to find it caused something else to have added pressures and fail prematurely.

I read somewhere not to use a wire brush. This was after I soaked it in vinegar and used a wire brush. haha. Got most of it off but was still a layer of salt/calcium a few mm thick that wouldnt come off. One was still in original "shape" but the other two had large chunks eroded off them so I just replaced them all.

How do you clean the anodes? I pulled mine out last service and they were caked in salt/calcium. I couldnt get it off so I replaced them.

Wow whats his number, does he service the whitsundays area?? Yeah my manual says to just inspect plugs, fuel filters, anodes every year and change if neccessary. grease prop shaft and a few nipples for tilt and trim, and gearbox oil yearly. Impeller every 3 years. Plugs are what 80 bucks for a set of 4 NGK and I only do 50-75 hours a year so I don't think they need changing every year even though the merc dealer suggests it.

Its personal experience if Im constantly towing my mates skidoo's back from the mountains. Its personal experience that the only engine that Ive towed back from working for VMR are evinrudes.

Hey man I am just drawing from personal experience. If I personally experience one manufacturer failing time and time again I steer clear. Everyone bags mercury, I have a mercury and I have had no major issues with it so I will probably stick with mercury. Murphys law if I choose yamaha I will get a lemon and have nothing but problems.

thats a killer price, id pay 200 a service for someone to do it. Sometimes the parts cost more than that for me. haha

I want an 800cc, 160hp 2 stroke snowmobile engine in my boat!! Hows the power to weight?!?

Coming from living in canada and the snowmobiling community, skidoo (BRP) had the worst reputation in the 2 stroke world anyway. It wasnt uncommon for someone to blow an engine in one season. Thankfully most came with a 2 year warranty on the engine. From seeing that first hand over there, and coming back here and reading about all their issues with 2 stroke marine engines ill steer clear for now. 8(

Really? I would have thought postage would have been killer from overseas.