Noble Is Coming!

[Evanwz]

Kelvin

Firstly congrats on the new rig - looks absolutely awesome and I'm interested and intrigued on your choice of plate and also the Noble as everything I've read rate them as THE best non glass boat in the market for ride and offshore capability but you also pay big $$$ for them - you get what you pay for.

Also congrats on your consistent Kingy magic - I've followed your reports with envy but your obvious skills in fresh bait catching, knowing where to go and what rigs and mechanisms to use to catch your target fish means you get the results. I learned simple things a few years ago on a charter with Greg Joyes from Calmwater Fishing Charters on the Hawkesbury about techniques to catch big jewfish and it's proven successful a number of times over the past years. I'm no expert on kingies but did have some fantastic fun with some 70cm specimens around Bluefish in early in 06 that were awesome to catch and magnificent to eat. I fish mainly Broken Bay and offshore for reef species, Jewfish, flathead and anything I can find. I also run around middle harbour but mainly end up at North Head, the Wedding Cakes, Bluefish etc

I currently own a Whittley 580 Voyager (cruiser really!) cross graded from a Whittley 6.3m Sea Legend which I loved for its fishing ability, not loved so much as it had a Ficht 2 stroke and I'd come from a Yammie 115hp 4 stroke on my previous bowrider and the Sea Legend ride wasn't the smoothest and a half cab it pretty useless when it's essentially a big storage box. Anyway now I'm back in the dilemma of cruising boat (great for running around with my kids but crap for fishing) and fishing boat I think I'm heading down the fishing boat path (I miss just getting out and making a mess of the boat with fish and guts and blood and good old fishing fun!) - don't want a half cab and not sure whether to go with a centre console or a centre cab - I'm thinking centre cab coz at least you get some shelter and some storage while maintaining lots of fishing room like you've mentioned in your posting re your boat. Problem is there aren't a lot of useful centre cabs - maybe Trailcraft, definitely Noble and not many glass true centre cabs Vs the walkarounds. So I keep hunting which is kinda half the fun.

What else do you look at before deciding on the Noble?

Also re your fuel consumption, I've got a Johnson 140hp 4 stroke on my Whittley which would be a boat + motor weight of about 1400kg's I think - it's about 1900kg with trailer, fuel, water etc etc and I've got a Navman Trackfish unit with fuel flow metre which is generally accurate to within 3 litres when I fill it up so I'm assuming for an average 50 litre fill the overall accuracy of the unit without any specific calibration from me is pretty good.

My consumption around 21-22knots is 17-18 litres/hr, I think it's around 4800rpm but I'd need to check at the 26 to 30 knot mark it's around 23 litres/hr and full throttle I'm at about 33knots and 5800RPM or thereabouts and about 27litres/hr

So there's a comparison for you - quite similar except at wide open throttle but I'll check that when next I'm out and confirm if it's of interest to you

Again well done and good fishing to you - you've got part of the mystery of catching fish sorted and you're one of the 20% that catch 80% of the fish, I'm part of the 80% that catch 20%.. or maybe 10%

Evan

[namesay]

Evan when I saw the Noble I knew it was THE boat. It had everything I wanted and then some more. The centre cabin in the Noble is big enough for grown ups to sleep in and the walk around configuration is fantastic for fishing. It is almost like a centre console in its all round boat access.

I had looked at almost every boat in the 5.5-7 meter range. The problem with a lot of the boats is that almost 1/2 the boat is wasted in a cabin style boat! But the centre cabin configuration allows a cabin AND access.

The boats that really interested me were the US made trophy, Sea Pro, Hooker boats all in the walkaround config, Haines HUnter Patriot 6.8, Australian Master marine, Fisher boats and of course Noble. THe fiber glass boats impressed with their slick finish and fantastic ride but they weighed more and need more maintenance.

The US boats had the BEST finish I have seen in ANY boat but they had a few issues. The most signficant was that some of them were too wide to legally trailer. In Australia you cannot exceed 2.5 meters but some of the US boats were slightly over that!!! ALso they came with HORRIBLE trailers and often you were stuck with only 1 brand of engine....Mercury!

The problem with mercury 4 strokes in the power range ( Verado ) I was looking at is that they are all supercharged. This was a sticking point with me as a supercharger is another thing to break down and these engines were very thirsty compared to their competition.

The aluminium boats are easier to maintain but their ride was not up to scratch. I own a trailcraft and it is a fantastic plate alloy boat which is tough and extremely seaworthy but has a rough ride.

The Noble gives me the best of both worlds but as you have said it is EXPENSIVE. It allows my kids to have a nap in comfort and allows plenty of fishing room. However, there are NO dealers here in NSW so I had to go to Queensland and deal directly with the factory. I got to know the Noble family very well and started building a boat to my specs. Made several trips to Qld to get the specs right.

These boats are built to ISO specs and are to survey standard. The hull is the most sophisticated aluminium hull there is and the little things are all taken care of. Like a fuel expansion chamber to stop moisture contamination of the fuel, central scuppers..etc. They cost about 25-30% MORE than a comparable boat of this size but are worth everycent. 2nd hand Nobles sell for the same price of a new one. The only depreciation occurs with the engine.

I just can't wait to get it!!! Cheers Kelvin