Coffs Harbour

[TK01]

Up here for a few days to explore and hopefully catch a few fish. Never fished Coffs before so I’ve been really looking forward to this trip. Pretty sloppy conditions today but we managed a few fish including the ever present mack tuna, a few keeper snapper and my first ever longtail. My mate also hooked one on his snapper plastics rod which kept him busy for a while.

We struggled to find livebait today. Will try again tomorrow.

[bookwa]

Check in with the guys at MO tackle on the highway just near the Showgrounds.  They’ll tell you where the bait is and where the fish are!   May is tuna time in Coffs but they could be out a fair way!  

[Rebel]

Great report and Super photo.

[Pickles]

Top effort TK

[Scratchie]

Yewwwww. Always good exploring new ground and coming up trumps! Did your mate land the longy? 
 

cheers scratchie!!! 

[blairy69]

Should be plenty of Spanish macks around to, been a while since I have fished there and not sure of all the current marine parks but always used to catch slimys and yacka's just around the left hand side of Muttonbird Island not far from where the marina breakwall joins the Island, berly up and they should go bananas (excuse the Coffs Pun)

You will get Spotty macks just out the front off Pig Island and I always find the barred Spanish on the Eastern Side of the Lighthouse on the South Side.

Chance of a big nobby there as well and by catch like Samson and kingies Cheers and good luck

 

 

[TK01]

4 days of fishing, Not a lot to show for it unfortunately. We caught countless Mack tuna and lost just as many other fish to sharks and pulled hooks. Finally my mate Andy got our only spotty for the trip today on our last drift before heading home. 

Scratchie, my mates longtail was not landed. He had it circling just below us and the hook pulled.

yesterday we found some big kings that absolutely owned us. Managed to get one boatside which I estimate to be 15-20kg before it woke up and dived 30m on heavy drag to the bottom and reefed Andy. Hooked a couple of others that we didn’t see due to a reefing and the other got sharked. The shark got hooked and took off before jumping and cartwheeling about 50m from us and broke the line. It was huge! No wonder given the  amount of fish they steal.

It was a great trip but I feel the need to come back again soon to try to redeem myself. 

 

[kingie chaser]

Great to see you enjoying all your hard work in the build!

 

Just catching one fish makes my day 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2021 by kingie chaser

[61 crusher]

Couple of good sized fish there, looks like the boats paying dividends, how does she handle the rough stuff, bummer about the  kings

Sounds like you guys had a great time up at Coffs 👍

Edited May 2, 2021 by 61 crusher

[Scratchie]

It’s a good time of year to fish up there. There’s always plenty of dustings which are frustrating but motivates you even more to bring something to the boat! Haha 

Sounds like a fun trip regardless! 
 

cheers scratchie!!! 

[TK01]

13 hours ago, 61 crusher said:

Couple of good sized fish there, looks like the boats paying dividends, how does she handle the rough stuff, bummer about the  kings

Sounds like you guys had a great time up at Coffs 👍

Thanks mate, the boat is going well.  It was pretty sloppy conditions on 3 of the 4 days.  It handles the conditions well, but as with any open boat you get the occasional spray in the face in windy conditions.  It's actually the handling in calm conditions that I have a small problem with.  It wants to porpoise at high speed.  I can stop the porpoising but too much trim is required and I'd like to improve this.  Not much I can do in terms of moving weight forward as I've already done a lot in that regard.  I rarely go to WOT so it's not really affecting me but still I feel it's just not right.

Already have 80 hours on the motor since November.  It's a great motor and very efficient but it's still over-propped. I've got a 17" pitch at the moment and I intend to try smaller one out.  Less thrust could theoretically help with the porpoising too but we'll see.

Other notes, I need to do something about securing my anchor in the anchor well as it has scratched a lot of flowcoat off due to the constant pounding.  Will end up doing some damage if I leave it as it is. 

[zmk1962]

Absolutely top shelf stuff @TK01 !   Enjoying the fruits of your labour for sure. So good to see.

Hmmm. The Merc 150 is a torque beast.  If you can hit WOT then I would not say you are over propped. The porpoising can occur if the leg is too deep in the water on a light hull. Can you raise the motor a notch?

You also mention "too much trim is required" ... what are you experiencing to say it's too much trim?

Cheers Zoran

PS - I have a very heavy haines and I often trim mine down (tuck the motor in) to cut thru the waves and to avoid porpoising - it uses a fraction more fuel but the ride quality improves 1000%.  On the last trip, coming back through Sydney harbour @Pickles called it a hydrafoil - well thats the effect trimming in has on my hull.

[TK01]

20 minutes ago, zmk1962 said:

Absolutely top shelf stuff @TK01 !   Enjoying the fruits of your labour for sure. So good to see.

Hmmm. The Merc 150 is a torque beast.  If you can hit WOT then I would not say you are over propped. The porpoising can occur if the leg is too deep in the water on a light hull. Can you raise the motor a notch?

You also mention "too much trim is required" ... what are you experiencing to say it's too much trim?

Cheers Zoran

PS - I have a very heavy haines and I often trim mine down (tuck the motor in) to cut thru the waves and to avoid porpoising - it uses a fraction more fuel but the ride quality improves 1000%.  On the last trip, coming back through Sydney harbour @Pickles called it a hydrafoil - well thats the effect trimming in has on my hull.

When I say WOT I just mean full throttle.  Max RPM at WOT is only about 5500rpm so I think it can drop an inch or 2.  I notice it has a lot more trouble maintaining rpm when cruising at sea.  So a smaller prop would hopefully give me a little more torque to fix that (I think).

Regarding too much trim, I need to trim all the way in to stop the porpoising, which then means the steering becomes a lot heavier than it should be and top speed would be much lower than if I didn't need to do that.  Things just aren't quite in balance I feel and something needs to change.  The problem with lifting my motor one more bolt hole is that the top of the water intake will be above the keel which I think can't be a good thing.  Then again at that speed maybe it doesn't make any real difference as the water would be forcing it's way into the intake.

My old boat was a 5m quintrex so this is a lot heavier and a much deeper V than what I'm used to and it behaves very differently so I'm not ruling out that I'm still getting the hang of things.

Edited May 3, 2021 by TK01

[zmk1962]

Dropping an inch in pitch has about a 6% effect on rpm/speed (excluding prop slip effect). 

Smaller pitch can give you more bite at lower rpm, giving better hole shot (but a drop in top end speed) .... dropping pitch will also increase the RPM at which you cruise, which may move you into the motor's sweet spot (torque spot) to help maintain your cruise RPM.

But dropping pitch may also underprop you r motor and make the prop prone to cavitation. Especially if your motor has the torque to rapidly spin it up. (It will literally boil the water around it). Sometimes what is done is to drop the pitch and increase the diameter of the prop.  What prop are yuo running now?

I have a 150 like you (except mine is the pro xs).  I run it on a very heavy FG 2T+ rig... and I don't drop RPM cruising. But even the standard 150, has a very flat torque curve - so you shouldn't be dropping rpm at cruise. There is something else going on. 

1 hour ago, TK01 said:

The problem with lifting my motor one more bolt hole is that the top of the water intake will be above the keel which I think can't be a good thing. 

Where is your anti ventilation plate at cruising speed?  It should be just below the water line around the motor.... (ie. don't worry so much about its position relative to the keel).

The water wicks up from the back of the hull towards the motor. Depending on the hull design it can raise 1-2in. Your anti ventilation plate should be skimming just under the surface of that water around the motor. Initially fitting the motor we use the keel as a reference for the height, but after that it's a sea trial that gets it sorted as the sea trial takes into account how your hull sits in the water (how its loaded and how it rides) as well as how the water leaves the hull at the back.

I've posted this previously - helps demonstrate:

Cheers Zoran

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by zmk1962

[TK01]

4 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

Dropping an inch in pitch has about a 6% effect on rpm/speed (excluding prop slip effect). 

Smaller pitch can give you more bite at lower rpm, giving better hole shot (but a drop in top end speed) .... dropping pitch will also increase the RPM at which you cruise, which may move you into the motor's sweet spot (torque spot) to help maintain your cruise RPM.

But dropping pitch may also underprop you r motor and make the prop prone to cavitation. Especially if your motor has the torque to rapidly spin it up. (It will literally boil the water around it). Sometimes what is done is to drop the pitch and increase the diameter of the prop.  What prop are yuo running now?

I have a 150 like you (except mine is the pro xs).  I run it on a very heavy FG 2T+ rig... and I don't drop RPM cruising. But even the standard 150, has a very flat torque curve - so you shouldn't be dropping rpm at cruise. There is something else going on. 

Where is your anti ventilation plate at cruising speed?  It should be just below the water line around the motor.... (ie. don't worry so much about its position relative to the keel).

The water wicks up from the back of the hull towards the motor. Depending on the hull design it can raise 1-2in. Your anti ventilation plate should be skimming just under the surface of that water around the motor. Initially fitting the motor we use the keel as a reference for the height, but after that it's a sea trial that gets it sorted as the sea trial takes into account how your hull sits in the water (how its loaded and how it rides) as well as how the water leaves the hull at the back.

I've posted this previously - helps demonstrate:

Cheers Zoran

 

Not sure exactly where the ventilation plate is at cruise, I'll check that out.  It's been a bit of a muck around getting this sorted out and I've already dropped the motor on the advice of the designer of the hull.  I'm not sure it was the right thing to do but he's the expert so I went along with it.  He was very confident that the previous prop was the problem as it was a 4 blade 19" pitch (can't remember diameter but it was also large).  I'm now running a 17" pitch 14.5" diameter vengeance prop.   

I'll probably lift it back up this weekend and see if I can grab a 16" with same diameter to test out.

Edited May 3, 2021 by TK01

[zmk1962]

For comparison I’m running an enertia 17p 14.5 dia prop. The vengence props are basic - they get the job done - but are less efficient. 

Generally spinning the biggest prop you can (pitch and dia) that gets you WOT and good hole shot gives you the best overall economy and performance.  Also having the boat thrust (propeller) as close as possible to be inline with the keel is most efficient. The deeper the point of thrust the more lift it generates at the bow.

I would be making one change at a time so that I can attribute the outcome to the specific change I made. So stick with the 17p but raise the motor. 

Carry the 16p with you and swap down at the ramp  

It’s a bit of a pain but will help you get to optimum set up quicker. 
 

Cheers Zoran 

 

[jenno64]

Great fish there guys...the smiles say it all😉

[TK01]

11 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

For comparison I’m running an enertia 17p 14.5 dia prop. The vengence props are basic - they get the job done - but are less efficient. 

Generally spinning the biggest prop you can (pitch and dia) that gets you WOT and good hole shot gives you the best overall economy and performance.  Also having the boat thrust (propeller) as close as possible to be inline with the keel is most efficient. The deeper the point of thrust the more lift it generates at the bow.

I would be making one change at a time so that I can attribute the outcome to the specific change I made. So stick with the 17p but raise the motor. 

Carry the 16p with you and swap down at the ramp  

It’s a bit of a pain but will help you get to optimum set up quicker. 
 

Cheers Zoran 

 

Thanks Zoran. 
It is an enertia, my mistake. Old boat had a vengeance