Your Boating History

[SteveoTheTiger]

I thought it would be interesting to hear the boating history of every one. I know some of you guys have had a long history of boating, worked in the industry, rebuild an old boat etc and im sure some have only just begun their journey of wasting all their spare cash on their boat.

I was born in October 1978 and took my first trip out on to the bay a few weeks later. At the time we had a red fibreglass cuddy cabin, around about 5m in length. Something similar to a Swiftcraft Seagull. A very typical boat at the time.

Some time around 1980 we got a Whitley Voyager half cabin with a stern drive. This is the boat i grew up with. It would nearly pull me into the water when i held the bow line when we launched it. And i could only see over the dash if i stood on the cupboards just inside the cabin door. And when dad let me drive i had to look out the side sliding window to see where i was going.

Around 1990 dad decided the Whitley was too big and we got another Swiftcraft Seagull style cuddy cabin, this one was bright yellow. The thing was a POS with a motor that never ran very well. This boat was stolen from the front yard not long after we got it. My dad was a bit dodgy, it wouldnt surprise me if he had a mate steal it lol.

After that we got a 5m Streaker runabout. Great boat but after my old man passed away it ended up mostly sitting in the front yard until we sold it in the late 90's.

Jump to 2000 and i bought my first boat. It was a Quintrex Fishmaster. A great boat with HEAPS of fishing room. But a spine crunching ride. It had an early 90s Johnson 70 that eventually blew a piston and was rebuilt.. it ran great after that. In the end, by around 2004, i had to sell it due to a lack of funds and i went without a boat for quite a while.

Fast forward to early 2016, after a few years mucking around in a kayak and i was finally able to buy a 4.2m Savage Kestrel with a Merc 25hp tiller steer which served me well for a couple of years until my boss offered me his old boat for a bargain in 2017. So i sold the tinny, getting pretty much all my money back on it, and bought my boss's Apollo Spaniard with an early 2000s 75 Mariner. The boat itself was a piece of junk that needed a lot of work including a new transom and trailer, but the engine was great with only 100hrs on it and i had a plan. I knew of a place selling a Haines Hunter 460 SLR with no motor on it. So i got them to take my motor.. throw away the boat and trailer, and i got myself a Haines Hunter for less than $10k.

I will be looking to upgrade to something a little bigger in the future, but for now i am VERY happy with the little SLR. Its a very nice looking boat, it rides very well and has some awesome features such as under floor storage, forward opening window and bow hatch to allow access to the bow and a lot of fishing room for a 4.6m boat.

[bowl]

Nice topic.
First boating experience was dad hiring a boat on phillip island .

We got lucky and caught a lot of salmon, awesome fun.

We cleaned the fish and mum cooked the fish , the anticipation of catching and eating our own fish was very high for both me n dad.

Once cooked the family eagley eat dinner , so I eat my first piece of salmon , me n dad both looked at each other after our first bite and we decided it was pizza for dinner.

[gregmaka]

You were born lucky Stelvio,we did not get a boat till 50 years from when i was born,allway piers and putting up with smaller catches,and alot more travelling to different piers.The kids at school with dads that had a boat would brag about their catches compared to our catches.We still had fun as we did not know any better. We haven't used the boat that much in last few years but caught a few Flatheads and Gummy sharks. I/we were still grateful that we still learned the art of fishing even though we did not own a boat. But now i have just bought my first Kayak,life jacket,motor etc,yet to be delivered. I am so looking forward to dressing it up and maybe springtime go out fishing .

[Trumpeter]

My first boating memories go back to the late 60's/early 70's in my grandfather's bondwood Hartley cabin cruiser catching Flatties in PPB. My dad was also a keen sailor and had a yacht in a pen at the RMYS in St.Kilda which I spent a lot of time on with him exploring, fishing and racing around the bay. I also crewed on a few ocean races over to Tassie on other yachts. When I finished school I worked for a few years as a deckhand longlining for Snapper & Gummy Shark and also did a stint on the Pilchard seine boats out from Sandringham where I grew up. I purchased my first fishing boat in the mid 90's which was a 4.29 Clark Abalone centre console, then after a few years upgraded to a 5m Trailcraft CC, which I had for 12 years. Next boat was a Quintrex 440 Renegade which I had for about 5 years. Now that middle age had set in I was getting sick and tired of being wet, cold and bashed around in a Tinnie so I got rid of the Quinnie and in 2019 I purchased my first glass boat, a Haines Hunter 470 Breeze, I don't think I'll be going back to alloy anytime soon. I live on the Bellarine so do all of my boating around Corio Bay and southern Port Phillip.

[DougieK]

I grew up sailing Sabots / Lasers /Finns of Chelsea beach from age 3 or so in the late 80s. Competed all around the country and in the 1999 World Laser championships at Royal Melbourne. I grew out of it in my late teens as life took me down other paths.

I love sailing but don't really get out much anymore. I very rarely fish off boats but enjoy any opportunity to learn new things. When the body fails and i'm done with rock fishing, I'd like to kit out one of those hobie AI Trimarans and sail that around as a fishing platform.

[ducky]

Fishing and boating skipped a generation for me. My grandfather loved it and all school holidays were spent doing it. But dad wasn’t keen So despite having a passion for it I never really did it properly until I was 21 and met a new circle of friends through work etc. one of them had a Barcrusher 560c. Many many hours spent on that over the next half dozen years got me absolutely hooked on fishing and I was finally in a position to buy a boat.

Lots of searching and thinking and I progressed up from wanting a 420 dory, 5m truck, 420 explorer/renegade. A post on here about 6 years ago had cobby point out a cheap formula 15. A few days later it was mine and that’s what I’ve had ever since. Love the little boat. Had it up the Murray chasing cod, in the yarra chasing jews (2nd sesh we got 11...) in the rip chasing kings. Offshore casting at tuna and kings. Rides like a dream. Keen as mustard to get it finished and back out there.

[VooDoo]

Zero experience in boating apart from being a deck hand here and there on the odd fiahing trips ln friend's boats.

However am about to dive deep into the quagmire of boat ownership - the 'Bring On Another Thousand" saying is so true!!! We have yet to take the old girl out for a fishing trip and yet she have emptied part of our wallet already. Lucky this is a joint venture/partnership with my cousin so it has soften the financial blow a fair bit.

The old lady ain't no show pony/head turner like the Maslin Tiffany HH 565L but just a 4.55m plastic fantastic from Polycraft. At least I won't be too worry about banging the old lady into the pier when learning how to launch and retrieve

Thank you Purp for your input and advice - much appreciation. There are a few things we want to dress the old girl up and more likely be asking for advice from experienced members on here. This is a good rig for us to experiment and learn more about boating.

And of course; will endeavour to put more fishing reports on here as well when and if we take the old lady out in one of our bays.

[purple5ive]

My parents have zero boating knowledge, and the same goes for my next closes relatives living here in Australia.
However being born overseas and living on an island, boats are part of everyday life. In saying that I never got to drive or own one until about 6 years ago when I decided to hire a boat from Mornington boat hire. That day we caught many pinkies and flathead on plastics. I was pretty hooked and so was my cousin.
Soon after we decided to get a boat together and thats where the first smartwave enters. Was a small 3.5m polyboat and I learned pretty much a fair bit from owning it, from having to rebuild the trailer, to installing electronics and casting desks..
Very soon the upgrade was made to the bigger 4.2m Smartwave.
Did the same thing to this boat and customised it to suit my fishing style which was lure fishing.
Ive fished a lot of different parts of Victoria chasing mainly bream and estuary species in this boat and have had some crazy adventures in it not to mention a fair amount of PBs coming from it. Still have it and still enjoy using it. One day I will get the 4.8 version.

[re-tyred]

I was born on an Island off the coast of France. My parents joked we all crawled into the water before we could walk. When I was 7 we emigrated to Australia, by ship. I remember being one of the very few at the dinner table in rough weather. We arrived at Port Melbourne on 4th January 1961. Once in Oz we settled just south of Bairnsdale on a farm a short pushbike ride from Mason bay. Just west of duck arm. My parents soon bought a bondwood cabin boat with an inboard motor. This was pretty much the normal boat for the area at the time. We spent most weekends and school holidays at a camp we built on Bunga back arm. When I reach around 13-14 yo I bought my own boat from money earned trapping, ferreting and shooting rabbits. This was a home built bondwood punt. It had a prop shaft and propeller but no motor. I talked the old man into letting me deconstruct an obsolete rotory hoe and use the 2 stroke single cylinder motor. A few nights and weekends in the shed and I had built engine mounts , installed the engine and coupled it to the prop shaft. It was direct drive. Cord pull start and exhaust stack going straight up. Bit of choke , pull the cord and away you went. Quick dash to the tiller and throttle as soon as it fired up. I spent many days out on the lake , mostly alone, fishing , snorkeling , spearing and just driving around. About 15 yo I bought a rainbow skiff yacht and became a regular competition sailor at Paynesville. I also built a kit Arafura cadet catamaran in my spare time. No internet smart phones or Foxtel in those days. Well eventually school and growing up ends and I joined the PMG as a technician in training in Melbourne. After 3 years of that at the ripe old age of 19 I saw the light and left government employ to go commercial fishing with my older brother. I also got married at just over 20yo. Still am. Within a couple of years I obtained my master 5 and became a skipper. Soon after that I purchased a Danish Seiner. (Trawler). Late 1980s and starting feel like a change I saw an add for a salesperson for Taylor Marine, the Furuno agent,. I applied and was successful. By 1991 I was manager of one of their stores. With my technical background I started doing a lot of the repairs and installations on commercial vessels. I did this including stints in Brisbane and Adelaide till 2010. By that time I was technical manager for the East Coast and did most of their big ship repairs. This all became a bit too hectic and with kids grown up and all working and producing grandkids, I quit and we returned to our house in Lakes Entrance. I joined coast guard and became a skipper, bought my own tinny and ended up working casual at Gippsland ports, driving the Hydrographic survey vessel and the survey jetskis. I surveyed the entire Gippsland Lakes plus all other estuaries from Inverloch to Mallacoota. Oh and a few inland lakes including lake Wendouree. Now I am fully retired and just go fishing and coastguarding. I have a number of mates with larger vessels so from time to time we team up and go deep sea out past the rigs. I Also give a cpl of the Charter vessels a hand.

[SteveoTheTiger]

I didnt realise anyone else would have a background in sailing.

I did a little when i was a kid.. some sort of two handed dinghy sailing at the water sports centre out the back of Patterson Lakes when they first built it around 1990. And also a little Hobie Cat sailing on a friends boat.

My dream is to sail my own large trailer sailer around various places. Something with a swing keel like a Sonata 7, that i can easily put on a trailer and use in shallow water. But i can only have one boat and my passion for fishing far outweighs my desire to sail.

Was a small 3.5m polyboat and I learned pretty much a fair bit from owning it, from having to rebuild the trailer, to installing electronics and casting desks..

One thing that i would really like to learn is how to correctly and safely wire all the 12v stuff. There are so many small jobs that i would do myself if i knew how.. but arent worth paying someone to do for me.