I bought a second hand BW however didn’t come with deck hose. Can someone please confirm correctly female attachment size to screw onto hull fitting?  

Hi All,

What do the brains trust here use to display registration numbers and, for those that don't use as a tender, annual stickers on their inflatables?

I have picked up an inflatable boat (2.8m) and 4HP motor that I plan to use for camping/inshore fishing and also occasionally as a tender to my main boat. A big bonus is that my oldest will also be able to use it without a skippers ticket as it is under the 6HP limit.

I've worked out that while I wouldn't have to register if I used it exclusively as a tender, the camping/inshore fishing use means that I either run the gauntlet each trip out using my main boats rego and play dumb if queried by authorities or just register the boat in its own right and bend over every year paying more in rego than what the boat will be worth after a few years.

Either way I still need to display a set of rego numbers on the boat. I'm assuming the stick-on variety won't cut it so some form of flexible paint will be required. Any tips? What about the rego sticker? I can't imagine those lasting more than a few trips on the side of the tubes. Placing it on the outboard would last longer but since you rego the boat and not the motor that probably won't go down very well.

Brett

So I’ve learnt a lot from this forum and its time for me to tell one of my embarrassing stories… Especially after reading the bearing thread a few weeks back!

So after a mediocre and gusty boys week in Coral Bay (Big thanks to Crano for the advice for when we could actually get out) we set off at 5.30am ready to do the big drive home in one go, changing drivers religiously every two hours.

I had changed the bearings 9months ago and prior to the trip north, removed the bearing buddies, checked each one and gave them all a pump of grease. All of the grease was clean and blue and no adjustment needed.

Every time we stop to change drivers, I always do a lap of the boat and touch each hub checking for heat. After several stints, we pull into Jurien around 3pm and head to the IGA and fuel station. It was actually my wedding anniversary so was going to be in the good books to come home early, flowers and wine in hand with an Indian takeaway. All hubs cool to the touch, flowers bought and wine in the fridge, time to roll on…

About 1.5hrs later as we are approaching two rocks, we pull over for me to takeover the final drive into the city traffic, I do the lap of the trailer and find the rear wheel cocked over, only hanging on by a half chewed castle nut. 40kms left to go!

I carry tools and spare bearings with me so get to changing the bearing in the fading light. The bearing was completely destroyed. The inners had disappeared and the hub was basically running on the shaft/castle nut only held together by the chewed up split pin. The bottom of the castle nut was worn down to about 2mm of material. Unfortunatly taking a photo was the last thing on my mind at the time.

Whilst being pleased with myself for having tools/bearings/grease with me, I soon realise my tool kit should include a new castle nut and washer. I called my may mate who my now is nearly back in Wanneroo and they unhitched their boat, remove a castle nut and washer and drive it back out to us. I removed all of the chewed metal and old races from the hubs, prep the bearings and reassemble waiting for the nut and washer to arrive.

Unfortunately the threads on the shaft was so damaged it didn’t look like we were going to get it rolling again. We couldnt get the nut to bite on a thread. We ended up filling approx 10mm of damaged thread from the end of the shaft so we could get the nut to engage with some decent thread. The pressure from the bearing pulling up was just too much to let the nut get started so we needed to drive the bearing up using a socket and hammer and the we finally got enough threads engaged to get the nut started. Not great for the bearing i know.

Once the nut started engaging the rest of the bearing assembly went normally and I was pretty happy with the job. I drove at 60km/hr and stopped after 5, 10, 20kms to check it, but it was running perfectly.

Finally pulled into home at 10.15pm, wife in bed and no chance of a takeaway or any dinner, but at least the boat and I were at home…

I’m sharing this story for a few reasons:

1) I am genuinely surprised how quickly this failure happened… The temperature was not above ambient in Jurien, 140kms earlier. I was unaware this could happen!

2) Spare bearing are not enough. Nut and washers added to my kit at a minimum.

3) I was so glad I had a decent tool kit with me including a file, hammer, vice grips, large sockets and big adjustable etc.

4) Another 10km further and the wheel could have come off that could have been really serious for us or any other road users.

5) I’m surprised this happened to me. I am the one of all my friends who is anal about my bearings. I change them every year and always check them before long trips.

6) The driver didn't notice a thing leading upto it. Its lucky we stopped!

I’ve pulled the axle today and now need to get a new stub shaft welded on or replace the whole thing… Its an easytow trailer that uses a Trojan 84" 1750kg Overlay Axle.

Any recommendations?

 Can anyone tell me if it is easy to replace the internal anodes on a Honda 75 outboard? It is a 2005 motor & I am confident enough to service it myself. Aparently they are on the cylinder block but the service manual doesn't explain where. If it is best left for a shop to do I will take it in. Thank you.

There is an awesome looking boat down at Elizabeth Quay right now at one of the jetties. Looks about 35 feet (hard to judge), cente console (sort of) Niaid (sort of).

From up in my building its hard to tell what it is. All I can say its it looks fast standing still. Grey hull and top decks...very nice.

After having a leak in my stearing hydrolics I went to a boat shop asking for a seal.  I was told it would cost $150 as you would have to buy the whole kit.  I then did some enquiries and found that you could buy the seal from a seal place in Belmont for $1.  It pays to make enquiries before paying out for no reason.

 Just reading some information on vehicle tyres and apparently only serviceable for 6 to 10 years. This made me wonder how people go with boat trailer tyres. Do you change them after 5 years or on inspection notice cracks in the sidewalls or they normally last the life of the trailer?

Given my setup is 3.5t I’m not particularly keen on waiting for a blowout before I change them out. Also I don’t know of anyone who would tow enough kms to wear out the tread. 

Hey guys.

I am looking to get a winch and pot tipper setup on the reef runner for this season. Im getting too sore to pull by hand, and am concerned about gouging the boat now that im in a fibreglass. I am using 3/4 size single basket wooden based pots.

from what ihave researched, then anchormax winches seem good, and a fishwise tipper seem ok.

a lot of the time i will be going solo, and was unsure of the best way to  set this up. best to have the winch and tipper on opposite sides or on the same? also, are the gunnels likley to need reinforcing?

i am not in a position to be able to do it myself, so would love to hear if anyone has any reccomendations as to who to use for the install? I am north of the river, but am happy to travel to ensure its done well. I love this boat, so really want to make sure i get things setup right.

any advice greatly appreciated!

Thanks heaps!

goat

hi guys.

was chatting to a mate the other day about radar, something  have no experience with.

just wondering how people find them as far as a safety tool? are they likely to reliably pick up floating bouys form craypots?, floating debris in the water etc?

in the future im hoping to do a lot more trolling, so looking for birds etc understanbdably would be benficial, but was wondering what else people use them for?

im interested in anything that potentially improves safety.

cheers!

Goat

 I'm probably going to complete covering the deck on the Reefrunner this year. I left it standard when I launched, as it was something I could do later with no reworking if needed. The starboard hatches between the seats were very hard to keep clean, so I covered them in Z-tread. With the leftover, I also covered the livewell lid in the transom, where people tend to stand, the moulded footrests, and put a couple of patches on the sloping slippery bit in front of the windscreen for people to safely climb up top. So I am sort-of committed to continuing with Z-Tread if I  want to complete the whole deck. 

I haven't had any problems keeping the white deck looking good so far--long handled scrubbing brush with truckwash, gets most of it off, and Domestos ,lightly applied and scrubbed in gets the rest. Any one who knows me, knows I treat this thing hard--it's had multiple trips into Tamala, not to mention 3 trips so far into Winderabandi. It goes into the water filthy, gets a saltwater clean, fished hard for a month or so, then back over the dirt road again. 600 hours of engine time in just over 2 years. To add to it, this year I continued onto Exmouth, and used it up there for about 12 days. I was lucky to score a berth in the canals, which let me avoid the school holiday ramps insanity, but then you are treading red pindan into everything. 

Just about to go down, unload everything, then start cleaning. I don't really think she will come back perfectly this time, so I may have to finish the deck off with something. My question is this--is Z-tread harder to hose down than Octogrip? Z-tread is a very closed pattern, with no natural drainage lines . Octogrip is a much wider pattern, looks easier to hose. Can anyone with Z-tread comment? 

I'm about to replace the perspex in my windscreen. I'm tossing up whether to go clear or stay with tinted. With the new bimini I will have about a 400mm section of clear above the windscreen to see through as well. 95% of my boat use will be in daylight hours. Any advice one way or the other? 

 G'day all,

Have repaired a few chips, screw holes and spider cracks in my boat have filled and sanded smooth and I am now ready to paint over them. 

Do I use flowcoat or Gelcoat to paint over the repairs please? Also is it best to spray the paint on or is it ok to paint with a brush? I am concerned that either way as I sand the paint job back the paint being so thin that I will sand back the coating and I will see the repair work under the coating. 

Any advice and tips heaps appreciated. 

Thanks

Geoff 

 Hi Guys, looking at fitting at an aluminium bait board on the rear of my fibreglass boat. Chasing some information on what would be the best mountings to use to secure it. not sure if i have the option of drilling straight through and using bolt and nut mountings. Attached is a photo of the type of baitboard i am looking at fitting. Any help will be much appreciated. 

 Hi guys

Ive got a high speed fairing block for a B45 transducer that I need to have cut at about 20 degrees. Can anyone recommend someone around the Norther suburbs who you would trust to do it? Im sure most cabinet makers could do it but dont want to risk having the cut done on the wrong plane/angle.

Cheers

Anyone running a bow electric motor on their big boats (over 6m)? 
what thrust motors are you running  and any issues with holding ground in a moderate 10-15knot wind? Looking at potentially a motorguide 80lb 72" on a 6.5m boat.. looking for any experiences with these motors in particular if 80lb 24v would be adequate. Not much difference in terms of price but with the larger 112lb thrust model but is 36v so would mean 3 batts all up. Boat already has dual starting batteries and twin house batteries so trying to save weight where I can. 

 Have a 2015 200hp Yamaha F200GETX.  Was cruisng at around 3,600RPM and then put the throttle down a bit more, aiming for about 4,200RPM and the motor cut out.  No alarm, errors... nothing.  Checked the motor over - water flowing, no overheating etc...  Started and took it easy trying to see if anything unusual happening.  Got up to around the same rev's, then went to step it up to about 4,200RPM again and it cuts out once more.  This time, i noticed very quickly that the oil pressure was showing low - but no alarm.

Checked everything over again and ended up cruising in @3,500 RPM.  Oil pressure was showing fine all the way in.

Checked the oil level again when home - 3/4 full.  Oil appears clean.  I'm thinking maybe a pressure sensor or the oil pump - but also not sure if i caught the oil pressure gauge at a moment when it is reading low, which could mean this is a total red herring.  Any other ideas?  Waiting to get the diagnostic tool which should be arriving next week.

 Hey guys. The new trailer I have has these bearing buddies on them, which I haven't used before. Have watched the YouTube videos on how to apply the grease which seems simple enough. Will b getting a grease gun, was just wondering if there is a particular grease which people prefer for marine trailer bearings?

cheers!

goat.

 Just following up on a previous post of mine trying to get to the bottom of this intermittent problem I had with my 2016 115 mercury.

This was my previous post http://fishwrecked.com/forum/115-merc-fourstroke-issues

So just a quick once over. I was experiencing a random period where the motor would run rough at lower revs and every now and then it did it at higher revs while driving in gear. After replacing every fuel line, completelty emptying and cleaning the tank, changing the tank pick ups, breathers, filters, spark plugs, loose electrical connections, pulling the control box apart etc I couldn't solve the problem. It didn't happen every time so you can imagine it was nearly impossible to take to a mechanic and say "fix it". The computer had never logged a fault or alarm so I was beginning to think I wasn't gonna get to the bottom of it.

After hours and hours searching through forums online I read an interesting post a bloke made experiencing a similar problem and his fix was a shift position sensor. I originally thought this is the "neutral position switch" that is in the control box that prevents you from starting the motor while you are in gear but its a different sensor. This sensor is actually in under the motor cover where the shift selection is. Tells the motors computer exactly when it's in forward reverse and neutral. Not sure if anyone else has done this but if you rev your motor up in neutral it limits the revs to about 2500 revs (or around about) and the motor shakes around like crazy and it doesn't sound nice. Obviously the computer doesnt want you to be able to rev the shit out of your motor while in neutral.

So what was happening was this switch was playing up. As I'm driving along at say 3000 rpm the switch for a spilt second tells the motor I'm in neutral and the computer limits the revs causing the motor to run rough. This malfunction with the switch was so fast it doesn't log a fault and you can't see it when plugged into the computer but would tell the motor to limit the revs.

My mechanic got on the phone to some other Merc mechanics over east and apparently there's been a few other cases like this around Australia. Merc said they will cover it under warranty since we've tried pretty much everything else. Changed the switch for a new one and I've been out about 7 times since and she hasn't missed a beat. 

Hope this helps anyone experiencing similar problems. The problem was eating away at me for a good 6 months. Pays to keep digging there's plenty of people on the internet with problems you can learn from.  Another fix i read with some of these strange problems is a faulty crank shaft position sensor. Can also cause issues. Before you go pulling apart your fuel pump or replacing the computer try replace these sensors (relatively cheap) when fault finding may end up saving you some money.

Cheers.

 Hey guys.

im trying to get the boat sorted for some night fishing. Have got plenty of internal lighting, but loooking to get some spotlights for when underway, as am finding a bit hard to see with the tinted windscreen.

any opinions as whether best to mount on the hardtop, or on the bow rails? Any suggested brands/types? I like the look of the bar leds they put on the bar crushes, any experience with these?

my main aim is to be able to avoid cray pots, debris etc while motoring.

cheers guys!

goat

Planning to install fishfinder and transducer in old haines. I know, its not a rocket science. but I am not confidence enough to drill an old boat. Preferably someone in NOR and have a reasonable rate or experience 

 Thanks 

Bono

 Hi,

I'm SoR & looking for a trailer to suit 6.5m fibreglass half cabin whilke I do traikler repairs. Need it about 2-3 weeks.

Happy to pay. Trailer will be FW washed after use.

Please PM if you can help, otherwise I'll use a storage stack

Thanks

 Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone here either owns one or has any experience with a Bluefin Barracuda of any size by chance? I am looking at possibly buying one as they are great value compared to a Renegade or Outlaw and have a lot of inclusions with the package also. They seem like they are more common in Queensland but if that's where I have to go to get one at a good price then so be it. I cannot find a great deal in any searches I have done on Google or anything except for a few reviews saying the ride isn't that great due to their hull design but they were 2013-15 models so not sure if they've made improvements since then. 

Any info for or against much appreciated. 

Geoff 

 Hi Guys, I picked up a rib/tender for a pretty good deal, partly because it's not holding air. I went around with soapy water and located 4 spots where tgere are little leaks, and they all are coming from a seam behind the rub rail around the edge. There is also a couple of delaminated fittings, but only the 4 little leaks.

Has anyone repaired one of these before? 

This one is pvc tube. 

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this problem?

My wiper spray nozzle jet (1 of 4) blew out after only using a few times - unfortunately took a few years before I noticed.

Probably too much water pressure.

It seems silly and a waste to spend $140 for a complete new wiper assembly.

Is there a boat graveyard or second hand place I can enquire at?

Any ideas?

Im gonna start looking slowly over winter at upgrading to a larger trailer boat (thinking fibreglass in the 22 -25ft region with an outboard). I know shipwrights inspect the hull but do they also do a full mechanical inspection of outborads or do I also need an outboard mechanic to do a full check after the shipwrights done the hull. Also what would an average boat check by a shipwright generally cost and can anybody on here recommend one cheers Dave

 Where in Perth can I purchase Thermolite sheets or a similar product to use for replacing the ply floors in a couple of tinnies?

Cheers

 The time has come to put trim tabs on the old 5.8m westy and I am caught between the classic bennet/Lenco style tab vs the slim line smaller Volvo BTS 300 interceptor.

What I'm really interested in is the performance at lower speeds. From what ive read the Volvo penta tabs don't work that well at lower speeds and provide no where near as much lift compared to the other tab style. I want to be able to drive the nose down and have good trim control from speeds as low as 15 knots. I domt drive around flat stick.and do most of my cruising around at 17-20 knots as the is still good enough for me to read good bottom on the sounder. The transom and ladder are setup in a way that will make the installation of a larger 9 or 12 inch tab a bit more of a stuff around. I will have to extend the step and make the ladder come out further. But saying that I am happy to do so in order to get a better performing tab if I need too. As it stands the easiest install for my transom set up would  be the volvos. 

Has anyone got any experience with the Volvo interceptor tabs and how they perform at slower speeds (obviously still on the plane) compared to the traditional tabs and any other info would be greatly appreciated. 

Cheers. 

 Hi Gent/Ladies

Im chasing a new boat. Currently I have a Haines Hunter 565l it’s done me good, Pretty well Porsche of the ocean for its size!!

Butt I’m after something a little bigger,  to fish 4 comfortably and have  similar ocean abilities. sit 20-25knots no matter what WA conditions, without the Need to get any to get any back surgery after mind you. 

Been Looking at the Edencraft 233/Bastraights but bit out of my price range. Looking at spending 80-100g is there anything similar that use would recommend worth a look.

Boat will be used for touring WA coast including deep drops out in the yonder!

cheers 

mick