New Blood, 1st question

[Thebuffalo]

Hi Folks, I've been reading through your posts over the last couple of days and can see that you have a great site going here. I would like to be able to share the wealth of knowledge of the users on this site. I don't know what I will be able to offer in return at this stage but hopefully with time I can become a useful member of the forum. Just a little about myself. I am a cop, am married with five children. I currently have a work in progress, namely a 7m steel boat that has recently been totally sandblasted and repainted in 2 pac marine. I have a 200hp efi merc on order and am in the process of setting up the internals ie bait tank, fuel, under floor storage and the like. The boat is forward control with 8 square meter's of deck space. Heaps of room for the tribe. The boat is as ugly as they come (even with the new paint) but very solid and not as heavy as one might think. Sorry to ramble, the first question.

Given that I have all this wonderful space, do I do the seating down the guts and leave space to walk around or do I put seating along the sides and back. This would be a view to having storage under the seating.

sides would be good because I can still swing a hammock from side to side, Middle would be good because theres room to move around whilst fishing...
Any help would be appreciated.

[jeffo]

welcome to the site, hope you enjoy your time here.
as for the seating. as long as there is a seat for the skipper who needs any more
seriously though it sounds like you have a nice fishing boat there... so keep things as practicle as you can and leave as much fishing space as possible.

[Big_Kev]

Buff; Five kids, man you forgot to mention you are a sucker for punishment.LOL
But if you like to fish it is best to have the room around the sides for access to fish with the seats in the center.
Lay down on the seats for a camp while the young uns run around in a big circle to tire them out.
Sounds like a practical sort of a rig and would be good to see a pic of her.
Cheers Kev.

[Thebuffalo]

Jeffo, Kev thanks for your prompt replies. I like the bit about being able to have a camp Kev, to be honest I didn't even think about making it long enough to sleep on until you said that. I think that will be the way to go. As far as a picture goes Kev you will have to wait a short while. The old girl is sitting on her guts out at my sisters block at the moment while I give the trailer some TLC. But I can assure you it will be worth the wait, did I say it was ugly?

Cheers.

[Jeremy]

I am guessing that you haven't yet been out in the Buffalo since you have a motor on order. I think that it might be worth getting in a few trips before you do too much work. The fitout of a boat is one of the most important things in determining how good a boat it is. If you haven't been around boats alot in the past, there is alot you will learn as you go, which might influence how you fit it out.

Questions like what will be the main use - fishing, family cruising?
What sort of fishing?
Inside the bay or outside?
Overnight trips?

My advice would be to fit good quality helm seats, get the boat on the water, and take things slowly. Check out as many similar size boats as you can and see how they have been fitted out to get ideas.

Also, do as much of the work as you can yourself. You will save alot of money and probably do a better job.

Good luck,

Jeremy

[Thebuffalo]

Thanks Jeremy. I have had it out on the water, the motor at the time was a 200 Johnson which had seen better days. I am lucky that I am a bit handy with tools etc so I will be doing all of the work needed myself. I am pretty inexperienced as far as the old boat goes, especially in this size. I will take what you say on board though and will try not to go too far with it until I really know what I want. What I do know is that I want to be able to camp overnight and take it as far as my heart desires (less the rugrats). There are a lot of good fishing spots up here but they are quite a way offshore and we don't necessarily have the backup of the more populated areas if the s hits the fan. I will keep you folks posted on my progress and hopefully amoungst us can make some wise decisions re fitout.

Thanks for your interest.

[Big_Kev]

Ugly are more than often the best boats.
I'm sure we now are sure we need to see a pic of her. On her guts and in her glory. And as she goes togeather.
Cheers Kev.

[rick k]

It will be hard to lean against the side if there is a seat there.

Then again, if you are only fishing out the stern........

7m. the back couple of metres may get wet under way on at least the upwind side, and may not be popular seats?

[Thebuffalo]

Fishtime, good point, might get a bit wet down the back at times. I think down the guts as Kev suggested earlier on will do the trick. Will be a lot easier to construct as well. The tribe will want to fish all around the sides I would imagine and it will save their handlines getting fouled in the prop etc.

Kev, I will attempt to get out to my sisters place and get some pictures. I suppose that is the only way I am going to be able to satisfy your curiosity. Then you will agree that it is ugly. The motor gets here next week and I am busy striiping down and repairing the trailer at the moment. I'm nearly deaf from the angle grinder. You can give me a hand if you like....

[Lucky_Phill]

Sounds like a great project. Keep us informed and pics coming in on progress.

Fold down seats along the sides sound good, using them as coamings when fishing.

Cheers Phill

[Thebuffalo]

Good on ya Phil, I had just made up my mind about what I was going to do. Interesting idea.....