Splash Out

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday July 26, 2008

Keeli Cambourne

With our waterways, you'd be mad not to have a boat.

For years my husband has been dropping hints about getting a boat. Some subtle, some not so subtle. He has even left glossy catalogues lying around the house detailing everything from your standard Quintrex aluminium runabout to the top-end Skeeter cruisers, which look like something straight out of a James Bond film.

I've decided to find out more for myself.

One of the first things you have to decide is just what you want to use your boat for.

Is it going to be a pleasure machine, with a cabin, a galley and a sundeck for the champagne-sipping set or a practical model purely for the purist who wants something only to get to those secret fishing spots in relative comfort and safety?

If sailing is more your thing, then you have to consider a whole range of options including whether you want one hull or two, a collapsing rig, inboard or outboard motor, a spinnaker - the list goes on.

The Boating Industry Association suggests the best thing to do before laying down the cold hard cash is to hire a boat for a day, a week or even a month. Your local boat or yacht club may also have training courses where you and your family can be shown the ropes.

While you're considering the type of boat you want, you also have to take into account where you will be using your new craft - lakes or rivers, or the open ocean.

Dave Blackburn, from Nowra Marine, says lower-profile boats with flatter hulls are the best for estuary fishing but if you want to go out into the open water then you should be looking at something with a flared bow.

"For the family-fun type of boat there are the bow riders with the lounge out the front of the windscreen,'' he says. "The kids love that and it is really the most popular family-style boat.''

When it comes to size, bigger is not necessarily best. The size of the boat you should buy will depend on the number of passengers, the load capacity and the boating conditions you expect to most often encounter.

Generally speaking, Blackburn says for every adult you need about one metre of boat length. So for a family of five - two adults and three kids - you would be looking at a boat about four metres long.

"Weight isn't so much a consideration. In boating terms, adults are considered about 75 kilograms, so a child is usually considered half of that,'' he says.

Bigger boats can also be harder to move and manoeuvre on land, Blackburn says. So it is essential that you consider what kind of car will tow the boat, as well as who can help you launch and retrieve it.

The tow weight of the vehicle you use for the boat has to be greater than the weight of the boat you are planning to tow, he says.

"It's harder to get a boat in and out of the water if it is windy or if there are waves or a swell around, so if you are doing it by yourself you need a boat that isn't too big to handle.''

It's no use getting a big boat if you're not going to invest in a suitable motor.

Blackburn says there are three main types of outboard motors available - the two-stroke with a carburettor, the fuel-injected two-stroke and the four-stroke.

"Two-strokes are the ones you use for activities like waterskiing. They're more powerful and have more torque than the four-strokes, which are low-emission engines and used for things like trolling or dragging lures,'' Blackburn says.

Maintenance has to be considered too - and the material from which a boat is made can determine how much looking after it needs.

Blackburn says all boats should be kept covered but aluminium boats are generally more robust than inflatable boats or those made from fibreglass.

"And wooden boats have great character but require a lot of maintenance,'' he says.

Buying the boat may be the most expensive part but there are a lot of other important things to consider.

You will need a licence if your boat can travel at 10 knots or more and you will also need to have it registered if it can reach that speed or if it sits at a mooring or berth.

Most important are the safety considerations that have to be part of any boat-buying decision.

Blackburn suggests that not only do boat owners have a responsibility to ensure their craft have all the required safety equipment - such as a lifejacket for every passenger, boat whistles and baling buckets - but anyone who is going to handle the boat undertake minimum training.

"In NSW there is an organisation called the ABC Boating College that teaches you everything about boats, from launching them to retrieving them, and how to navigate through swells [and] waves and handle any conditions that may occur,'' he says.

For more information go to the Boating Industry Association www.bia.org.au.

Comfortable upgrade

Michelle Ford and Grant Richmond (pictured with their granddaughter Ella-Rose) aren't new to boats but this year they decided to upgrade from their small tinnie to something a little more luxurious.

"We knew what we wanted. We'd done a lot of research,'' Ford says.

"We'd been looking for a while and knew we wanted a bow rider, something that we could sit up front [in] and at the back and also to fish from and use for waterskiing.''

With three children aged 14 to 18, Ford says the runabout was just not big enough for the more energetic pursuits the family wanted to participate in.

The first boat they ever bought was really dependent on their finances at the time but now they could afford a little bit more.

"Grant has always been into fishing and we started off with a 4.35-metre tinnie,'' she says.

"He had a fair idea of what he wanted this time so it wasn't a difficult decision.

"We knew though that this time we wanted a boat that we could take everywhere - from the Shoalhaven River out to the open water, into Brighton-le-Sands or even up Port Hacking.

"The new boat can do all of it and it's something we will use most weekends.''

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home