AMM Weekender 7400: One Man's Boat

After 12 years of retrieving fishing lines and lifting spanner crab pots, second-generation professional fisherman Shaun Blaney decided it was time to switch his gear for a haul of university texts.

But his pursuit of a degree and eventual new career didn’t dampen his passion for the thrill of a good hook-up — it just removed that opportunity for the next eight or nine years.

Blayney became a Senior Advisor Workplace Relations and an Industrial Advocate at the Local Government Association of Queensland.

Somewhat frustrated about having been boatless for far too long, Blayney walked in the door, loosened the Windsor knot on his tie, plonked himself down and started thinking about what sort of boat would suit the needs of his young family and himself.

It could not have been an easy decision; too much knowledge about too many different types of boats. Brought up in a fishing family, he had been in and around boats ever since he could remember, before progressing to his own boats.

THE FORMER FLEET
"I started out with little 10 footer tinnies, then upgraded to 12 footers and then a 16 foot aluminium centre console," Blaney said.

"I also did a lot of professional fishing in catamarans: 18, 23 and 28 footers. as well as a 48 foot Randell.

"But most of my fishing career was out of a large plate boat, a 22 foot Pacific Custom Craft, particularly for spanner crabbing between the Gold and Sunshine coasts. I also did a lot of professional work in an 18 foot Shark Cat," he adds.

Tinnies, large plate alloy and fibreglass vessels and plenty of catamarans... the options were varied.

"I originally was looking at 23 foot catamarans because you do get a good ride in them," Blaney said.

"But I also was looking for more room up front for the kids (Shaun has three of them) or for a couple of adults to sleep.  I also wanted to keep the whole rig under the three-tonne mark which is difficult to achieve with that size catamaran.

"Then when I looked at Australian Master Marine’s large plate alloy boats, well, there was no comparison. They’re a bigger boat overall."

Blaney began to zero-in on an AMM Weekender 7400.

RIDE FACTOR
His biggest concern was getting that really good ride for the kids. They’re young and he didn’t want to put them off boating by them being knocked around.

“"I know what big plate boats typically are like: they’re good, they get out there, they bobble around a bit, they have high sides, they’re a good, safe boat, but they do tend to lean into the wind and they can knock you around a bit.

"I was a bit concerned about that.

"But then I had heard a few stories about how far AMM have come along with the deeper vee hulls. Iit’s easy to see the difference between old plate boats and the current AMM Weekender which has a deep vee from a 20 degree deadrise.

"So I took this hull out with a couple of 175 Suzuki’s on the back with Matt (Matthew Thomas from AMM), in about 20 knots of northerly on the bay.

"It was fitted with trim tabs and I was quite taken back by the ride. It was impressive," Blaney says.

WEIGHT HELPS
The new AMMs are also a fair bit heavier than the old boats Blaney was used to.

"I think it’s a combination of things like the 6mm plate they use in the hull and they also build them really heavy down low... they’re quite heavily framed," he says.

Convinced that AMM had pushed the boundaries of improvement, Shaun placed his order.

"Since taking delivery, I’ve had it outside the South Passage Bar in 25 and 30 knot winds," Blaney enthuses.

"Off Amity Point (at the southern end of Moreton Bay’s notorious South Passage Bar), I deliberately turned it around and started running back with the waves on the stern quarter in about a metre and a half of sea. I was very impressed, no broaching at all.

"I also ran it into a head sea with 25 knots of northerly blowing and a metre-and-a-bit of chop. In many other boats, you would get you knees broken, but the 7400, it just rocketed across — no problem at all," he says.

THE AMM 7400 RIG
Shaun has powered his AMM Weekender 7400 with a pair of 140hp Suzuki outboards, which, reflecting his commercial fishing background, run off two separate 240 litre fuel tanks, two independent water separators and separate wiring looms to create a 'fail safe' back-up system.

Early consumption figures show Shaun’s Weekender covers around 1.4 km per litre when run between 3800 and 4200rpm, which translates to around 25 or 26 knots running with three adults and a three quarter load of fuel.   

Shaun opted to have the below floor areas foam filled for extra safety as well as specified the hardtop to be 300mm longer than standard. He also ordered a removable hardtop extension and a lockable sliding cabin door.

The electronics array gives an insight into his days as a pro fisherman with a 12 inch Simrad NSE plotter and multi-function display; Simrad 4G Radar; separate 1kw Airmar SS264 50kHz and 200kHz transducer; a Furuno 587 sounder, twin Garmin instrument readouts for each engine with both displaying information in digital and analogue formats and a sonic hub for entertainment.

There’s also a 100 litre underfloor fresh-water tank, live-bait tank and a deck wash, insulated 160 litre kill tank that doubles as a fish box, and built in esky under the port side extended seat box.

"Being in boats all my life, I know what ultimately really matters out there," Blaney said.

"I see people stacking their boats up with all sorts of things, but going back to my commercial roots, I only need things that do work," he adds.