Oceancraft 31 and Custom Gamefisher 34 Centre Console

There are two different gameboat-owners in this world: Case Study A and Case Study B. The former covet a big, bold battlewagon in which to beat the elements and fish in up-market style. They want a home away from home with a big interior, long-range capability for venturing to other ports, and an ice-maker on the deck. Yeh, most definitely an ice-maker.

Then there are those who seek a quick fix. Typically, Case Study B are time-strapped professionals who fish on weekends. They pick the good weather, run wide when the bite is on, and savour the cold beer and chinwag afterwards with as much enthusiasm.

When you stop to think about it, the latter group go dayboating. They have family and work commitments biting into their precious leisure time. And there is always next weekend, which is what they dream about while scraping the scales from their nails in the office.

Now, if you have the time and money to buy a battlewagon, pay the fuel bills, stay away for days on end, assemble a reliable crew to help maintain and service your boat, then by all means go ahead. Owning a glorious 40-50-footer shouldn't be denied to anyone, least of all those with the wherewithal to make it happen.

But I think most of us are Case Study B gamefishers. A battlewagon is beyond our means, all we really need is a point-and-shoot sportsfisher that's efficient, seaworthy and low-maintenance. With diesel costing $1.50 a litre at some marinas, we want something that is affordable to run.

A CASE IN POINT
Which is how we arrived at this story. As a Case Study B gamefisher, it got me thinking. Thinking about a 30ft express. A good 30-footer can match it with battlewagons by day, fish comfortably in 20kt of wind, run to the wide grounds without draining the tanks, and rest easy in its pen after little more than a quick splash with a hose.

BlueWater has assembled three different Express sportsfishers that we consider to be the latest in a new line of logical gameboats. Priced between $200,000-$250,000, the purpose-built 30-footers offer big advantages for boat-owners who can't quite realise a battlewagon.

For example, you can cruise at 24kt sipping just 45lt/hr, sit comfortably and carry on a conversation, fish from the cockpit as you would a much bigger boat, and nip home and put your boat to bed before the big boats have finished scrubbing their decks.

Above all, the frigates of the fishing fleet catch fish. When the moment arises, you can wield the big guns just like the battlewagons. A grander was tagged in the first season that The Pirate, one of our 30-footers, fished off Cairns.

But when it comes to stand-up, light tackle and flyfishing, these manoeuvrable 30-footers are the 'Thorpedoes of the pool'. It's hard to argue with their incredible manoeuvrability. And it's hard to argue with sound construction.

Two of the three 30s featured overleaf have been built by Cairns Boat Builders using vacuum-bagged, foam-cored construction. They have a power-to-weight advantage over your archetypal solid-glass battlewagon.

The last boat is a darling made from timber. Why? Put it down to good taste. The owner always wanted a fair dinkum timber sportsfisher with Rybovich lines and a centre-console. He set-up his boat for solo sportsfishing. Just a little bit interested? Bet you are... Read on.

PIRATE OF PENCHANT
Borrowing a bit from foreign legions, the aptly-named The Pirate embodies the express way of thinking. After many years of running battlewagons, Captain Brad Craft from Cairns arrived at a boat that, with four children to look after, does most everything but take hours to maintain.

"I come home, squirt it with a hose, check the engines and go. After years of crawling in and out of enginerooms and maintaining bigger boats, I'm over it," he explains from The Pirate tied to Yorkeys Knob Marina. "It's now a 45-minute clean-up and I'm outta here."

The Pirate is no-fuss, functional and fun to fish. Running costs are very low, leading to a day's light-tackle marlin fishing costing charterers $1000. The boat can very comfortably accommodate four anglers, with a big head, hot shower, galley and full-length bunks.

It took many long seasons at sea before Craft came up with the idea for The Pirate. He got together with master boatbuilder Dick Ward, shared a few ales while thrashing over the details, and discovered a few things about composite construction.

To achieve production and performance efficiencies, pretty looks, and a big strength-to-weight ratio, Ward made The Pirate entirely of foam-sandwich construction, with double and triaxial fibres and vinylester resin. Every part of the hull is vacuum-bagged, leading to great panel strength from the closed-cell Klegicell foam core.

Lift a lid on an icebox or storage hold and it's as light as feathers, but try breaking the stuff and it's more like steel. The foam coring is nothing new, of course, but only now is it being used more extensively by gameboat builders. Consider this...

"If a boat is engineered to a 40kt rating, the difference between solid-core polyester and foam-core sandwich under vacuum bagging is that one square metre of solid polyester weighs 19.7kg, while composite weighs 14.2kg. And the composite is twice as strong as the solid," Ward explains.

IT'S GOT THE LOT
Computer-aided design, lots of thumbing through gamefishing magazines, and an inherent sense of what looks good led to The Pirate's sexy lines. The boat has a bit of the Cabo about it - but with a conventional, not stepped or reverse, sheer. There's a hardtop for shade over the lower centre helmstation which, along with surround seating for anglers, is protected by a moulded windshield. A second driving station is up top.

Thus, unlike most flybridge gameboats, you can skipper The Pirate in a social setting surrounded by a team of keen anglers, with the fresh air in your face. All the while you are just a few steps away from the cockpit. The boat works perfectly with just one crewman, making it a viable option for shorthanded gamefishing.

The only timber in The Pirate is the silver-ash toerail, to which the bowrail and cleats are fastened, and some strip maple and teak trim which Craft added for ambience. The grey carpet and frontrunner, grey-speckled fabric on the bunks, blue-and-white scatter cushions, and soft-touch vinyl ceiling liners are more functional than flash.

The cockpit is set-up for light tackle and flyfishing, though the custom-made chair had a work-out off Cairns last season. The Pirate was leased by well-known gamefishing skipper Craig 'Sparrow' Denham, who raves about the boat.

"Without doubt it's the best 30-footer in the country. I fished in as much as 30kt and the boat is just the safest thing I have been to sea in.

"It's as high off the water as a big boat... I caught one over a grand in 25kt and didn't put an ounce of water over the covering boards.

"I thought Warrigal would be the best boat I'd ever drive, but this is as good or better. It's incredibly manoeuvrable. Economics wise, as far as running the boat as a viable operation, it's just the best thing I've run in Cairns in a long time," Denham said.

PERFECT PACKHORSE
Another real strength of The Pirate is its stability. It's rock solid despite a stainless tower. As if to prove as much, The Pirate is in survey for 12 + 1. There aren't too many 30-footers in the country that can carry that many.

Ride comfort for crew, paying or otherwise, is also superb. While I had flat-as-a-tack seas off Cairns, Denham had many days where it was less than ideal. He ran from Port Douglas to Yorkeys in 25kt of nor'easterly on the nose.

"At 17kt there was not one bit of pound. You cop a touch of water, but that's it," he says, adding "you just zip the clears down and there are no worries."

You can have a Pirate for somewhere between $200,000 and $250,000 depending on fitout. With twin Cummins 6BTA 210hp engines, top speed was 28.5kt.

But the big thing is range. The boat cruises at 22kt at 2200rpm for 40lt/hr. You'll get 650nm from its 1100lt tanks.

Meanwhile, there is everything you need for tournament trips down below.

Four people can sleep soundly in either the 1.80m long V-berths or the 1.85m long lounge and pullman berths. A hatch provides fresh air, while foam-cored decks help insulation.

You can take a hot shower and use the electric loo without banging your noggin. In fact, the head is as big as many 40-footers, with hot water on tap after running the engines for 15 minutes and impressive tap pressure.

You can cook up a storm in the galley, which has a bar fridge, microwave and Orico two-burner alcohol stove. The switchpanel and DC panel is near the companionway, which has a reasonably steep ladder so you won't bang your head as you come down.

Engine access is through a hatch in the bridgedeck. The two lounges either side of the helm lift up to grant a totally open engine bay. The plumbing is to port, all electrical stuff to starboard, and the filters and strainers virtually fall to hand.

At the end of the day, The Pirate catches fish at not much cost. It can outmanoeuvre just about anything else afloat. The four-blade Teinbridge props are spaced 1.53m apart. The cockpit is self-draining and reassuringly high, with a lazarette for cruising supplies.

And at the end of the day, you can walk away after just a hose down. A lot of thought has gone into The Pirate courtesy of blokes who have been messing about in purpose-built gameboats since the days of feather jigs.

BUILT FOR REAL WORK
But boatbuilding is an evolutionary thing - along the way, a builder stumbles across better ways of doing things. So it is with the next Oceancraft Marine 31, Reel Work, which is just that little bit more refined than The Pirate.

A semi-custom boat with a production-boat finish, Reel Work was commissioned by two keen sportsfishers - Scott and Jeff Andrews - who live on the wonderful white-sand shores of Mission Beach overlooking Dunk Island in northern Queensland. They acquired a triple-axle trailer, a tractor and added a folding tower to Reel Work, so they tow it to the ramp, launch and retrieve it (which takes all of five minutes).

The boat will be kept on the dry, which could negate the need for antifouling and further reduce maintenance. Weighing just 6000kg fully-laden, Reel Work is the kind of boat that you can truck to other ports and chase the seasons as they unfold. The Andrews brothers plan to charter Reel Work out of Mission Beach and gad about Lizard Island when the bite is on.

While adopting all that is good about The Pirate, Dick Ward from Cairns Boat Builders modified some moulds and rejigged the deck on Reel Work. The boat is made from epoxy instead of vinylester resin, though Ward prefers the latter.

The hull is again fully vacuum-bagged using Klegicell foam coring. The only timber is the ash on the toerail and a bit of internal trim. Like The Pirate, it has a stand-up hot shower, but there is more headroom, extra tankage and additional storage space.

Accommodation lends itself to ocean adventurers, as the boat can sleep up to six people very comfortably. There are four bunks set in the bow and a settee whose backrest lifts to create a pullman berth, with another big single along the base. Frontrunner, blue carpet, scatter cushions and a deck hatch help make the cabin welcoming.

The galley includes a two-burner alcohol stove and microwave, plus a fridge. An inverter powers all onboard needs, with a heat-exchanger for the piping-hot water in 15 minutes. The enclosed head has an electric loo, sink and wall-fitting for the shower.

As with The Pirate, storage can be found all over the place - in hatches, under bunks, in cupboards and shelves, out in the lazarette, and hiding under the cabin floor.

Tackle storage is equally generous, with gaff and tagpole racks along the cockpit sides and plenty of room in cupboards and drawers in the bait-rigging station.

The cockpit has teak decks, wider fibreglass coamings, more camber across the transom and more rake in the transom. The mouldings are smoother and more radiused than those of The Pirate. The big fridge/freezer on the starboard-side of the cockpit is better finished.

A Reelax pedestal chair at the lower helm is flanked by two C-shaped lounges which are long and deep enough to recline. The layout is perfect for gamefishing and socialising.

Easily accessed around the sidedecks using stainless grabrails, the foredeck has been raised to give 1.83m of headroom down below. This is enough room for a lofty cane farmer to move about with ease, which is what the owners specified.

Deck gear is all through-bolted and includes stainless hawse pipes, a full spread of cleats, a bowrail to keep you contained while playing with anchors, and separate rope and chain lockers. You could add a windlass if you wanted.

TOWER OF STRENGTH
The stainless tower stands that little bit taller than The Pirate's. Tankage has been increased to 1350lt for fuel and 400lt for water. To carry the extra weight and get 30kt top-end when fully-laden, Reel Work had twin 270hp 6BTA Cummins engines.

The bigger engines have in no way compromised the economies of scale. At 24kt at 2200rpm, the boat strides along while sipping just 45lt/hr. It's exactly this thriftiness that the owners, who plan to run charters to the Reef some 20 miles off Mission Beach, were seeking.

With that in mind we set out from Yorkeys Knob Marina, pointed the bow sou'east, and ran in the perfect autumn conditions back towards Cairns. There was nothing to challenge the two Oceancraft Marine 31s. The boats slotted into cruise mode virtually on their own accord, with only the full forward water tank in Reel Work resulting in the bow sitting down and tossing up the odd curtain of pray.

Along with the efficient and smooth ride comes almost bizarre manoeuvrability.

In fact, the 31s react so quickly to the throttles you have to plan for it back at the marina. The view to all points of the boat from the tower and lower internal helm is completely reassuring, however, and it takes no time to swing some fenders just in case.

Meanwhile, the crew get to sit in the shade with plenty of fresh air fanning their face and not too much engine noise to drown out the conversation. This makes for a happy time whether you're wetting a line or notching-up brownie points with the family.

Cairns Boat Builders only builds boats to survey standards irrespective of whether you plan to charter or not. This should help resale value if you decide to move up to a battlewagon. But things seem to be going the other way.

The pioneers started out with dayboats, the motherships have come and are now largely gone, and liveaboard charters are the next best option. But for the bulk of anglers day charters are a snappy way to fish.

With such low running costs, you can make a dollar or two with these boats and not lose sleep over rising oil prices. Such is their thriftiness, guile and manageability that the marlin have nowhere to run.

LET'S DRINK TO EXPRESSO
John Beau has had a few boats over the years, but all - from a 12ft tinnie to a Mariner 38 - have been designed to fish one-up. His work schedule sees him heading out solo, which calls for a different approach to things than a 30ft charterboat.

Beau's 34ft centre-console, Expresso, is at once a capsule of beautiful style, a classic with romantic lines, and a boat built for serious fishing. It has a definite Rybovich rake and sheerline, a little tumblehome and a warped hull like a Buddy Davis.

The boat is the antipathy of high-tech construction. It has been built using the double diagonal method, using two 6mm Fiji Kauri ply sheets on the top sides and three sheets on the hull. The stringers and frames are NZ Kahikatea, the engine bearers are mahogany, and everything is topped with E-glass.

Since being built in New Zealand under Beau's supervision, the forward section of the hull has been beefed-up. The boat has a total displacement of 4000kg. Should others be interested, then Dick Ward from Cairns Boat Builders will make a mould and produce the boat. There is also the possibility of doing a cabin version with twins.

The hull is a modified Jim Young design (aka Vindex). It has parallel chines for auto tracking and a huge amount of flare in the top sides.

There is a moderate amount of deadrise of perhaps 12° at the transom. This way, the boat planes level at 12kt using a single Cummins 6BTA 300hp diesel engine with 1.5:1 Twin Disc gearbox.

Efficiency is reflected in the performance figures. On a delivery trip from the Gold Coast to Cairns, Expresso sat on 23kt at 2600rpm using 46lt/hr. The boat has a range of 290nm and a top-end of 25.5kt.

"This position here, in the centre of the boat and about two-thirds from the bow, is the best spot for ride," explains Beau. "So that is where I put the centre-console. I'm driving from the best part of the boat. And with the centre-console arrangement, you can access all parts of the boat when I dock it.

"I basically modelled Expresso on the US East Coast Garlington and Rybovich. And with a single screw, maintenance costs are low," he says.

"Fishing on my own, I can run two rods off the back of the chair and up to my riggers," he adds, pointing to the rocket launcher. "I can actually set the hook and drive the boat all from this one central position."

The centre-console lifts up on a hydraulic strut to reveal the single inline six-cylinder Cummins engine. There is a through-hull strainer, a second strainer and filters, plus pumps, that are all easily accessible.

Three fueltanks collectively hold 750lt, while there is 160lt of water and a hot hand-held shower.

A big Baileys icebox behind the helm serves as the fridge. The floor and foredeck is covered in a good grade of non-skid, while the coamings are wide, fitted with Lees rodholders, and perfect for gaining support at sea.

There is in-floor access to the steering gear in a lazarette flanked by two wet-wells fed by holes through the hull. A massive livebait tank is built into the transom. A step either side of the centre-console contains storage for gaffs and tagpoles.

BEAU'S GIST
Nothing is far from the helm, which has a leaning post that doubles as a raised three-person wide lounge offering a good view of the lures and the sea ahead. Some $US2200 was spent on the Rupp rigger bases, which have a lot of rake so Beau doesn't need to run tag lines.

The aftermarket alloy tower from Black Marlin Towers matches the classic hull lines to a tee. The hardtop and upper control box in the tower is from Cairns Boat Builders, while their deck gear includes work-of-art hinges handcrafted from chrome-plated brass.

From behind Beau's console, you can drive with the rods running from the rocket launcher immediately behind you. There is storage for personal items to port, a VHF in a locker, a tacklebox in a cupboard, and that very sexy Rybo wheel and throttle.

Move forward and you get a sense of the depth of the hull. Behind the long foredeck the coamings are around chest height. There's a seat forward of the console for guests and two side storage bins for ground tackle. Beau anchors off to the side.

Under the foredeck is a surprisingly roomy cabin. There is a large V-berth, a manual toilet, and racks for storing four Ian Miller custom outfits. A sliding companionway draws in fresh air, and with a sound system and soft velour fabric over high-density foam the boat is very sleepable.

Beau originally toured the top end of New Zealand in Expresso and has been away for four days and more on his own. He used to look after Pannawonica, which is also made from timber. It is 23 years old and still going strong.

Though it looks for all the world like a well-styled glass boat, Expresso is a timber beauty. It was launched in 1996, so its condition and enduring looks are testimony to the strength of wood. You also get a quiet ride and feeling of solidity at sea.

Off Cairns, the boat rode with a slightly bow-up attitude in part because we had more than 300kg of water in the aft bait wells. Having said that, a bow-up attitude is pretty much the way warped hulls run.

With flat aft sections, Expresso tracks straight down the sea. Into a headsea it may be a little wet, but the sharp forefoot serves its purpose by cleaving the swell. At comfortable cruising speeds of 23kt, the boat is unlikely to bang around too much.

Expresso is something of a dichotomy in that it is both classical and contemporary in thinking. Who knows, perhaps one-up Express 30-footers will be the way of the future. At least you'd be able to pay the fuel bills at the end of the day.