Is this a crazy idea??

[BM]

Does anyone in the Sunny Coast area offer a breakdown service at Sea?

I know Seatow are operating on the Gold Coast but is there anyone on the Sunny Coast doing on water emercency repairs?

How many Ausfishers would use such a service if they broke down at sea? Would they prefer to be towed in and have it repaired on land?

Does the coast guard do free tows in QLD?

Thoughts???

Cheers,

Nicholas

[Roughasguts]

Hi BM, Yep might be crazy, if you did that alone.

But if you combined that with a mobile Bottl'o, Bait and Ice supply.

Think I would have you on my phone number list.

[BM]

Hehe.... there is something like that off Brisbane/Gold Coast I believe. A mate of mine was looking at buying it. 2 stroey houseboat with grog, groceries, fuel, bait, tackle etc etc

I wasn't thinking of just doing the mobile on water on its own. It would be part of a mobile repair business (on land) with that on offer also as required. Pretty easy up there Sunny Coast way to toss the boat in the water and motor out to the broken down vessel. (provided its easily locatable)...

[bootyinblue]

Hey Nick,

Yea that houseboat thing does a roaring trade during the holidays anchored off near the Pin. I am sure it must be combined with a shore based store too as it couldnt really be sustainable as so seasonal.

I think your idea is a feasible idea if combined with a land based service and repair business. Most of your work would 'drive in' for servicing, but a retrieval sevice could be used to suppliment the workload with 'tow ins'. Straight tow in costs $150 perhaps, get the servicing required done with you and tow in rate drops to $50 (all example figures only)

I dont know, all just food for thought.

[Dignity]

not sure whether the coast guard will tow you in for free, heard a a figure of $185 quoted although I believe if you join as a member the tow will be free. This was bar room talk so would need confirmation with the VMR 's up there.

[seatime]

I reckon the reason Seatow doesn't operate in the Nthn part of the bay and Sunny coast is there isn't the number of boats in those areas as there is in the Bris River/Manly Sth to Broadwater area. They may have done the numbers, and found it may it's not worth the investment?
It's a bit more exposed to the weather up there and boaters are generally more experienced, if that's the correct terminology.

[BM]

Theres over 15,000 boats in the sunshine coast area (Noosa to Caloundra) although the Bris area and Gold Coast area are many times more.
I don't know whether Sea Tow is that viable overall since they are a tow service only essentially. They don't operate in Vic and perhaps the only places they could operate may well be Gold Coast, Sydney and perhaps Perth?

Thats why I thought on call repairs at sea could be viable but then again people may prefer a tow and have it repaired upon return. Although the repair job could become a tow job if the repair cannot be made at sea and the response vessel then simply provides the tow.

cheers