Boat info

[Scotti]

Hi All.

Scotti Here, Yes I am a newbie to this site so Hi to everyone. I am in south west WA and look foreward to spending a lot of time out and about with my new (secondhand) boat.

I have bought myself a stejcraft 18foot fibreglass half cabin with a suzuki dt75 2 stroke outboard on it. The boat is a 1985 and motor also. I have put on the outboard a stingray hydrofoil.

Does anyone have any knowledge of this type of setup and the seaworthyness of this setup. ie: motor reliability, stability, fuel economy , etc.

The boat has a 15lb plough anchor with about 50m of 16mm anchor rope. I would think the size rope is a bit overkill. Any ideas on nominal rope diameter and the type of rope?

Appreciate any info.

[tunaticer]

G'day Scott, welcome to the site.

Congrats on buying your boat and I hope you have lots of enjoyment with it.

The hull should be good as long as no timber rot has set in, a good safe boat hull.
The motor however is of an age where I would not be venturing too far from the land with. Unfortunately thew older motors will almost definitely be having signs of corrosion and wear and tear and when they decide to stop you generally do not have too much warning signs of it going to happen. I would seriously be looking at upgrading to a much newer outboard or a brand new outboard if i was contemplating anything more than a few miles offshore.

Depending on the depth of water you are likely to be fishing will determine the amount of rope you should have aboard. 5 times the depth is the rule of thumb in areas with reasonable currents and 3 times for a slow current area. I would opt for 12mm silver poly rope.

Jack.

[Timfishin4fun]

Hi scotti, my old man has a suk dt85 85 model on his boat and goes very well for an old engine and is super reliable. He has a custom ally runabout that was made for trips across to moreton island and weighs about 1.2 ton. Shoots outta the hole ok and rides very well, it also has a stingray hydrofoil on it. As long as the engine is serviced well should be no probs, but that also depends on your engine not my old mans.

Tim.

[finga]

Gidday matey,
The reliability of the motor would depend on the regular servicing and maintenance of it.
My old motor is a '78 model and still goes strong.
Play it safe until you really know your boat's and motor's little quirts and problems and stick to somewhere close and safe and easy to get rescued if a problem does crop up.
I reckon she'll be fairly thirsty though. That's a lot of boat to be pushed by a 75hp motor.
Why did you put a foil on?? Was it doing something it shouldn't be doing??

[Noelm]

finga, I was just going to ask the same thing, have you had the Boat out and it behaved adversly to what you expected?? why we ask is to make sure you do not induce some bad behavior trait to your Boat before you ever had it out

[Scotti]

Thanks for the info guys, from all i read the foil seem to be good idea. Its suppose help plane quicker and increase stability isn't it? and also better fuel economy. I assumed a foil could only better the performance of old girl like this..Hmmmmm..seems maybe not from your replies

[finga]

If the outboard is set up properly a foil is useless when planing as it should be just out of water.
If it's in the water when planing it is actually reducing economy and performance with the extra drag.
They can actually become dangerous due to the digging in effect they can have whilst turning.
Sometimes they'll help getting on the plane quicker but your better off just setting up the outboard properly.
Try the old girl with out the foil and see what happens.
If there's any problems just bung another thread up.
Lots of friendly advice here matey :)

[mik01]

Scott - so you recommend I rip mine off also and try it out?
bought the boat with foil already attached so have no real way of knowing if it was put on for any good reason or not.

cheers,
Mick

[Tangles]

Always wondered about those hydrofoil things and what they do
mike

[finga]

Scott - so you recommend I rip mine off also and try it out?
bought the boat with foil already attached so have no real way of knowing if it was put on for any good reason or not.

cheers,
Mick
Why not??
It will either go better or if it goes worse bung it back on.
All you've lost is about 15 minutes :)