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View Full Version : The Swains report - Norval July 2011 - Pt 2



Apollo
26-07-2011, 09:54 AM
As some of you know, a few of us just did a trip to the Swains on the Norval. I am doing the trip report in two stages. One being the fishing trip side and the other being on the Norval and their operation. Below is the Norval side. I have no affiliation with the Norval or its operators and the opinions expressed below are my own and may not reflect the others aboard.


THE PRE TRIP DEALINGS WITH THE OWNERS:
I must admit that I am a bit of a serial pain in the arse with regards to hounding the owners with question when I am organising a trip, so given a previous bad experience with another company quiet a few years ago, I haven't changed my ways with this trip. The shore based support for this trip by the owners were first class. All questions were promptly answered by email or phone and this made them a pleasure to deal with. Cassy/Treacy were a big help and very eager to assist in anyway they could. Ron, the owner (Cassy's dad) was an older bloke who had been around and keen to build the business after he bought it two years ago. He came along for the trip (we requested it) and was great to have aboard.


Rating 10/10


BOAT:
The Norval is about 40 years old and 60' long. Although she has some age to it, the boat is in generally very good condition and well looked after. It has stabilisers which certainly smooth out the ride and when at anchor/drift, however they can get in the way when drifting in a decent sea and the boys fishing in the middle of the boat did have some issues and I donated 50m of braid and a big fish to being sliced off by the stabiliser. The boat rides in a decent sea very well and is quiet comfortable. The 10 bunks for passengers were in a 2x4 and a 1x2 combination and all air cond making them comfortable enough. There are two showers aboard which are tight but provided a nice hot shower when needed at the end of the day. There is also two toilets aboard which are electronically flushed. Unfortunately, one packed it in halfway through the trip and the last one died 48 hours out which made for interesting last couple of days. Losing both toilets on the one trip is near unheard of, but talking to the owners afterwards, they are planning to add a portapotty aboard to be stored in case this ever happened again. Seating in the lounge area is comfortable, but only seats six, so meals are in two shifts, which really isn't an issue, but there are plans to remodel this during Christmas time to increase capacity. Kitchen and food pre areas are clean and functional. Fishing areas are good with most having a good bait area, rod and beer holders. There are plenty of good storage for fishing gear and drinks in the downstairs hold, but limited upstairs fishing gear storage, but a great big drinking fridge on deck that kept the beer/rum/scotch just lovely. We did discuss the storage of fishing gear with the owners (they grabbed some of us afterwards for feed back) and there are plans to improve this later in the year. The current system isn't bad, but could be improved. There is plenty of rod storage in the racks under the back deck roof. Lighting is good alround and there is a good stereo system, flatscreen TV and DVD player. The boat generally very clean.


Rating 7.5/10


DORIES:
It carries 3 x 4.2m dorries with 15hp yamahas (changed every two years) on the back. Each dory has a radio, flares, seat cushions, rod holders, esky and a bathiscope. They went well. I made up a portable sounder that worked a treat, but it would have been good for each of them to have a basic sounder setup to assist with drifts and finding dropoffs.


Rating 9/10


FOOD:
Everyone commented on how good the food was. Plenty of it, on time and tasty as. Was great to sit down to a great feed three times a day with snacks, etc at any time you want during the day. Some blokes were worried that we would be eating fish every day, but there was not one fish meal. Closest we got was prawns and bugs one night.


Rating: 10/10


CREW:
We had Laurie as a skipper and Murf as a deckie. Both were very competent, good blokes and extremely helpful. It was sometime hard to hear calls for lines up,etc as Laurie is quietly spoken, but that is about all we could comment on. Oh, and Murf can't play cards for jack as Mark/I wiped the floor with him and Shane.


Rating: 9.5/10


Overall, great trip and good operator that I would have no hesitation in going again with them or recommending them to others.


I will add some photos of the boat and interior shortly (once I get them)


Steve

tropicrows
26-07-2011, 12:45 PM
Steve, great report parts 1 & 2. You may have covered it in an earlier post but what was the cost, and does that vary depending in the time of year.

Apollo
26-07-2011, 01:40 PM
Steve, great report parts 1 & 2. You may have covered it in an earlier post but what was the cost, and does that vary depending in the time of year.

Bruce

Our cost was $1750 each for the week, plus bait. We took our own grog and fishing gear. Don't think it varies for different times of the year.

Steve

sleepygreg
27-07-2011, 02:09 AM
i know this question may sound a bit selfish, but to justify to other stakeholders that may influence my spending, how much fish did each person bring home. (they all love eating fish....so this is a factor). Personally dont give a rats how much I bring home, but need to justify the trip somehow.

Apollo
27-07-2011, 06:26 AM
i know this question may sound a bit selfish, but to justify to other stakeholders that may influence my spending, how much fish did each person bring home. (they all love eating fish....so this is a factor). Personally dont give a rats how much I bring home, but need to justify the trip somehow.

Greg

We took home 326 fish packs (usually consisted of two fillets) and 7 whole fish (red emperor, jew or coral trout). This was split between the 10 of us. The skipper said that 300 packs is about normal. Hope this helps.

Steve

rob tranter
27-07-2011, 06:28 AM
Hi Greg

Mate we had 350 fillet packs between 10 of us, (alot of Spanish mack) and thanks to rakey a good few trout.
So we got 35 packs each
generally one fish per pack, with the exception of the macks and those that fillets were big enough for one fillet per pack.
We had agreed early on to devide all fish between us incase some didn't catch many.

Hope this helps
Oh and One whole fish each

Cheers
Rob T8-)

Tangles
27-07-2011, 08:44 PM
many thanks, top reports fellas

sleepygreg
27-07-2011, 11:48 PM
Thanks Rob and Steve. Thats the sort of info I need to 'plead my case'. Now on a much more selfish note (and not part of the plea bargaining - in fact coming out of the cunning kick) how much would i need to allow for grog - or what is the set up re 'refreshments' - ie do you bring your own spirits, toss in for community beer, does the boat carry back up if you run out of your own etc? I am sure there are many others who have not been on one of these trips that would like to know as well.

Thanks again
Greg

Apollo
28-07-2011, 05:12 AM
Greg

Some boats run kegs, but we ran cans. For us, everyone brought what they expected to drink and the cans got tossed into the big fridge. It is impossible to tell what was yours or someone elses unless it was a different brand, but I think it all worked out about fair. The spirits were kept in a seperate area, so it wasn't hard to drink only yours (just wrote our name on the bottle). The boat's price included softdrinks and bottle water. As far as how much to allow, it would depend on how big a drinker you are. I took, one 30 can carton of Gold, one carton of mid rum cans, three bottles of rum, half a carton of scotch n dry cans and came back with about half a bottle of rum. Sounds like a bit, but the days are long and spread out. Others bought less or more.

Steve

rob tranter
28-07-2011, 06:20 AM
Hi Greg

Yep as Steve said, depends on how big a drinker you are.
4 of us bought 10/30 pack cartons beer,, I took one bot of rum, 2 took a carton rum each.
We left around two cartons beer on the boat, (useless mates), other than that it was all consumed, better to much than not enough.;D

Cheers
Rob T8-)

Apollo
28-07-2011, 07:23 AM
Better to look at it than for it!

Apollo
28-07-2011, 07:26 AM
Rob, can you post your pics of the boat (internal and external) to this thread to complete the Norval review.

Thanks
Steve

honda900
28-07-2011, 04:38 PM
Chris,
nice to hear you guys had a good trip, how did your sounder setup go?

Regards
Honda.

trymyluck
28-07-2011, 05:14 PM
Chris, :-?
nice to hear you guys had a good trip, how did your sounder setup go?

Regards
Honda.

Steve......

Apollo
28-07-2011, 07:11 PM
Chris,
nice to hear you guys had a good trip, how did your sounder setup go?

Regards
Honda.


Been called worst. Sounder went a treat. Thanks for the help.

rob tranter
28-07-2011, 07:28 PM
OK Steve

Here's some picks of the Norval.

I would put my own report in but you've covered the fishing and boat and crew, that only leaves me the stories, and that must remain on the boat, especially the part of me being smashed the second night out:o

Ome of these pic's show aft cabin, Galley, and the Dining area also the Skippers area, and rod storage.

Hope these help.

Cheers

Rob T8-)

Tangles
28-07-2011, 08:37 PM
now thats some rods boys

Apollo
29-07-2011, 07:38 AM
Mike, you have had a moment seeing all those rods, haven't you?

As there is so many different types of fishing you can encounter, you need to be prepared.

Steve

honda900
29-07-2011, 01:19 PM
Sorry steve typo.., sounder setup looks good..

Regards
Honda..

robersl
29-07-2011, 06:16 PM
great photo's thanks rob and steve

robersl
12-08-2011, 08:41 PM
I think i need another trip out there steve sick of work already lol

Apollo
12-08-2011, 08:45 PM
Yeap, know how you feel. It took me about 43mins to feel like that.

murf
12-08-2011, 09:51 PM
now thats some rods boys

for Mike to get excited there must be some tackle there LOL

cheers Murf

murf
12-08-2011, 09:58 PM
top stuff boys :)

all the local lads went up there today for a week out at Swains, lucky buggers

cheers Murf