Epic Adventures New Boat - A 750 Senator purpose built for sportfishing

Epic Adventures New Boat Build Diary Our quest to build the perfect New Zealand trailer sportfishing charter boat....... 15 August 2010 Well the time has come to start building a new boat to replace the current Epic Adventures boat. While our previous two boats have been production boats and have served us well, we thought it was high time we custom build something specifically for how we fish. The boat is doing about 250 days on the water these days so there wouldn't be many trailer boats out there doing the amount of work and hours on the water. We've refined our style of fishing down to what we think works best for our local waters. We want to share the story with you as the boat is built, so you can see some of the good people involved helping us to put the perfect boat together, maybe pick up a few ideas yourself if you have your own boat, and in the early stages maybe you can let us know some of the things you would like to see yourself. Anyway, over five years we've had a lot of time to think about what would make up the perfect boat if we are building it, and here is a very abbreviated version of 'The Wishlist': -Safety and Stability - this is paramount, our previous vessels have been great stable platforms to fish out of, even in big seas and being able to hold a position while jigging in big seas, cross the bar in safety and ensure everyone feels safe when miles out to sea is the number one priority. And inevitably when we have a big fish on boatside, everyone is going to want to come to one side to have a look. For this reason we want to stick with a pontoon boat. -Comfort for our Customers - something that we think can be improved on, better seating while travelling, a smoother ride to and from the grounds, nice and dry, more grab rails and a more organised layout with more storage room for the massive amount of gear that we take to the grounds -Fishability - this forms a very long and large part of the wishlist, better livebaiting capacity will be a big feature of the boat with a full transom width livebait tank meaning being able to take more bait to the grounds in perfect condition; better layout for softbaiting and popping; better rod storage for the huge arsenal of gear which is often aboard; quicker access to change tackle and jigs at the drop of a hat; the very best in marine electronics and fish finding capability; better management of fish kept for eating; better ability to tag and release king fish quickly in healthy state; easier and safer access to fish and cast stickaits, poppers and softbaits from the bow. -Economy and ease of use - still needs to be run and trailered by one person and to keep costs at a point where we still provide a value for money fishing experience for our customers Anyway, if there is anything you can think of, drop us an email in the meantime keep and eye here as we post photos of the boat build, at the moment we are aiming to have the new Epic Adventures vessel on the water by Christmas 2010, and in survey for charters late Jan 10 October 2010 After looking at lots of different hulls and talking to many boat companies we've settled on a Senator 750HT as the hull for the next vessel. Senator certainly seem like THE company to deal with when it comes to customising an alloy pontoon hull, and the sea trials we've done on an older 750 proved it to be very softriding. We've spend a bit of time with Murray and the team in Napier specing out what we would like customised and work starts this week....stay tuned.... 30 October 2010 Dean, one of Senators boat builders and a keen fisho himself has been busy folding the pontoons of our new 750 this week. The pontoons for our vessel are going to be modified slightly in that they will run further forward than the standard 750 hull, providing extra buoyancy and also extra cabin room. We should have the first photos as the hull comes together next week. 9 Nov 2010 We've got the first pics of the boat build through and Dean is making good progress on the boat. As you will see from the pics the sides are slightly higher than a typical Senator pontoon for that extra bit of safety when on a big kingfish on the rail, and the pontoons come a bit further forward than usual for extra stability and cabin room. Some of these modifications are going to be carried through to other 750's so essentially ours is a prototype no1 of the new RH750 . The hull thickness for our custom build has been increased to 6mm, and a keel strip has been incorporated for extra protection and weight down below. Those who know the Senator range well will notice the lines of the cabin coming together are a little different to the usual Senator RHpontoon models, as we've opted to go for a squarer finish on the cabin for extra protection, the cabin will have a similar look to the Typhoon model which you can see a finished model of next to ours. More pics next week..... 23 November Dean's been hard at work...... The roof's on, complete with radar arch, and stacks of rod holders in the rocket launcher Looking pretty mean...! Tuna tubes mounted in the stern Cabin is a good 500mm wider at the windscreen providing plenty of cabin space Plenty of tread up on the bow Casting platform, rails and bow ladder to be added soon.... Livebait tanks in transom coming together, whole transom will be decicated to livebait, one mega tank in the middle and smaller ones similar to what we have at present either side so we can split different livies out, and in between drifts livebaits and go into the tank hooked without tangles between leaders... Dean sorting out a manifold which will feed the tanks and deck hose/washdown, will fit under the smaller tank on the port side Rod holders starting to be mounted, more to come (ones sitting on the transom are just sitting there and about to be mounted in between the other two in the pontoons Starboard dash all ready for the electronics, and plenty of storage trays on the port side She's a pretty substantial rig.... Looking mean as.... 1 December Hoping to sneak down to the Senator factory in the next week, suss out the finishing touches, in the meantime so more pics the boys have sent up Plenty of grab rails, rocket launcher from the side Bilge area and full transom livebait, ready for glass windows ' Cabin and helm so far, plenty of storage in the pipleline The fishy end Port side passenger side seating with storage ready to be mounted The rig so far 3 December I got down to the Senator factory in Napier today to meet with Dean who is building the boat and the sales manager Murray who I originally spec'd the boat out with. It struck home today how much custom building boats is Senator's specialty, this is the first time I've seen the boat since I met with Murray three months ago and everything is as we had discussed, no suprises at all. A few final tweaks and a few additions were all not a problem with the guys, its all too easy building a boat with them and the workmanship is exceptional Beach launching ladder and bow rails.... Folds up to a nice bow casting platform, bow rails are a real nice height to cast from the bow Fold out rear boarding ladder well away from any fishing area A few more rod holders and bait/fillet station to be added at the business end, seating and storage bins are in, and their upholsterer is in next week 8 December
The last few days have been spent ordering all the fittings from anchors to outrigger bases, capstans and drop in Icey Teks for lunches and drinks etc. More on those later...lets get to the most important thing we've got to bolt on..... The motor has been ordered and given the run we've had out of our current Yamaha F150 with 5000 faultless hours it was always going to be a Yamaha 4 stroke. Can't say enough about the reliability and economy, the run we've had out of it, and its fish raising capabilities. About the only issues we've had over that time have been the throttle cable being replaced twice and gear box being reconditioned but that is more a factor of how hard the current boat has been driven on fish, being in and out of gear all the time backing up to hold position over fish, and also having to be on and off the throttle all the time in a head on sea in the current boat. Anyway, the new motor is going to be the new generation 2011 Yahama F 250DETX. A no brainer really! More on the motor here Paeroa Marine will be installing the motor and have been great to deal with. Working with them and in charge of the fitout afterwards is Kevin Harvey from Kevin Harvey Marine in Whitianga (Phone: 07 866 5333) has serviced our current outboard for the last two years, and his service is just what you need when you are a commercial operator and need a quick turnaround, he turns up to do our service at the drop of a hat without us having to tow anywhere and we'd highly recommend him to any boaties on the Eastern Coromandel looking for an outboard mechanic.
19 JANUARY The boys at Senator boats have been busy with the last few bits and pieces. The cabin has been painted, inside carpeted and now it is fitout time. We drove down to Napier yesterday to pick her up. She was ready and waiting on her new DMW trailer Quick few pics of finished job...splash back for backing into the seas to keep position over the fish Plenty of grab rails in the cabin. Plenty of LED cabin lighting. Chart holder inside the back to back seating. Stern facing spots, cabin hatch in roof for trolling Rod holders inside the forward cabin for storing gear out of the elements No bunks fellas, no rest for the wicked, just storage up front and all carpeted, two Icey Teks either side for storing drinks and lunches. Time to roll back to the Mandel..... 22 JANUARY Paeroa Marine have installed the new Yammie F250DET and given her a test run up the Paeroa River, she is lookin pretty mint, word is make sure everyone is holding on when the hammer goes down.....she is home in Tairua...chur! Fly by Wire remotes...sooooo smooth (no more worn out throttle cables!!!) New HELLA Endurant batteries care of Smart Marine, and sall the batteries stored under the drivers seat, well away from the elements, easy to get to. Iso switches nice and handy under drivers seat 31 JANUARY Kevin Harvey Marine in Whitianga (Kevin does our monthly service on the Yammie) has done the fit out on all the remaining fittings and electronics, a good weeks worth of fitout. The new Furuno Radar, Radar has been on the must have list and will add a new dimension to hunting fish down and an extra safety feature as well as enabling some night fishing Outrigger bases from Ocean Blue Bases ready for the game poles from Reel Rods to be fitted The boss cracks the bubbly over the new rig Team Epic cracks a toast Time to rock and roll, Tobes pushes her off for the first time First run up the river, wee play with the new Furuno Navnet 3D The verdict Time to load some sounds in the new Fusion Ipod dock Into the batcave on the way home to Tairua to check out the subwoofers acoustics Back at Tairua wharf, 14 people loaded on her at the dock at an impromptu launch party and still room to throw a kingfish around Bells and Oscar approve 2 FEBRUARY The MNZ numbers were put on yesterday and all the safety gear decked out and homes found for various pieces of gear. We left Tairua at 6am today bound for Tauranga for her survey. She flew down to the Mount just shy of an hour!!! We had time to throw a few stickbaits at one of the beacons at the entrance of the harbour, second cast and a kingfish came up behind the stickbait and hammered the Hammerhead Cherry Pai, and pulled some serious string off the Twin Power. Teh first kingfish was landed, photographed and to bring some good luck released. We pulled her out and went through all the processes and the radio survey and hull/safety/fitting compliance survey all went well and she got the tick of approval. The good guys from ENL were also in town for the day and ran me through the ins and outs of the Navnet. We had 35 knot winds on the way home dished up a big short steep sea wide of Matakana Island on the way home, it was the ideal sea trial before she goes into charter but the Senator just ate it up. Will pop some more photos up soon. A couple more test runs and equipment to get used to and she will be good to go. 11 FEBRUARY Well we have well and truly put the new rig to the test over the last week. The Furuno Navnet with 1KW transducer has proven to be a super effective fish finder with so many 20-30kg kingfish boated in the first week. There are some very cool features like the SST colour changes on your track line which are going to be so useful for hunting marlin and the pins that have shown these SST breaks have by far been the most productive places to fish, the warmer side where the summer ocean currents are hitting usually holding the monsters. There have been so many cool moments over the last week, here are a few .... First fish by a customer hits the decks on a jig.....a Puka on a Broken Arrow 500gm jig Livies very happy,,,little do they know what is in store for them..... A horse of a 30kg+ kingfish caught on day two on the new rig, 40 minute fight.... Mrs Epic gets to get her first kingi aboard the new boat!! We've got plenty more pics of the first fish caught aboard the new rig up here.... A few more pics to come and we will put together a page going through the boat from bow to stern once the final touches have been made