The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/56633
The lethal small Sebile lures Young Mike in his new boat was amazed to see the boat had been beautifully re-gel coated and painted, making it an awesome little deal for the princely sum of two grand he had paid for it, I thought. What was he going to put on the back? It came sans-motor and he wanted something to tow skiers, go fishing, fly to Aussie, serve drinks, get up to Warp Speed and just everything. Something like a good 90hp motor, he thought. Oh boy. It had been cheap, but putting a motor on this, getting it all sorted out to run properly and safely, was going to take a lot more money. Especially if he was looking for a new motor. So, a deal was done. After putting the poor lad in a headlock and slamming his head in a door a few times, he decided he would let me buy this off him, just to make his life less complicated and ease his headache. I was now the proud new owner of a 4.1m, 35-year-old boatlet. Now it was my headache. Why did I want this headache? For the last few years I have been without a small boat, and as my main boat is a huge 7.2m chunk of glass, it is just too much of a mission to use for short jaunts up the estuary at Whitianga for an arvo, or for popping to Lake Karapiro for an afternoon. This little boat is pretty much an ideal one-man sized boat for me. She's easy to tow, easy to launch, just easy, really. Skiing, racing and interstellar flight are not on my list of priorities for a small boat like this, so I immediately dialled back the required power to a more reasonable 40hp. Finding an option I like and trust really only left me with two brands in mind, Suzuki or Yamaha. In the two-stroke range, Suzuki only had a basic little 40hp unit, as outboards are all about four-stroke these days, and the Yamaha two-stroke was over $7500 … eek! So much for a "cheap" motor! Outboard prices in New Zealand are really high, especially when we can go on-line and see the Yanks pay half what we do in a direct New Zealand dollar comparison. I could feel my bank balance cringing as I then looked into some four-stroke prices. Owwww! Over ten grand for such a small motor? Ay caramba! However, these motors are just amazing. Just looking at the latest Suzuki 40 makes some pretty impressive reading. Their "lean-burning" system is said to be over 30 percent more fuel efficient than their previous motors, which in turn are hugely more efficient than any two-stroke. Tied with the motor's light weight of only around 100 kilos, this makes for a very good small boat motor. The starting system is … well, technical, but basically you have a key version of Suzuki's push-button start they have in their 300hp motor. Also, being a double-overhead cam motor, it has more power and better response than other single-cam motors. As Mark Presnall at Suzuki Marine said, it really would be the perfect motor for me. It is hard to disagree. So, what to do, what to do? On the famous old Kiwi Bloke tenet of "Arrr, stuff it!" I went for the four-stroke. My reasoning is sound, I think. It is a few thousand more than a two-stroke. However, the way I see it, should I decide in future to sell the motor or unit, the resale value will be higher by at least a similar margin over the two-stroke motors. So (as I frantically tell myself) I will get it back, honest I will! Dealing locally is pretty important to me, so I made a quick visit to Ken Watkinson at Matamata Marine, and in a short but rather financially painful few minutes I had a brand new 40hp four- stroke en route for my new little boat. From this point on she will be known as Sidekick. Why Sidekick? Well, my big boat is called Superhero, so my little boat is the Superhero's side-kick, obviously. Once I'd made these arrangements it was time to look at what other "stuff" I wanted in my new baby. First and foremost was a sounder. This is a must-have and to my mind it had to be a colour one at that, as these have way better screens and vision in daylight than the black-and-white models. I am never going out wide in this little jalopy, so all she needs is a basic little unit. After a call to Advance Trident I soon had a little Eagle 350C Fish Easy for the dashboard. It's not the cheapest or dearest, just a good, mid-range little colour sounder. On a trip in to Thompson Walker to raid their sample range one day, the guys showed me some nice little submersible Aqua-brite LED lights from Jarvis Marine. I had to, really I did, so, five of these six-LED units fell into my truck, along with a couple of the new Platinum 30 LED banks as well, which are 400mm long strips of lights for cockpit illumination. The next big decision was VHF and GPS. Hmmmm. Okay, I'm going to be using Sidekick mostly on Lake Karapiro or up the estuary at Whitianga and frankly, neither place really requires either item. A cellphone should do for the comms, but I do have an old hand- held VHF for emergencies. As for a GPS? No need at all, really. However, I have gone for electrical switches with five switches and an electric socket in each unit. Two of these modules are being fitted on the passenger side of the cabin, into one of which, should I need it, I will simply plug in my car's GPS. Why not? It has full marine charts loaded on it anyhow, so if it works in a car, surely it will work stuck to the inside of my boat's windshield. That's about it so far. I was originally going to have an Ice Kube ice-box with a pad on top as my seating. I knocked that idea on the head when I started thinking about nice things like lumbar support when sitting and waiting for a bite. I was at the FCO store getting a battery box when I saw some nice, comfy-looking seats and some pedestal mounts on sale. What the hell, they dropped into the back of me truck, too. I'll finish off the story next issue, hopefully with a few more pics of Sidekick all kitted out and lookin' purty, and full descriptions of what I put in, why and where. See you then! March/April 2012 Professional Skipper 51