Comfy ride @ 25 knots?

Room for the fishos is highly desired but not at the cost of a harsh ride over some nasty chop on a daily basis. Fishing platform + soft and smooth is the ambition

 

When hunting spaniards, i troll garfish exclusively... nothing works better and ive proved it time and time again, if trolling a pattern of different lures, the garfish always gets smashed and the others dont get touched...

GT and also Turrum up here, are great fun... i cant think of more exciting fishing, easy to see why people pay big money to do it. I find the schools of yellow tail fusiliers near the surface around the reef edges, look for the ripples on the surface they generate. Cast into the middle of them, a big bibless or popper and wait for the big black shadows and bow waves from all around come at it. Heart in your mouth waiting for the instant they hook up... BOOM - usually a group of 3 or more of them fighting over it... on again, off again, and hold on... after landing a couple of them, the old forearms are knackered, gotta have a beer and go again!

Just a little baby from last trip, camera went flat before we got onto the big ones...


Oh and about the boat - power cats like the noosa cat, shark cat, etc ride really well in the chop as they ride on a cushion of foam and spray in the tunnel. The downside is they use more fuel due to the increased wetted area of the tunnel. So its a case of you cant have your cake and eat it.

Hydrofoils could work well and deliver a smooth ride at high speed on little fuel, but there is a big increase in complexity, vulnerability and build difficulty.

Something like this would probably suit your needs extremely well, but you really should think about increasing the length significantly beyond your 6m limit. I would go down this route if i were only considering day use rather than overnights and longer medium term trips out at sea. It proved a very stable platform slicing through the chop without pitching or slamming - as a camera boat for filming the americas cup races. Pretty bloody efficient too.

 

In southern Qld/ northern NSW, garfish will not catch Spanish, in fact I have never seen one caught on any kind of gar. Strange that the feeding habits are completely different to NQ.

 

Sorry I mean't a walk around open cockpit so you can fish right around the boat. That way you will maximise the useable space and might be able to get away with the smaller boats, I understand your concerns about ride quality but for those short trips just travel a bit slower. I only suggested ally because it is so tough for a commercial operation.

 

I want one of those.

 

These seem nice
http://www.platealloy.com/cats.htm

Richards Scoota 20 is very attractive. Looks like at the moment its between these three with the proviso that the first two can be had in an open cockpit format. Will tyre kick those designers generosity with their time once I am more sure on the hull I want

If shipping parts to Fiji turns out to be much better value then shipping a used boat to Fiji :-

Can get a flat pack of cnc cut panels and fittings in Australia, and prolly shipped at a reasonable rate to Fiji by a forwarder
http://www.platealloy.com/cats.htm

Plenty of good ply to be had locally here in Fiji. This make this scoota very attractive. I have an aversion to leaving ply floating for extended periods though on something of this much investment. I wonder if this one can be done using one of them plastic types cores? This one is currently my first choice in terms of propulsion requirements vs speed potential vs fuel efficiency
http://www.sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs/6-powercats/262-skoota-20

And this one is setup with the fishing space in mind and makes claims of good riding and all that but no one seems to know much about it or tell much from its lines
http://www.boatdesigns.com/22-Wildcat-E-X-T-Sport-power-catamaran/products/903/

 

Groper, for GT popping you dont want to be too high above the water mate but you already know this if you casting and working poppers. Cups not biting water is the worst way to ruin a cast. Just skipping one back old school pencil working style is fine though from a casting position that high. But things like H cups will tumble mate

I think you are building the hull that I should one day get

 

Saqa,
some interesting boats there, also I see that the kit firm offers courses in putting them together.
The Skoota certainly does for the low power although thats pretty flat in the video, I've thought about something similar for my Seawind 24 cat, I barely have time to sail it & dropping the rig off & putting on some shade would make it handy for getting under some bridges here.

All the best from Jeff.