Joel Ryan brings big game-boat know-how to his Edencraft 6M Offshore.
Here’s a typical game-fishing scenario. See on Facebook that the hot bite is on during the week. Chuck a sickie. Drive all night and get a flat tyre. Eat salt and vinegar chips for dinner before finding a bakery that’s yet to open. “Borrow” goods from front of bakery. Roll into the boat ramp car park having had no sleep.
Then, as you prepare the battlewagon, pull your outriggers out only to discover they look like a tangled ball of spaghetti. Only iPhone headphones have the capacity to fuck up your day quite as much. The only difference is, you can’t buy outriggers at the local Caltex. This has happened one too many times, so I came up with a nifty solution. First tip is: if the riggers are collapsible, they need to stay in one piece. This can be a pain for storage at home, in the garage or traveling down the highway, but trust me, it’s worth the effort.
Time to get all DIY on your shiny new riggers. Drill a small hole in one side of the outrigger down near the base. Then mount a small plastic cleat on the other side just up from where the riggers would sit in the rigger bases on the boat. Simply pass the sheet line at the end of your halyard through the hole, pull it tight and then cleat it off. If you have tag lines on the riggers at the time, use a simple set of Velcro rod straps to s top the return weight sliding up and down the halyard while packed down. Bingo! No more tangled riggers.
Here’s another winning trailerboat move: leaning posts. At first I was reticent to chew up valuable deck space, but now that I’ve done it, I’ll never look back.
There are a few models around, but I went with the Edencraft version on my boat. The job necessitated fibreglassing a stainless plate to the floor, so I also got the Edencraft guys to do the fit-up job. My only stipulation was that it could be easily removed from the flush mounted plate in the floor for inshore fishing and diving.
It got fitted with four rod holders, two beer holders and a nicely finished stainless bracket to hold my wax thread dispenser underneath. I’ve put my rigging needles in a piece of stuck-on marine carpet; while the release knives and side cutters sit in pouches on the post, always in close reach for the deckie. Having the leaning post is a game changer on rough days. The kidney-shaped sides make a comfortable home while fighting a fish — or even just watching the spread. For those interested, Edencraft sell leaning posts for $1500 inc. GST
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