by Travis Godfredson | May 4, 2020 | Adventures, Articles, Captain's ships
Zac Cross loves life, fishing with his mates and boats, especially boats. He’s owned a hell of a lot of them over the years, but now he’s sitting pretty in a 9m Sea Cruiser he designed himself, with a little help from his old mate down the Sou’ West Coast, Ed...
by Travis Godfredson | Apr 16, 2020 | Captain's ships, How to, Uncategorized
Kyle Dicecco crafted almost every part of this tough-as-fug Haines Hunter V17L, including the glasswork, fuel tank, stainless, paintwork and even the trailer! Words by The Captain and Kyle Dicecco, images by Kyle Dicecco The fishing is brilliant off the remote coastal...
by The Captain | Jan 31, 2020 | Adventures, Articles, Secret destinations
The Captain’s crew head to the Montebello Islands with a bunch of hotshot fishos aboard a flotilla of epic rigs. Brace yourself to be knee-deep in GTs, sailfish and spangled emperor scales. Every fisherman has heard tales of the bountiful waters of the...
by The Captain | Jan 19, 2020 | Adventures, Articles
Jack promised his Californian belle she’d taste every part of Australia. True to his word, he whisked her away to the seafood frontier of Australia — South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. His chariot for this romantic mission is the appropriately palatial Whittley SL25...
by The Captain | Jan 18, 2020 | Articles, Captain's ships
The latest alloy artwork from AMM is built for sport fishing northern adventuring. It seems a shame to scratch that silky smooth duco, but what the hell, pass the Gold Bombers and drop the hammers. Boat-building brothers Barton and Matt Thomas recently invited The...
by The Captain | Jan 18, 2020 | Articles, Captain's ships
The Captain is cruising the Australian coast, jumping aboard the meanest metal rigs we can find. In this issue, we head to the Sunshine State to pilot Ben Campbell’s 10.5m RipTide. LET ‘ER RIP The RipTide vessel wasn’t meant to be part of The Captain’s...
by The Captain | Dec 15, 2019 | Articles, Captain's ships
“If you have to ask the missus for one of these game-fishing beasts, don’t bother calling back,” says old-school boat builder Erick Hyland. WHITEPOINTER Erick’s sales pitch for his Whitepointer 263 boats is pretty damn compelling. The Haines Hunter crew trained...
by The Captain | Sep 25, 2019 | Articles, Captain's ships
Anyone can slide a pilchard onto a paternoster rig and pull hard on a snapper, but not many can lay claim to catching snapper on topwater stick baits. Mike Bonnici can. It’s time for The Captain’s crew to find out how this renowned surface slayer rolls. Yep, it’s time...
by The Captain | Jul 26, 2019 | Articles, Project boat
The Nub-Tub is finally ready for the fit-out phase. We take her to the experts at Johnson Bros Marine who say, “We’ve never seen anyone want to fit this much shit to a 4.5m boat in our lives.” Trav and his cohort of contractors have slogged away on the base for three...
by admin | Jun 28, 2019 | Articles, Captain's ships
Mallacoota abalone diver Grant Shorland Jr takes a break from snuffling snails and cruising for bluefin in his Grady-White Journey 258 to test drive the latest Grady-White to hit our shores — the Express 330 Why would an abalone diver from Mallacoota care for a...
by admin | Mar 6, 2019 | Articles, Captain's ships
Julian McGarry couldn’t afford to buy a flybridge cruiser, so he built his own mini version. When Julian McGarry’s mate sold his flybridge cruiser, Julian lost his regular ride. Heartbroken, he couldn’t see the value in owning his own moored boat, so he took...
by admin | Jan 19, 2019 | Articles, Captain's ships
The Captain’s crew hitches a ride on a slick Haines 788SF fitted with a Seakeeper 2 gyro stabiliser. It’s the coolest technology to hit the trailer boat market since 12-volt pie warmers. Trailer boat owners prone to seasickness can finally rejoice because...
by The Captain | Jan 17, 2019 | Articles, Captain's ships
Dave Rothwell treats his 10-year-old Hydra-Sports to a complete birthday refit with 1050 horsepower courtesy of Johnson Bros. Marine Services. Now this boat has tricks. Dave Rothwell loves his Yank tank and his love runs deep — all the way down to his chequebook. So...
by admin | Jan 13, 2019 | Adventures, Articles
The Captain’s crew are on the hunt for the enigmatic swordfish — charging out past the fire-breathing oil rigs of Bass Strait aboard a Bass Strait Offshore 30, which has a certain synchronicity to it if you give a rat’s about such things. This rig has a huge...
by Travis Godfredson | Dec 6, 2018 | Articles, Project boat
When The Captain made the big decision to saw off the transom of Nub Tub, he couldn’t bear to cut up his baby. So he called in Josh Hammond from Ocean Custom Marine to do his dirty work. The Captain’s project boat, Nub Tub, wasn’t supposed to get...
by admin | Nov 27, 2018 | Articles
There’s been a fair bit going on at Edencraft — what’s the drum, Josie? Well, we moved to Moolap, Victoria, a little over 12 months ago. The new 2ha property is divided into four workspaces — the office, the lay-up shed/moulding shop, the joining shed...
by admin | Nov 21, 2018 | Articles, How to
Hopefully by now, you’ve figured out the basics of photographing a fish. Keep the eye in focus, use the rule of thirds, don’t cut off the angler’s head and use the available light to your advantage. Got it? Good. Now it’s time to go expert. Time to tell a real story....
by The Captain | Oct 24, 2018 | Adventures, Articles
Abalone — most people wouldn’t know what it was if they stubbed their toe on it at the beach. Underneath an iridescent mother-of-pearl shell is a muscly piece of meat about the size of a teenager’s fist. This magnificent mollusc is so prized in Asia that most of these...
by The Captain | Mar 13, 2018 | Adventures, Articles
The Captain’s phone rang earlier this year. It was John Haines Junior, boss man of Suzuki Australia and heir to the Haines Signature fortune. In his polite but matter-of-fact manner he asked, “what are you guys doing in June?” “Let me check my calendar, John,” I...
by The Captain | Mar 13, 2018 | Articles, How to
The Captain tugs hard over his tow machines. Here are his top 10 adventure rigs. Did you just drop more than $200K for your deep-vee machine built with 37 layers of ‘glass in the transom and fitted with hardtop, commercial-grade sounder, radar, pie warmer,...
by The Captain | Mar 13, 2018 | Uncategorized
The Captain discovers why the White Pointer from New Zealand is considered the apex predator of plate boats. If you call your boat a White Pointer, you better have the chops to back it up. After building them for more than 24 years, Rex Briant, top of the food chain...
by The Captain | Feb 8, 2018 | Articles, Captain's ships
Four pumping plate rigs fight it out bow to bow in the captain’s alloy shootout at Jervis bay. The only good thing that comes in tin is beer, right? Some among the glass-lovin’ class still beat that drum on Facebook forums. Their opinion is probably based on...
by The Captain | Oct 26, 2017 | Captain's ships
Surface feeding longtail tuna. A tackle box full of stickbaits. The new Haines Signature 550RF. ‘nuf said. Not long ago The Captain tested the Signature 550F off Queensland’s North Stradbroke Island. We had a crack at a mulloway, but the mysterious beasts...
by The Captain | Jun 20, 2017 | Adventures, Articles
The Captain tackles northern NSW in one of the first Stabicraft 2750 centrecabs to hit Aussie shores. Stabicraft recently put together a fully decked-out, custom 2750 Centrecab for gun Kiwi fisherman Matt Watson – you know, the crazy bloke that catches marlin...
by The Captain | Mar 14, 2017 | Articles, Captain's ships
The Captain storms Port Phillip Bay in a Stabicraft 2400 Supecab. The Target: King George Whiting. The rain was pissing down sideways, the wind was well over 20 knots and thick cloud cover cloaked the night sky. We were almost ready to call it quits, but then a rod...
by The Captain | Mar 14, 2017 | Articles, Project boat
The Captain’s crew takes two steps forward and 445 steps backward on the project boat rebuild. Nathan Laidlaw, master craftsman at Boat Box, seen below chopping like an ’80s rock star, gave The Captain’s crew a crash course in filling and fairing holes...
by The Captain | Mar 14, 2017 | Articles, The craftsman
The Seafarer Vagabond 6.2 was launched in 1996 following the success of the twin-rigged Seafarer Victory 5.9 (in production 1992-97). The early 6.2m hulls were initially put out in a centre-console configuration and granted the tough-guy moniker Venom 6.2....
by The Captain | Mar 14, 2017 | Articles, Captain's ships
Six-metre twin outboard rigs are The Captain’s kryptonite. So when we heard Mark Stav from JV Marine had bought himself a Seafarer Vagabond with twin 140 Suzukis, we almost lost our superpowers. Bluefin tuna fishing was the goal – and The Captain’s crew tried various...
by The Captain | Feb 28, 2017 | Adventures, Articles, Captain's ships
Why we do it. This is the test the public demanded. More so than the manufacturers, anyway. Which is why we never told them about it. Any of them. To prove our point, when the first Facebook post dropped, The Captain’s mobile lit up with phone calls with a Victorian...
by The Captain | Dec 8, 2016 | Articles, Captain's ships
Back in 1977, when Richard Freeman bought his Shark Cat, Elvis Presley was still swinging his hips and Radial Tuned Suspension (RTS) had just found its way into the HZ Holden. Since then, Richard’s Cat has seen 31 pairs of outboards. He’s also bought a house and...
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