Breaking in the new ride. LJ 10/14
 

So, having dove into the sport of spearfishing, and having friends who always have broken boats, I took it upon myself to buy a vessel worthy of some offshore diving. Whether it be the Islands, or paddy hopping. This 24 ft Skipjack with twin engines and a bitchin' teak swim step seemed to fit the bill.

I bought her two weeks ago, knowing she needed some love. It's a strong hull, with solid volvos. The reassuring thing was, the guy who owned it before me had it for over 10 years, which means it's been fished and abused, but to keep it fishing, it had to be taken care of.

On the maiden voyage, we were experiencing some overheating issues intermittent between both engines. With the help of my good bud Robfish, we just overhauled the engines, attacking all the usual suspects. Thermostats, intake hoses for air leaks, sea strainers, impellers, spark plugs, new oil and new fuel.

I launched with my buddy at 5am this morning to do a quick sea trial and see how she was doing. I knew I had to be trailered and off the water by 9 to make it to school, but that didn't stop us from tossing a ziplock of some leftover summer squid in the boat, one rod each and heading straight for La Jolla.

I haven't wired up my Lowrance yet, but when you start to put together the pieces, eventually you don't need to rely on your GPS marks as much as you thought you did when you dropped $749 on that piece of plastic.

We knew the best bet was find the loose kelp close to lobster bouys somewhere around what looked to be off some sort of familiar landmark off the coast.

On the first lobster buoy, we dropped our squid, and instant hook ups. It took only a few minutes to hit our limit of Boccaccio (2each, although I read on spearboard it's now three?) and a few Vermillion each.

All in all, a great day, A quick cooler with some fish to feed the friends and neighbors tonight, the boat ran very well and the seas were extremely calm. We were doing 32 knots the whole way home. :paddleersmilie::paddleersmilie:

And no, I won't be giving up the plastic :the_finger:
The reds were between 3-5lbers. Hardly any dinks. :D
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Big mistake...a Skippy w maroon canvas on top of its rocket launchers? That's going to be sooo easy to spot. Thank you for the detailed photo. You're gonna have a blue Hobie follow you around from spot to spot like a fly on sheet.

Neil man, is this THE spot?...Hey bro, can I have a beer?...Neil! DUDE, I gotta drop the kids off really bad, can I jump on?...Got extra bait buddy? :the_finger::D:notworthy:

So stoked for you and your new boat. It truly is a fine machine.
Always glad to help spin wrenches and be a part of the adventure.
Fish On!!!

Awesome new boat man.:beer:

Congratulations, Skippys are a hard boat to beat, enjoy her.

Drake is a Moviestar now!!!
 

Drake's "Islander" kayak service is now open for business...:you_rock:

MOTHERSHIP TRIP IN THE MAKING!!!!

Looks like a sweet ride! Congrats

Nice man! Let me know when you need a boat Ho. :D

The plans for Kayak racks are already in the making. We would like to be able to fit 4. It's going to take some engineering but we will make it work. The only thing is i have no more space to keep the racks when I'm not using them


Thanks everyone else for the comments. :notworthy:

Yes Jim, this is that "spot"

if we make it out of PVC, we can just collapse it, and store it in our garage.


i can just imagine.. we are going to reinvent: Gilligan's Island

Go Frank! :D

Ahhh what the Heck... just toss me a tow line... We will put the 5mph Speed limit on my X-factor to the test!


Its going to be an epic ride.... :D

Sweet boat! Nice fish too! :cheers1:

Very nice Neill. Congratulations on the boat and successful second outing.
You going to name it "The Lollipop"? :)

Congratulations on your new fishing vessel. One more way to kill 'em. Good luck with it.

very nice Neil! Way to break her in. :reeling:

It is not broken in until the decks are bloody. Swimstep blood is only an option. No skunky smell to that boat though!!

Drake,
You already have this thing for sale? Looks like you picked up another vessel...what did you end up getting?

It's a secret. Lets just say that boat has a well known rep on this forum :o

Neil's new boat has killed MANY halibut. He merely needs to point the boat to a general area and this boat zero's in on hot spots all on its own. Besides, there are gps locations with hand written notes that the previous owner either left for Neil or mistakenly forgot to erase them. Big mistake previous owner...:the_finger::notworthy:

Hey, I told Derek - we can leave the GPS numbers, but that would quadruple her price tag :)

Hope she serves you guys well

Wow congrats Drake! That is gonna be one serious fish killing machine. You just got me pumped. I also just picked up a Skipjack 20 last month with similar plans! Ive been spending my weekends getting it ready. There is endless possibilities! Sounds like I need a buddy named Robfish too!
Once again Congrats! Please keep us posted on the progress!

you are the man
 

:cheers1: . are they twin volvo diesels ? :drool5: . anyway i could be sending this to you via private message . i have a humming bird 898 si head unit for sale that was previously on my kayak . no warranty . how about 500 $ i have the sending unit / transducer but it is almost worthless because i hacked off the tabs used to mount . i did this to flush mount the transducer to the bottom of kayak :svengo: . a new transducer can be purchased for around 200 $ online . unit works as should . needless to say this unit is the shiznit , but mounting the transducer on a kayak other than hanging it over the side becomes a problem . that is why i want to get rid of it . unit has very low hours of operation . dielectric grease has been used since day one so port looks like new , and unit has been wiped down with fresh water after use and kept indoors . let me know if interested ? if nothing else , if you need a buddy :reel: , i will always split the gas bill to go out . hope the boat brings many memories . anthony .

wow .
 

i did not realize how many kayak whores were out there , other than myself ?