B l The Latest (GREEN) Outboard Prices & Specs Database OAu sAtralTian MAG For Tinnies, Platies, GRP, DIY, New, Pre-Loved, Retro, Monos, Cats & Tris! Rugged Kiwi Crayfish Cats & Bulldozers! ABM January 2016 #230 $11.95 ISSN 1326 - 4508 l DDIIYY BBooaatt BBuuiillddiinngg:: Put Yourself In The Picture - With A BMD Sportzmaster 19 Console B OAu sAtralTian MAG CONTENTS January 2016 Volume 3 Issue #230 $11.95** The Life & Times Of Cliff BMD DIY January P-14 P-66 Joshua, Boatbuuilder Mark Bowdidge’s DIY Special report from ABM mob have been busy this month with some Editor PW all about one beautiful projects of our most charismatic coming from garages boatbuilders, as he and sheds everywhere celebrates a grand 90 including Mark’s mob year life doing what he from that DIY state, does so well..............14 WA..................... 66 P-56 P-28 A Trilogy: Part TWO: Building Your Own (BYO) Cruiser Di Ross: Our Deadly Beach Peril There has never been a better time to buy OR build that This is a very disturbing report about toxic cruiser you’ve dreamed about owning for so long - only containers that are being discovered with now it is probably half the price. PW presents a detailed increasing regularity on our beaches.................28 explainer about how to achieve the Dream.....................32 P-32 P-67 2 Australian Boat Mag Vale Bob Oatley, Yachtsman. 1928-2016 Regular Columns or Sections Cover: If we can (cid:2)BThe Latest(GREEN)Outboard Prices & Specs Database OA u s At ralTian drag our eyes off Comment /Peter Webster............................4-11 Russell Mason’s Letterbox ...................................................H/O stunning BMD F or Ti nn ie s, P la tie s, GR P, MAG DIY, New, Pre-Loved, Retro, Legal Waves/NSW Moorings/KatherineHawes........12 Sportzmaster 19 Monos, Cats & Tris! Rugged Kiwi Crayfish Cats & Bulldozers! ABM January 2016 #230 $11.95 in that heavenly ISSN 1326 - 4508 location, the Cocos Keeling islands way off the coast of Nor’ P-72 West Australia, P-80 we’ll find lots of other interesting features incl PW’s Around The Place..........................................52 vital 2nd Part to Outboard Database January, 2016................. 74 his cruiser trilogy. (cid:2)DDIIYY BBooaatt BBuuiillddiinngg:: Put Yourself In The Picture - With - see it Page 3. A BMD Sportzmaster 19Console MESSAGE STICKS . . . . As we are such a small team, we are often tied up on the ‘phone, or on the water - but please don’t waste the opportunity to communicate. Send us an email, and we’ll get back to you ASAP - usually within 24hrs. ABM’s Web Site www.australianboatmags.com.au P-80 Subscription ‘Phone Inquiries (07) 5502 8233 SUBSCRIPTIONemail [email protected] RETRO: Haines Signature 460SF Reader or Editorial email [email protected] A major test of the charismatic a n d d e f i n i t e l y a h e a d Reader Postal Service & Office Address: of its time Signature for dedicated fishos.............80 11 Tomah Street, Pacific Pines, Queensland 4211 4WDs, Trailers & Towing Publisher Australian Boat Mags Pty Ltd (ABN 34 167 221 114) Looking at a new Ford Kuga, and the results of a (07) 5502 8233 very interesting national Survey............................90 Accounts Tracey Subscriptions Mary Financial Management Mary, Tracey, via P-90 [email protected] Editor& ProductionPeter Webster Sub-Editor & Proof ReadingMary Webster Regular ABM Contributors: Neil Dunstan Aaron Concord Andy Myers Gary Fooks Andrew Hestelow Mark Bowdidge, MRINA Don Gilchrist Di Ross & John Batty (SA) Ebb & Flow/ with Neil Dunstan. ** The $11.95Cover Price and the$29 6x or$55 12x subscription rate Well, Neil’s gone fishin’ this month, and left PW will vary marginally in different countries around the world from time to time according to currency fluctuations and the vendor involved. to fill in the gaps - s’not fair, really! ................94 Australian Boat Mag 3 ‘bricks and mortar’ security to the banks and finance companies, as they re-jigged their finances for the much lower cash flow that was coming through the showroom doors. Again, in times gone by and indeed, even withthe wisdom of hindsight, the strategy of re-jigging for 6-12 months was not without solid precedent. I’m particularly thinking of the other great recession we ‘had to have’ in 1988, which only effected the boating industry for about six months. Things got back to normal quite quickly, so why wouldn’t it do that again? However, not only did this 2008 stumbling block barra! last longer than six months (as was initially predicted by the pundits) it kept going . . and going . . and going . . and when it was co-joined with the disastrous weather events in the years 2010-11, Peter Webster’s things became quite dire. Already financially Comment stretched to the limit, boat dealerships and boat builders started shutting their doors throughout Australia. Fractious Waters Ahead Not only did they then have little left in terms of financial resources, even if they had been able to turn As we turn into Year 2016, it’s time to take a up new models, or change their stock, the boating fresh look at the passage ahead, and make public were fast losing any residual interest they had plans for the new year. in boating. The boating industry of Australia is in a strange They were having their own struggles. As we’ve position at the moment, certainly not without seen in years gone by, when the breadwinner’s job is precedent, because there have been gloomy periods, at risk, and the family is two payments behind on the recessions, and just hard times to do business in the mortgage, they have to find $700- $800 for school years gone by, but it’s certainly a very difficult time fees and $1,200 for the kid’s dentist (etc!) buying a for manufacturers of any kind in Australia, let alone boat not only goes out the window, even running and something as tenuous as boat manufacture. Whilst maintaining a boat is seriously difficult for KR’s it’s laudable for the Turnbull government to talk beloved “working families”. about the ‘Innovation Era’ and the need for Australians to get off their backsides, and innovate Times Can be Tough on ‘Working Families’ with exciting new enterprises in order to drive In the intervening years since 2008, not a lot has Australia forward and out of the fast fading mining changed, and indeed, in some ways, many things boom, the reality of doing that in our boating world have gotten progressively worse. is extremely difficult. Fibreglass trailer boat manufacturing has slowed to The core problem in the boating industry is that it a crawl; it’s been years since we’ve seen new tooling is dealing with something economists describe as of a major model. We only have a fraction of the (spending) the ‘discretionary dollar’ which is another manufacturing capacity we had back in the 1990s, way of saying that boats are something you really and their output is . . . well, let’s not go there. don’t have to buy, unless you are one of the Aluminium boats haven’t fared well at all either, remaining commercial fishermen working around with many manufacturers going to the wall, or Australia. stopping production - but even the remaining pressed In the boating world, ‘innovation’ is another way and plate aluminium boat builders are only doing a of saying ‘investing money’ on infrastructure that is fraction of what they used to do pre-GFC, let alone needed for almost everything we do. The trouble is in the 1990s. that so much of our infrastructure has been lost in the It’s not all bad news for the industry - there is the years following the great GFC catastrophe of odd exception. As in tough times in the past, the October 2008 it could take years to rebuild. ship’s chandlers are doing quite nicely, thank you, as More to the point, believing that the GFC-induced the half million people who are still going boating recession would only last a few months; most of the elect to upgrade their existing boat and replace the business people in the boating industry gave extra gear as it breaks. Good strategy this, because it keeps 4 Australian Boat Mag 6 Production Street Noosaville Qld 4566 Australia Phone (07) 5449 8888 Email [email protected] Fax (07) 5449 9480 Website www.noosacat.com.au Comment . . . what about the local boat owners? Why haven’t the locals been given the option of purchasing a new 2015-16 cruiser built in the 25’- 28’ foot range, or for them in the game, with a boat that in nine cases out that matter 29’- 33’ foot classes? of ten, is almost certainly better than one they could The irony is that if you look around the marinas buy today to replace it. today, they are still dominated by boats of this Normal yacht manufacturing, as in family cruising category, be they Mariner 25s, Riviera 27s, old and trailer yachts, has virtually stopped altogether, Savages, Swiftcrafts, Crestas, Berties, Marklines (etc) although the yacht racing world, sustained by the or a myriad other cruiser brands that are all but bricks and mortar yacht clubs (and a heap of forgotten – except by the owners who still maintain dedicated, enthusiastic officals) is still hanging in these craft in working order. For them, the leap in there, although commercially, it has fallen back to finances from their 1979 Mariner 28 to the entry- pretty much a ‘service and sustain’sector. level Riviera today is something in the order of three Cruiser manufacture is one of the saddest areas for quarters of a million dollars. the writer, because over the years we’ve had some That’s a very big leap for a retiree who probably very good boat builders who created some very well- has only 6-10 years active boating service left – in designed family cruisers for all the thousands of safety– and doesn’t want, or need, a thumping great people who like to have a boat at the bottom of the twin screw diesel he and his partner would struggle garden of their waterfront canal home, or perhaps out to handle . . just to go ‘down the bay’ for a not too on the mooring, or berthed in one of Australia’s first- serious fish, a quiet little drink and perhaps a class marinas. refreshing swim on a hot Tuesday afternoon. Recently though, the economics of cruiser For the record, I’m not having a shot at Riviera or manufacturing has seemingly collapsed like Maritimo, or suggesting for a millisecond that their everything else, but I’m not convinced it’s because of latest models are not worth the money – but I am the same economics. making the point – one I’ve actually discussed briefly Are The Cruisers Getting Too Big? (to no avail) with Riviera’s new owner Rodney Whilst it can be said that the complete lack of Longhurst. exciting new boats in trailerboat land has adversely I believe it’s worrying that Riviera haven’t seen the impacted on new boat sales (a telling state of affairs, value of what the automotive world never stops given that it doesn’t cost all that much to make a doing – re-inventing themselves and setting up their mold out of MBF and bog anymore) I worry that our market for the years ahead, by constantly re-starting cruiser designers and builders lost the plot way back from scratch – about every ten years or so – with a in the late 1990s, and the early part of this century. new generation of very small, affordable cars. Call it All of a sudden, cruisers just leapt up in size; small the Toyota Progression if you will – but how many cruisers under 40’ were universally dropped, all of times have Toyota released a new ‘entry level’ which is understandable if the offshore (export) Corolla over the years? How many of today’s Lexus market was – or is– the exclusive goal. But hang on, luxury saloons started their Toyota journey with one There’s no question Riviera is building some glorious craft at the moment. This is their latest - the 2016, 57’ enclosed flybridge - but the question needs to be asked: are they moving too far away from their base domestic market? And what are the implications for their longer term future in this increasingly topsy-turvey world. 6 Australian Boat Mag of the first Coronas? And remember the original, Your Editor Is An skinny little RAV-4? It’s now all ‘growed up’ as a Unrepetant DIY Tragic . . real 4WD . . . and how about the constantly renewed Mazda 2s, or . . . or . . . It will come as no surprise to The pyramid effect of marketing and selling any regular reader that ABM anything is first year high school economics, and is editor Peter Webster is a self- by no means unique to the automotive world. confessed DIY tragic who has However, the parallels with the boating world are come ‘out’ about this devious fascinating, especially as the role of the discretionary trait on many occasions. Of dollar is just as significant in many sectors of the deeper concern, he’s really automotive industry as it is to boating. proud of it, but that’s another Given the Aussie automotive world has just logged story. it’s fourth consecutive year of record growthin new Point being there was already vehicle sales, I’d suggest that there is something here a lot of DIY stuff in this issue the boating industry needs to think about very when Russell Mason’s pics of carefully; we’ve just loggedour fifth consecutive the BMD DIY Sportzcraft 19 year of down-trending new boat sales. arrived from the Cocos Keeling I fear for Riviera and their kind in the long term, if islands. There was no stopping they don’t invest now in creating the brand identity him; PW’s now gone they need for the next generation of Riv buyers. completely bananas and They urgently need to start over and build a 2016, scattered even more DIY pics 25’ wide beam, single engine Riviera, or maybe a 29 through this issue. or even a 32 – and yes, I do know all about the Bill Remedial tinny counselling Barry Cotter Theory of Boatbuilding which suggests, has been advised, we’ve inter alia, that it’s just as easy to build a 31 footer as cancelled his one way ticket to it is a 25 footer, but you’ll make $125 grand more Perth . . he ain’t gettin’ outa with the 31 . . . and whilst that is almost certainly here that easily ! true if you’re as good as he is at production boat building, it’s got nothing to do with the consumer at all. Good luck to the boat builders. If they can all make more money and employ more people (as Riviera is doing once again) by building bigger craft they can export around the world trading on the ‘commercial advantage’ Australia’s low dollar currently gives them (and is a huge boost to cruiser exports) then I’ll raise my glass in salute to Riviera (and Maritimo) for doing just that. It’s a highly successful business program at the moment, and these builders are Boden, Len Hedges, (etc), and the other DIY squeezing it as hard as they can. specialists, launched the beginnings of the But back here in beautiful downtown Australia, it’s professional Australian boating industry. leaving the owner of one of Bill Barry Cotter’s first, I suspect we are seeing it all over again, albeit 1975 Mariner 25s with two choices – fix up the old 2016 style. Mariner 25/28/31/34 or whatever it is they’ve loved This brings me back to my point: I’m concerned for all these years, or do nothing, because the number that Riviera and Maritimo are walking away from of people in our boating world in Australia who can their own market, when surely, looking back over put aside $1million or so (plus!) dollars to buy a new just the last few years, we have seen how cruiser, are not exactly thick on the water. More to exceptionally turbulent boat manufacturing at their the point perhaps, in that multi-million dollar league, level can be. there is still intense competition, not least of which is Commercial common sense suggests it behooves becoming evident in the way Australians are taking any cruiser manufacturer to make sure he’s got his to building their own boats, once again. back door covered, because it may not always be Starting Over possible to build and ship boats overseas under the At the moment, 95% of the Australian DIY boom favourable trading conditions we have now. is directed at trailerboats, but we saw in the 1960s To begin with, who knows what the Australian and 1970s, how Richard Hartley, Jim Young, Cec dollar will do in the next couple of years? Does Australian Boating 7 Comment . . . than those that start at 50 – 60 feet, LOA, and end up costing millions of dollars. Nice work if you can afford it, but for the domestic anyonein the world really know what the Chinese are market in Oz, getting further and further off the mark. going to do with their economy, or what will happen to the Chinese yuan renminbi ? And/or the likely Our Cruiser Series impact it could have on the $US greenback? As you can tell, I’ve been thinking about this a lot For any enterprise to base their business purely on as we researched and prepared the latest segment in the sales of multi-million dollar cruisers to Western our three part series on getting into the cruiser societies on the other side of the world has to be market. considered gambling at best, and shortsighted in the In Part One (last month) we looked at taking least. Yes, this IS a criticism of the strategies our big advantage of the secondhand market that is so loaded cruiser builders have adopted, but it’s done from the in favour of the buyers at the moment. This month, in heart. For two reasons. Part Two, we consider the ramifications of building Firstly, I believe they are missing the potential that one yourself in either aluminium or composite still exists to build a couple of modern 25’-29’ fibreglass. Next month, Part three, we‘re going to cruisers that can be easily handled by the target look at buying a brand spanking new production audience: Australia’s expanding retirees market of cruiser. financially comfortable families with waterfront By the way, I’d like to thank the various people in homes and/or the capacity to leave their new cruiser the trade who pre-read the article, and once again in that gorgeous marina with its waterfront restaurant have been involved in this month’s feature on in the next suburb. building it yourself. Secondly, I’m not convinced that the loss of cruiser Despite the criticisms I have frequently made about manufacturing in Australia is due to economic the way the industry conducts itself, I never forget circumstances at all, much less the “cost” of there is a core of people who love this industry with manufacturing such cruisers. Especially with Bill the same sort of passion that we have for it. As is so Barry Cotter. He is recognised as one of the best often the case, it hurts to see the industry, something production boat builders on the planet; there are very that we care about so much, make so many mistakes few people who know more about how to produce that we’ve already been through in years gone by – fibreglass boats efficiently, than this man. and then be forced to stand by as they’re being I just wish we could ignite some interest in getting repeated yet again. him to apply his creative production skill –and One of the real disappointments I have shared with innovation – to the production of smaller cruisers many of my peers over the years (many of whom 8 Australian Boat Mag Luke Slater/social media photograph Below:When we said we were going to chuck her Above:Tragedy strikes in Adelaide S.A. on Dec in the water, she thought we were kidding - but 27/15, when a near new Bar Crusher capsized off being the good sport she is, Monica jumped in, Beachport, when the two experienced men aboard and pulled the chord ! And we all watched - and were pulling crab pots. One man got back to shore, learned - how well these Burke inflatable jackets the other didn’t make it. Neither were wearing life worked. We’ve been wearing them ever since. jackets. A full investigation is continuing. Australian Boat Mag 9 Comment . . . people to wear seat belts, and to this day the police around Australia still log far too many incidents have retired, or semi-retired or have passed away in where people aren’t wearing their safety belts as they the last year or two) is the commonality of their go about their everyday lives. But in a boat, it is so sadness and regret that so much of the knowledge easy to lose control, even for young fit people, they acquired through their life-long careers has just wearing a modern ‘horseshoe’ type jacket (see pics been frittered away to no good effect, and they thus below) should be the personal choice of every have to cope with the frustration of seeing people sensible fisho, crabber and boatowner. Even simple make the same mistakes all over again. accidents close to shore can go horribly wrong with fatal consequences. We have to remember it’s Too Many Boating Fatalities incredibly difficult to swim ashore in strong current This has already been a summer with far too and the impact of shock and hypothermia on our many boating accidents and fatalities recorded. bodies is far more serious than people recognise. Although this is only the first week of January, the On the following page or so, we’re re-publishing toll is growing from just about every state that I’ve the very popular series we ran back in F&B in the been able to monitor. As usual the common 1990s, when, with the assistance of our beaut denominator is that the people involved; the people ‘outdoors’ model Monica, we filmed the actuation who in many cases, have lost their lives, were not and actual inflation of an inflatable horseshoe wearing a life jacket. lifejacket. We’re publishing it again, because clearly To me this is unforgivable, and as silly as not we have to keep getting the message out there. wearing safety belts in our cars and 4WDs. I realise Guys, time has come to wear one of these light, it took strict legislation back in the 1970s to get innocuous lifejackets all the time we’re on the boat. As we grow older we get weaker, our reflexes are slower; our ability to react T H E FF U T U R E I S H E R E in an emergency situation is nothing like it was when were 20 or 30 years younger, and bullet-proof. Lastly, as noted, one of the main objections I had to wearing the old style • life jackets (even the good ones like the modern ‘Coastal’ PFDs) was mainly due • to the bulk of them, and the fact that you couldn’t duck-dive out from under • (for instance) a partly submerged boat, • and fishing in them was just plain awful. Then inflatable jackets came along, and my next objection was the tremendous cost involved. They WERE b. . . y expensive in the beginning, and commonly cost hundreds of dollars each + annual servicing. To buy a set for my family practically required a third mortgage. This doesn’t apply any more – BCF, Whitworths, and all the good chandlers today have horseshoe inflatable jackets for as little as $60 – $70, and you can do better deals if you buy 4-5 of them at a time. Slow Speed 3.5 17 59.5 The best part? I promise you, after the first couple of days of wearing them, Full Thrroottlee 9 1 9 it’s just like seat belts – you won’t even 0022 think about it. om.au Have a safe and happy New Year, www.eeeepprrrooooppuullssiioonn.com.au okay ? ABM 10 Australian Boat Mag