The Non Evolution of the Sport Fisher

Liberty, have a look , you can see the throttle control box at the bottom of the pic, with Simrad plotter mounted above. The setup is removeable and lives in a carpartment under the lounge. The deckie setup 4 lines - 2 surface lures, and 2 divers, we hooked up in about 5 mins. The boat can play too... seemed pretty nimble for a boat her size (WOT 30knots), as we also practised man-over-board drills that required reversing up to the buoy.

Liberty... u now have an Fcar...?

Far

Very clean looking wake for a 100 footer!

Just browsing thru this subject thread, and found this analogy rather interesting.

Never did understand the BIG increases in size of the actual fishing vessel itself?

In our neck of the woods (East coast) the bigger ones have become more of a mothership operation for extended cruising to foreign ports. They do fish occasionally in tournaments closer to home still but the bigger rigs spend most of their time travelling.

Yeah, but that's more for dragging lures when traveling at 10-12 knots to conserve fuel/increase range like a lot of large yachts do. If someone's bored on a 2-3 day journey, they'll throw out a couple of Marlin lures and sit on the mezzanine deck, if a fish hits you pull the throttles back to idle, Captain at the helm knows a fish is on by change in RPM and then goes back to the aft deck.......good for a nice meal, loss of boredom or both.

A SF over 80' is getting to be too big to really effectively fish. Most of them are towing large center consoles with them and using the CC to fish from and are a basic platform to bring tons of frozen bait, food, tackle, provisions, sleeping quarters, and etc to do say a 1-2-3 month tour in the Bahamas/Carribbean. I've seen some with a nice flats skiff on the bow and towing a 34' CC.

Marlena is a 105 SF and they fish regularly. That pic above showing a 100' transom is not a traditional SF at all; more like a Yachtfish which is a yacht with fishing rods. At my home marina last year we had four boats 75' or above including one around 90'- they all travel (of course!) often but fish as any smaller SF would. Two of the major reasons for a larger SF are comfort and the ability to have lots of people and toys. Toys include smaller boats.

I worked on a 75' SF as a mate many years ago. It was a handful to stay on top of all of the rods and everything going on due to the cockpit size. We fished just fine, maneuverability etc, but I consider that to really be the maximum size of a SF that you can truely fish extremely well.....

Isn't the question then more the number of people fishing than the size of the boat?

No, the cockpit gets so large that your basically playing basketball running from one side of the cockpit then to the other side to get lines, clear lines, etc. I guess you could run two mates, but it seems to add more confusion. Especially when leadering a large fish that's going from one side of the transom to the other.

Then the other issue, is the SF get too big to get into and out of a lot of the marina's in various fishing holes. Maneuverability when fighting the fish also gets to be an issue too.

Many larger SF have two mates, and the anglers are highly skilled. In a tournament the whole boat is "mates".

Hadn't noticed this thread before, late to the party... and I don't play at the same tablestakes as many here... but...

Our "sportfish" is called a convertible, and has windows all round, portlights, hatches, bow rail, pulpit, anchor, etc. OTOH, the only serious fishing we do is in the Chesapeake in the early Spring season, so we don't need a tank. I'd guess the market is segmented; big bucks, big water, big fish, big tanks... or the rest of us... some who also cruise ("convertibles" or whatever) and some who don't (CCs popular).

Worked in mostly windowless buildings and underground vaults for 40+ years. Not claustrophobic, but a saloon without windows all round would be a deal breaker. I suspect window technology has advanced.

Ref rendering in post 40 and example in post 47: first, very nice! -- but ladders to the bridge are another deal-breaker for us. Our staircase works fine, the space it takes is trivial... and it means humping cocktails to the bridge is possible in one trip verses 27. (Wouldn't mind undercut risers, though. Maybe even a dumb waiter?) Anyway, not doing ladders anymore.

Seems to me as lengths increase, a raised pilothouse (i.e., with lower helm) would indeed be welcome for some, as long as forward sightlines from the flying bridge aren't compromised. Additional advantages might include direct access from pilothouse to sidedecks for line handling, more flexibility with living quarters below, and maybe a useful tender/dinghy location on the foredeck without interfering with sightlines from the pilothouse. Latter would in turn clear the transom for when simply cruising (assuming a tender might have been sometimes be lifted on the stern during non-fishing periods)

-Chris

Hi All,
Capt J, I wouldn't say the 100' is perfect for the job, however I was just suggesting for a big girl and a motor yacht style, she seemed to play nicely.
It seems a lot of boats that are still getting built on average are still around the 60-70'mark - guessing it seems to be the best of all worlds (overheads).

Chris, great post, I believe Spencer yachts built a SF with the wrap around window and looks great (Penta). I guess the SF is like an American muscle car - 2door - big motors, rear wheel drive. should you could make them more practical make 4door, smaller turbo engines and 4wheel drive - but it's now a family planner. Just a thought. Cheers

Far

Not from what I've been seeing. All of the Viking SF that have been selling are 72' and larger. All of the custom guys are building only over 70'. Merritts are just doing 82's and 86's and possibly a 72'. Bayliss, Jim Smith, ACY, and the likes are all building over 80'.....It seems like the large center console market has dominated the under 65' SF crowd. Hatteras mostly the large ones.

I did forget the 's' in there, My comments were 60'-79' ish and more based on the custom builders, as I don't have numbers of the productions builders. If you check out the builders recent splashes mid 60's seems to be the go - as predicted Capt J. Cheers

Far

Just looking at the Spencer 70 layout - the front saloon window opens up for a better layout, however still doesn't takeaway any valves of the SF. Jarrettbay did the same with the 46, plus added the bottom helm- still not taking away the SF valves.... Hang on, are the SF evolving again

Multitarget Gamefishing Boats?
http://www.yachtforums.com/threads/gamefishing-for-sail-under-sail-and-power.1548/

http://www.runningtideyachts.com/dynarig/

All in due time, when fossil fuels become scarce on the marketplace

Well thought out !!