Hi guys, I have started talking about this boat in the other Allenco boat thread, "Captains Dreamtime", but as that is mostly about my 5.5m side consol, I thought I would start putting progress pics etc of the 8m boat, the "Ramonalola", that is to head up to the Solomons as soon as it is finished here on its own thread.
A review. I have for a long time wanted a good Me sized boat for fishing in the Solomons, I go to a resort called Zipolo Habu (google it if you want), and they use the now traditional yamaha longboat style boats for their fishing charters. These are great boats, but are a little lacking in beam and gunnel height for my liking, and are also pretty damn basic.... pretty much every time I go out, I think "Damn I wish I had my boat here!", but kiwi boats tend to have cabins and hardtops, or as they can be called in the solomons "Saunas"- the Sols are the natural home for centre consol boats, lots of air, good old outboard powered air conditioning.
However, I have come to have a bit of a dislike of centre consols. The huge plus of recovering all the waste space that is a cabin and foredeck on your average kiwi boat is to my mind bashed about a lot by the fact that for the larger posteriored, such as myself, moving around a centre consol means awkward shuffling, hanging on to canopy frames for support, and generally a lack of comfy seating.
The layout I far, FAR prefer is a side consol. I will pop in a pic or two of my 5.5m Allenco here now to demonstrate...


As you can see, with the side consol (with consols off set to allow for a better thru flow from helm seat to bow) you have a way better fore-aft access up the balanced and stable centre of the boat, without having to shuffle side ways around a centre consol, on the tippy outside of the boat. It is SO much nicer!
You still recover the cabin and bow space for fishing or seating, as per pics, you have lots of comfy seating, it is way easier to run controls etc to a side consol than a centre consol...to me it is just way more practical.
So that is the basic layout I have decided to use for the larger 8m version of this boat I am sending to the islands.
The boat is to be built on the same general hull... Allencos 6.2m hull The 5.5m is a shortened version of it, the 8m is lengthened. This is mainly so that it can still fit into a container to be shipped up there, but also the beam is sufficient for comfort, the extra length will just add more stability and efficiency to the hull, so that hopefully I will be able to power the boat with 2 x 90hp Suzukis.
If, on trials here in NZ, they are not sufficient, then I will pop 140s on her.

Anyhow, that is some of the background on the boat, here are a few pics of the built process to date....
The boat has, as I stated before, a raised floor to make it self draining, as boats live on mooring up there, and bilge pumps can never be relied on. Also in the interests of safety and unsinkability, we have the sides sealed as "pontoons", to give gunnel high floatation, also something I have on my 5.5m boat and something I personally feel should be compulsory in all boats really.
She will be a very basic boat electronically... no bilge pumps (no need for one), no wash down pumps, although MAY put in a pitot feed pipe for a hose so we can use say an ice bin for a livie tank. I ditched the planed live bait tank in the transom, it just wasn't something I felt would be used enough to justify having, instead that has become the battery box etc. Another decision that was easy to make.
Other electronics will just be basic nav lights, a sounder/gps - a Simrad NSS9 Evo 2 to be precise, so I can have structure scan, regular sounder, CHIRP sounder and maps all in the one unit. And a VHF.  No sound system, no cockpit or deck lights, nothing else to corrode, fail and give grief.
Hydraulic steering too.

This is the boat with floor (self draining) and for'ard raised casting deck in place, having just had the hull fully welded etc, being flipped back over to allow fit-out to continue. The lass in the pic is the daughter of the resorts owner in the Solomons, Ramona, who the boat is named after. Shows the size of the boat quite nicely though I think! :-)
....must dash, will post more pics up in a few hours when I get back.... ttfn.
OK, to continue....

This is how she stands at the moment, the consols are in, we are just nutting out seating for the helm, and the other seating etc.

To allow enough room for helm seating, and to give me more storage for tackle boxes etc, I have replaced the forward facing double seat with a shelved bench as pictured here. This way tackle boxes are nice and high, you dont need to bend double to get stuff out of them, and the forward facing seat would have been too cramped to be comfy anyhow.
The limited space aft of the consols is because up in the islands, the bulk of my fishing will be casting forward and out the sides, poppering etc, The greatest amount of fishing space is forward....
... tons of room for fishing from the raised fore deck, as well as immediately aft of it, standing basically where that ice bin is. We had a very agricultural looking throne on the foredeck, it was enormously practical , but looked like crap, so it has been cut off, and we are going to put in something far more nicely designed.
Under the deck, the central part will have a hatch, it is waterproof and long enough to store safely rods etc, so that if going to town and tying up on a dock, rods etc can be locked away from prying eye and acquisitive fingers. The side spaces will be open, and good for other storage, particularly fuel, each side can comfortably take two tote tanks, giving 6 tanks for longer trips.
Note...the side rails are no on yet.
The cockpit space though is more limited...

However, it is still more than enough to fish comfortably out of. At most only one person will be casting from back here, it really is just a sitting down type fishing space, trolling or bottom fishing. For this it is good, the rods are nice and close to hand, it is only about 1.2m from the back of the seats to the transom, fighting fish from the seats will be very easy indeed.
You can see the pods there for the twin 90hp motors as well.
The aft facing seating will be upholstered to soften the bleak construction of alli, but we have also added gunnel arm rests, partly because they are damn comfy like that, partly to give a handy little dryish storage for folks' ciggie packets etc, and other needful things, and also to increase the spray protection for those sitting there...

The seat beside the helm position, my seat (as up there you have a local driver you see, so you can yell at them when they hit bommies) is to be a swivelling pedestal seat as well. This means the elimination of the forward facing double seat planned on the port side (as above, the starboard one is also gone to make that bench space)....

 it too has that raised arm rest of the aft facing seats, to maintain consistency in the look of the boat, leaving a gap on the gunnel however so that when swiveled to face backwards, I can have more space to bottom fish from.
By losing the forward facing seat there it has given me the chance to put in two nice and VERY handy shelves for tools, lures, hooks, that sort of stuff. Everything is a compromise, but that is a good one I think.
I am a bit sorry to lose the two forward facing cockpit seats, but what the hell, the boat is after all designed for me and a couple of mates to fish from, if more people come along than 3 plus a driver, then they can sit on the ice bin or up for'ard, anywhere really, there is still a ton of room in the boat.
Well, more pics when they come available, cheers all, Stu.

Keep the pics coming. Loving these creative builds

Must have shares in Allenco by now Capt.... it's all looking pretty sweet...will continue to follow...

You in a Mankini stu conjures up a disturbing picture in my head,please ,pretty please find 2 suitably experienced models to take your place

Captain we want you to give us a report on the boat.

Don, you're a very sick puppy if you'd want to see Stu (un)dressed like that..

naked rsoles, they look like very solid wee puppies. a tribute to the craftsman welder.

hey stu, you bringing the 5.5 to the boat show?

rockz wrote: hey stu, you bringing the 5.5 to the boat show? will harvey have any boats there?

I was talking with Harvey earlier on today and apart from possibly having a quick look around the boat show he won't have anything on show .

With maxnmel perhaps? Hopefully I will be up at the show on the Friday, but that is all.