1..what time does the boat leave and from where?

2.How long to fishing grounds?

3.How long at fishing grounds?

4.What time do you head back? 

5.Any food provided? Thanks.

This has me screwed mate, I'd be fizzing to come, & $ not the issue, I'm just busting me balls with work and not sure I can fit it in, givin the location its pretty much the whole weekend screwed.

My question is this, is the date a dead set? its just there doesnt seem to be alot of interest sparked here, and its not that far off (not that I know how many PM's you may have got) and I guess if ya don't get the numbers its a no go.

Long story short, I'm 50/50 at the moment, but like ya thinkin. A month later and I'd be a definite.

 

The boat is 8.6 m, has twin 200 hp motors, needs to have 2 dedicated skippers for the survey and when it gets rough out there, which it can do real fast you appreciate being on a boat built to handle it and get back fast if need be.

 

True, you can do two Epic trips for one of these trips, but the below was the result of my first attempt at 'puka fishing, this fish went around 44 kg and could well be a fish of a lifetime...

 

It is up to each to make up their mind about the cost / value of a particular trip, I personally got excellent value for money in terms of the whole experience and the fish to take home.

 

 

 

 

That includes accomdation and tackle usage. You get out to the banks in less than hour and can fish for a full 8 -9 hour day and be bcak in the same day.

 

Like to see other bigger boats do something even remotely close.

 

Cheers

 

kevin

 

You have to come out and know the boat to know what this machine is capable of.

 

Have fished on numerous boats, would have to say that a day at ranfurly with Aaron on this machine has to be the best so far.

 

 

 

Good man, awesome fish mate.

 

 

 

Not for everone but for a fair few it is a privelege to fish this area and especially with Aaron.

 

I Look forward ot fishing with you at some stage if fate has it so.

 

Have fished with carl, awesome operator.

 

As mentioned no one is asking you to come out bud, you want to - feel free. Dont want to- last I checked no body was forcing anyone.

 

Cheers

 

kevin

 

Also have another trip leaving on the 26th aswel if you are keen for that one.

 

It all adds up mate.

 

It is a business also, needs to be profitable.

 

Cheers

 

Kevin

 

I totally agree, it isn't $3000.00 grand a day for Pursuit or Enchater, and they come down from Whakatane.

and you can fish with 6 guys comfortably on Pursuit and Enchanter to make the cost a bit cheaper.

And the day on the bank is a full day up at the break of dawn and back after dark.

Sounds like a meat hunt to me,

 

This is not being negative just the way I see it.

 

 

WTF??!! been sampling some local product there bro

I don't know many of the guys posting on this thread, including the guys doing the charters, but let's put some realism around some of the comments that are being thrown around. Whilst boats like Pursuit, Enchanter etc are really great operations, they cater for a different market to this operation. They can't usually take you to the Ranfurly for a days fishing for $600 per head because it is a 3 day trip for them. So even with a team on board and maybe a cost of $400 pp per day, that is still twice what these guys will cost. Personally I am not that keen to go out to the Ranfurly in a trailer boat as it is a pretty 'extreme' piece of water that can give you a severe beating without much warning. On the other hand, you can't run a launch out of Hicks (no fuel) so this is your 'one day trip' choice. 

As for the guys being expensive, I have done a few quick figures below based on roughly what I would expect their operation to cost to run etc. They may not be 100% correct, but I doubt that they are very far wrong either (except maybe the number of charter days which may be optimistic for the Ranfurly, but don't include some possible much cheaper coastal trips for snapper etc). 

Have a look through and you will see that for the work and risks involved, the returns, even at $3k per day, aren't making the owner/skipper rich. Guys like Epic etc running in more friendly waters getting say 200 days charter per year can quite literally be half the price purely because they get so many more fishable days, and also don't need to run two skippers, life rafts etc as is required at the Ranfurly. 

I am sure that this is not a perfect analysis, but you will get the idea at least.

Per day 'variable' costs

Engine hours - $150

Tagit's, on the other hand is gold.

 

 

 

$60k for a new pair of engines that might last 5000hrs if you are lucky. Add in regular maintenance at around 1000 per 100 hours and every hour they run costs you around $22 in 'engine costs'. Any residual value when the engines die might just cover the cost of the 'non-regular' maintenance such as new gearboxes because the original ones won't last 5000hrs in and out of gear holding you over your fishing spots.

Trust me HCG - I do these calcs every day for a living, and how much people like yourself (not trying to insult you in particular though) probably don't know about the real cost of running a boat and charter business would fill a pretty thick book.

 

He was running cascade and oracle for your knowledge. As far as you having not have heard of the boat, maybe it is because you actually dont fish that much as you are spending an awful lot of time disrupting others plans to go and fish.

 

Like i said before, no one has asked you to come out with us. I just reviewed a few other posts, funnily enough you posted similar remarks in your past endevour too when I posted up a trip last time. I think we silenced a lot of critics when we came home with the Heavy metal Jigging comp trophy from the TRAILER BOAT. There are sceptics out there and everyone is entitled to there opinion, I just suggest that you be mindfull of others too.

 

As far hours spent on the water are concerned, be rest assured that Aaron has spent countless hours on Big-small and every size in betweeen boat out at ranfurly.

 

I request that you please keep your comments to yourself unless you actually have factual evidence to do so.

 

The boat wasnt put in the water for you, you are more than welcome to jump on the big launches. I have done so too, but this option suits me and others that want to go out there for a day or two on a fast boat.

 

Have a good day and I am hoping that this will be the last I hear form you on this thread.

 

Cheers

 

Kevin

 

Cheers

 

Kevin

 algud bud, always like positive critics.

 

That price is for the boat only mate, not including accomdation and food.

 

I just tried to do a package deal so that it would be a lot easier than making individual bookings.

 

Cheers

 

kevin

 

Good man, hope you had great day as I have had a number of times with Aaron behind the wheel.

 

Cheers

 

kevin

HCG - in any service business it is important to understand the difference between your 'fixed' and 'variable' costs. Fixed costs are the bills you have to pay (interest, marketing, insurance etc) whether you take the boat out on a charter or not. These are the killers if you have a downturn in bookings, get sick, have a boat failure that takes time to fix, etc, etc. Variable costs are the costs like fuel, crew etc that you only pay when the boat goes out. These are the costs that get bigger or smaller based on the amount of charters you actually do. The difference between the charter price you charge and the variable costs is known as your 'gross margin, and this is what many people think of as the charter operators 'profit'. The reality is that in most of these businesses the fixed cost are as big or bigger than the variable costs and what you think of as 'profit' barely covers the fixed costs that you didn't think about.

Engine 'wear' is mostly a variable cost as they have a limited life expectancy that you chew a piece out of every time you use the boat. In very simple terms, that is why you need to count the cost of your engine hours in the way that I did.