the stern on the 420 is so wide, and has those upturned sections that raise the boat as the wash hits the back that i never had more then a bucketful come over the back, despite alot of neglectful stopping. 

as far as being wet. well there are certainly dryer boats around. but in that length? you'd not often drive a boat that size the same way in similar conditions. should have never sold mine!

 

i wonder if i could get a fisherman top and cables all set up for 3k  or how much for double console top and clears, cables all set up.

 

i like the openness of the cc and in good weather i am gunna have a lot of fun this summer. so i will put her up for sale next year sometime

I knew a guy who had an extreme 460 and he kept spending on it and it owed him 50k in the end, lot of coin for a small boat. when he traded up he got 25k, oucch, mind you he had money to burn.

Negatives were the cost of running it (115hp Johnson 2 stroke) and the spray you WOULD take on in anything but the calmest conditions.

All in all though if it wasn't for the running $$ I wouldn't have sold it.  

 

I suggested to mac they try and convert the 5.7 to cabin status and have a berth in it for a nap'

 

question?, is it the deeper v the more fuel usage and boats like the mac very shallow use less fuel

Sure its not cheap on gas but still affordable, I'd rather pay a little more each trip than cop the difference between buying a 4 stroke instead.

We've removed the seats & fitted a 160L icey tec in the centre of the deck now & with a padded top it doubles as a seat big enough for the x4 of us,

moved the bait board back about 250mm,awesome fishing room now.

Havent go wet yet, but Im not as tall as you and duck if I see it coming

Just need the weather to clear now.....

Best thing is its so quite to fish from even with our 8 & 10 year old boys banging & crashing around.

Hope ya like your new boat Mate.

Cheers.

Very happy with the new craft but your on the money about the weather its been a real SOB for the last few weeks, I'm hanging out to to get out and drop a line! 

it handled it , but I did notice it started to scuff and become noticeable. question, anyone ever been swamped or do you reckon they are unsinkable,is there such a thing as a unsinkable boat, it certainly puts your mind at rest to know you have a duck underneath you and not a chicken.

Had to laugh when this old gezza tells me to stat bailing with this 1ltr bucket.. only took a couple hundred bails. We got some snapper though 

They could capsize though, but you'd be trying hard to do so. Even then they should float inverted indefinitely. There's at least one documented case of a well known brand Aluminium pontoon craft capsizing and sinking when swamped by a following sea so the foam is worth the hassle IMO.

http://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/Publications-and-forms/Accidents-and-investigations/Accident-reports/Big-Johnson-041150-mnz-accident-report2004.pdf" rel="nofollow - http://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/Publications-and-forms/Accidents-and-investigations/Accident-reports/Big-Johnson-041150-mnz-accident-report2004.pdf

 

I took my partner and baby of 6 months for a ride one nite to drop off some pots, and I didn't really know the area,[10 years ago], same year as accident] the misses was at the wheel when I was throwing the pots and we drifted into that danger zone 1.5 mtr waves from know where, I just dived for the wheel and smashed head on thru them, got out, but could have gone the other way. I beat myself up for a while as I didn,t do my home work.

 

I have heard of a lot of boats splitting and sinking, I surpose I am glad I have a mac as even if it capzises it will be a big life bouy and it would be relatively easy to get on top of it.  I think they have worked out that buoyancy in the deck can be  dangerous,bouyancy in the gunnels is the key, and heaps of it.

I don,t think there would be a safer boat than a mac

 

Metre for metre, Macs, Zegos, Smartwaves, inflatables and RIBS are as safe as small boats get IMO. If I ever get an Aluminium pontoon made I'll ask to have the top half of the pontoons foam filled. 

So what if they're wet? It's just water. You can dry off at home, at least you can be sure that you'll get there. 

I think most stability tests are done in controlled conditions, not in significant wave heights of 1m, which means that every couple of hours you get a wave of about 2m on average. Then there's the effect of waves coming off the reef etc. I think the report said that the conditions where marginal for any boat of that size. It was the sudden loss of power and steerage combined with a bit of panic whilst trying to restart that did them in I guess. 

Still if they'd been on a Arancia IRB or a Thundercat they would have gotten home in one piece. I can't help but think a Mac 420 would have gotten them home as well. Or any boat with positive flotation, which theirs had in theory at least. I'm guessing that some of the welds popped, or something, but we will never know for sure except that if the pontoons had remained watertight the boat wouldn't have sunk.

I think that what happened would have rolled most boats given the 4 men on the one side and a couple of huge dumpers from the reef filling the boat. the Tradegy is that it sunk. all the modern boats today are validated with air bouancy, wip de doo.When you are in a rough sea and you get smash and half the side of the boat is ripped, and it can happen. What do you want.  AIR BOUANCY or good old foam or plastic that you know has positive bouancy.  If I am going alloy it has to be heavy guage from know on and lots of sealed air compartments.

my Grand father drowned at sea and I have had a couple of near misses so the report has hit home a bit, I surpose the macs are hard to beat in safety but they are still bludy wet.

Two pontoon type craft: 

1. Stabicraft Capsize on Raglan bar but stayed afloat. 

2. The above capsize and later sinking. (Maybe a couple of hours after capsize, it's not clear exactly, but sufficient time to call for help with a PLB or VHF.)

Three older fibreglass boats.

1. Sea Nymph Hustler hit by wave on Manakau bar, rolled and sunk due to insufficient or compromised flotation.

2. Collision and ejection of crew on Tekapo.

3. Foundering of Glasskraft Envoy near Wanganui. (Probably caused by leaks into flotation void.)

Two regular cuddy cabin style Aluminium boats.

1. Ramco 6m boat Hit by 2m+ wave beam on and capsized near shore.  

2. McLay boat capsized while trying to tow above Stabi out of trouble. Bad decisions, not the boats fault.

And a couple of tinny dinghies.

1. Overloaded dinghy foundered on lake 20m from shore when swamped by wash. No lifejackets, no fatalities.

2. Fyran 4m dinghy/runabout with poorly repaired leaks and excess weight at the back sunk. Both on board died.

I know that these reports are just a tiny sample, but I don't recall any cases of a Mac, RIB, IRB or Smartwave actually sinking. All the media coverage of boat accidents seems to cover at least some of the same old: marginal boat, overloaded, no lifejackets, no communication, alcohol, poor decisions, bad luck. 

I gotta feed of trevs and moki on sunday, got a couple of big lemons too.

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