id say for the type of fishing your looking at getting into you would want something at least 5m. i would anyway. used to push the old 4.4m past its limits but was scary as hell and u definatly have to know wat your doing. price range would help to?

5 Metre centre console gives you plenty of deck space,there are plenty of good brand name boats out there ,Barcrusher,Stacer,Quintrex.to name a few there are also a few decent boat on this site for sale at the moment.But as Dreamtime said price range is always a good thing

Greg, 4 -4.5mtr would be ok here in Bunno,I have a mate with a tinny that size and he does quite well.Its easy to handle with 1 guy not to heavy to tow ,you can rip down to port Geo for crabs ,squid and KG's also fish the estuary, good for the rivers further south etc.Having said that he wont go to far out offshore furtherest he will go would be out to say the 25 mtr depth and he has caught plenty of Dhuies. If you wanted to fish further out than that or in deeper water i would go like the other guys have said 5 - 6mtr.Mine is 5.8mtr and we will go 40 odd NM on a good day the thing with Bunno is that we are in the hook of the bay and its a fair steam to get into deeper water say 35mts plus it maintains that depth for quite a ways until you are out level with the cape then you start to see some bigger dropoffs etc. You have to watch the N/Westerly as it can bring a nasty swell and the same if you are out a ways and the S/Westerly springs up. Personally i would like 2 boats 1 around 4mtrs and the one i have but cash and space is the issue.Bring on the lotto win eh.Anyway hope that helps a bit.

Cheers

Willo

Thanks heaps guys. Was thinking I might have been dreaming with a boat that small but wasn't sure how quickly it dropped off here and haven't really looked at any charts yet. Looking at around the 10,000 mark but probably no more. So might look for something around the 5m range. Anyone had any experience launching boats that size by themselfs? Thinking it might get a bit tricky.

Cheers Greg

I often launch mine by myself mate and it just requires a bit of time prepping and making sure you know what has to happen BEFORE you try and do it.

Get reasonably close to the jetty (without driving the trailer off the ramp - that's hard to get out, trust me) tie the boat to the jetty and then push her off gently (a long rope helps here) then go up to the jetty and tie it up tight.

When you're retrieving, if you don't have wooden platforms on your trailer so you can walk on it to hook it up,your gonna get a little wet so if you don't mind that you're sweet. I just dock my boat on the jetty, tie it up reasonably close to the boat ramp (remember to lift the engine haha done a few scrapes) and reverse your trailer in, this is where I have a few extra meters of winch line past my trailer, I just hook it up to the winch, unhook the rope holding the boat to the jetty from the front cleet and winch her on. With a strong current it's bloody hard but someone will generally give you a hand if you ask or they see you struggle.

That is unless your trailer enables you to drive it on, in which case your much better at manouvering than me haha.

Just don't do what I saw one guy do and stand INFRONT of the boat, give it an almighty pull towards him by the rope and have the boat steamroll him straight into the trailer, was a good laugh but pretty dangerous!!

Best of luck champ!

I got a 4.5 runabout ali with a honda 50, tank under floor, extended transom etc, built 2000, exactly what your coin would get. I have never ventured further than 3 mile offshore and up to 10kn winds is ideal 15 max. Anything will tow it, easy to move around by hand, easy to launch and retrieve by yourself. No reason why I cant go further out on calm days but I dont have an epirb and dont need to travel far offshore to get dhus and pinks and troll up the vtails etc. Just limited with space for fishin buddies. Perfect for myself and the big esky (ambitious) but ideal for 1 other, still can take the mrs and kids (2) comfortably too. A bigger boat for your money will mean less other things. Center consoles are the gofor dedicated fishing vessels tho. You may need coin for other stuff that the ideal boat might not come with like good sounder/plotter etc. Good hull and good outboard, the rest are bonuses

I've gotta sell my barely used (3 times since all new) Sea Jay Magnum 4.55m boat and am looking for a minimum of 9 grand.I fitted a centre console and a Lowrance sounder/GPS combo blah blah..in Vic though.

We are looking at selling out Quintrex 475 Coastrunner which sounds pretty similar to what your looking for, its on gumtree if you want to have a proper look at it :)

G'day Greg welcome to the site, I'm also in Buno.

I have a 4.8m Quintrex and have no problems launching and retrieving that size by myself. I have been out to the 30-32mtr mark on good days and like others have said, you just need to keep an eye on the weather. It's a long way home if it gets ugly......Having said that though, there is plenty of ground in a lot closer, just need to make the time and sound around.

I find this size if perfect for my use at the momement around this area, small family, river fishing, chasing crabs in the Estuary or harbour and offshore fishing with 3 blokes is no problems and is easy to travel/tow for weekends away and also fits in the shed out of the weather.

Good luck finding you new toy!

Hey mate, I live in Australind just out of Bunbury and about a year ago was looking around for a long time trying to decide what sort of boat to go for. I wanted something small enough I could fit it under the car port, tow it around easily and launch / retrieve solo. I also wanted to be able to get out offshore a fair distance chasing Dhu / Snapper without having to worry about reliability or if I was going to be able to get home if the weather kicked up.

I ended up finding a fibreglass 17ft Haines Hunter V17R in great nick but with a dodgy old outboard on it. It was owned by an older couple who had owned it for years and hardly ever used it outside of the odd trip to a freshwater dam to tow the kids around on biscuits. Hull and transom where solid as a rock. I picked it up for $5k, spent another $10k on a brand new outboard. Also installed epirb, radio, dual batteries etc. Put a good sounder on it and have never looked back.

Glad I did cause the weathermans not always on the money and I have been caught out offshore a long way from home in some really ugly seas but have never been worried about getting home. The old deep V fibreglass hulls like the V17 really handle the rough well, it rides like a much larger boat when conditions get ugly and is very capable when it comes to punching through chop or getting home in a following sea. With a solid deep V hull, new reliable outboard and spare battery / fuel it certainly removes some of the stress from heading out offshore on a budget.

It can be a bit expensive to do it all yourself like I have but if you buy one that someone else has spent money on restoring you can find some great bargains. When I sell mine later this year I will probably only be asking around $12k-$14k for a boat that should be safe and trouble free for years to come. I think if you can find any of the older fibreglass boats like Pacemakers, Chivers, Penguin, Haines Hunter etc with a great nick hull and a new outboard you can't really go wrong.

What motor did you go for on the v17? How does it perform? Great boat but they do love lots of horses.

Yep. Love mine but I am running 150 hp.

Cheers all, great to get so much useful feedback. So I've decided to keep an eye out for something in the 4.5m range now that I know guys are launching then solo and getting out to a good depth without any issues. I'm in no hurry to buy so gonna keep my eye out till xmas and see what i can find that suits me. Been hearing good things about the quintrex millenium hulled boats, so might look for one of those at a reasonable price.

Also the coastrunner looks really nice elliotbirch but a bit out of my price range unfortunately.

Cheers again all.

Greg