A lesson on how to keep it all shipshape

I AM the very proud owner of a pleasure craft.

Nothing too flash, mind. It’s a relatively small aluminium boat that has delivered a lot of recreational joy as well as some insight into the pitfalls of boating design and use.

I thought I would pass on some of those experiences and lessons for others to consider.

I should say at the outset that I am no expert.

My dad was. He built three beautiful timber boats, one a 7m sailing craft and two others, 3m fishing boats.

He also got part- way through rebuilding on old lifeboat salvaged from Ross Creek.

Dad used to marvel at the lines and curves of that heavy, fat- looking, clinker- design timber boat.

Sadly, that project was never completed.

We sold “the ark”, as we called it, to a young enthusiast for $ 20 after dad passed away.

But I feel certain it would have been a far more seaworthy craft than many built today, especially in the aluminium class.

My son and I bought a new 5m aluminium Quintrex thinking this would be suitable for both creek and coastal use. We were wrong.

A minor issue in a seat housing prompted a friend and I to unscrew and remove part of the boat’s wooden floor.

It was a good thing we did because it opened a veritable can of worms.

After about five years of use many of the welds in ribbing and bulkheads were broken and the bulkheads turned out to be freestanding struts supporting the floor.

A local fabrication shop came to our rescue, for a pretty penny, by rewelding broken joins and strengthening the hull by installing extra metal struts and extensions to the bulkheads.

We were told this was a common problem and that they had seen far worse, leading to breaks in welds to hulls.

It was a good thing the problem was revealed to avoid potential disaster at sea.

In future, on those coastal trips, we will go easy on the boat to try and preserve the hull from damage.