Looking for something to do one day a couple of months ago l made the mistake of going down to Northside Marine for a look around.
I had a bit of a look at their Surtees and Stabicraft aluminiums then I noticed a nice looking new fibreglass cabin cruiser. Well, three of them actually.
On closer inspection I found they were all from the Merry Fisher range by Jeanneau, a French brand owned by Beneteau.
There was a 6.95 metre, a 7.95 metre and a 10.95 metre. I liked them all but went away not thinking seriously of buying one. Until I found myself back there a few days later. And a few days after that. Before I knew it I was thinking about which extras l'd want if I bought one and getting prices for them.
Eventually I bit the bullet and put a deposit on a new Merry Fisher 795 Series 2 cabin cruiser. I then spent weeks going to Northside Marine almost every day, watching the accessories I chose being fitted, the engine installed and the boat going through water tests to check everything worked as it should.
I took delivery of her about three weeks ago now. I've only been out in her twice so far. The first time was during the handover as the dealer gave me a rundown of the electronics etc. I've been busy since working out where to put things, sorting out mooring lines, fenders etc.
The second time was about two weeks ago. A mate and I decided to venture over near Tangalooma for the night. Unfortunately the B.O.M forecast was up to its usual standard, and the predicted less than ten knot breeze was gusting 10 to 15 knots, if not more. It was also coming from a totally different direction. Consequently, the seas were at least a metre, with big holes every tenth wave or so. Whitecaps were everywhere. We decided to keep going anyway and it took an hour or more to reach Tangalooma, as we found the best speed was around 19 kmh. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stick to that speed because we had to keep altering the revs and speed as the engine is run in. So sometimes we were well off the plane and chugging along, and other times we were going too fast for the conditions, and hitting those big holes with a thud. I’ll be glad when it’s run in. It is actually very difficult to do any running in, in rough water.
We eventually dropped the anchor over a bit of rough bottom, and spent the night there, a couple of kilometres off Tangalooma. We started catching fish straight away, mostly undersized grassies and Moses perch. After dark the small squire moved in. We kept getting bites until around 11pm then it all went quiet. Over the course of several hours we managed to boat 3 or 4 legal grassies, a few legal Moses and a 58 cm’ish slatey bream. We also lost a few much larger fish. We also failed to hook a few more. There was definitely enough action to entice us back there again on a future trip.
The wind blew all night and unfortunately it was mostly from the SSW, which made conditions more uncomfortable than the predicted easterly would have. We awoke around dawn and dropped a line again, but the whippy tails had moved in and we decided to head home to clean the fish. Overall, it was a successful first trip. Hopefully there will be many more.
i realise I have much to learn about the new electronics and other goodies onboard. Auto-pilot, radar, fishpoint, track point, joystick, etc etc.
Only further trips will fix that.
