What I wore to church today

White top: Sainsbury's
Waistcoat: Pagani (on sale)
Tweed skirt: thrifted
Shoes: thrifted
Necklace: Accessorize outlet store (on sale)

I'm kind of annoyed - I bought this waistcoat a few weeks ago and today was the first time I wore it and it's actually already too big for me.

The boat solution in action

The guys have been out a few times in the boat already, on the river and in the sea. They go up to Kawakawa Bay or Kaiaua where it's very sheltered and there is no swell. On their first fishing trip this is what they came home with:



An impressive catch of snapper! Grant was very happy. ("I caught a fish!!")



Here are some photos Grant took yesterday on the early fishing trip they took with the boys while I was at work. Before you go all health-and-safety on me, there is no swell, the kids are wearing life vests and the boat goes very slowly. The kids loved it; Noah couldn't stop grinning the whole way out.













They went out to the mussel farm (snapper eat mussels):







Yes, Noah's life vest is pink, but he doesn't mind! We managed to get a set of 4 (two adult and two kids') lifevests on TradeMe (like eBay) for less than what one would have cost in the store. We'll upgrade later but for now they're fine.

The boat solution part 2

Here's how Grant and Paul tricked out the boats. First of all, for those interested, here are the specs.

Small boat:



Big boat:



Here is how the big boat looked to start with, with one bench added (I don't have a shot of it totally naked):



They designed and cut plywood seats, ground the edges ...



... padded them and fastened indoor-outdoor carpet onto them:



Here's an unpadded, uncarpeted one being tested on the boat:



The seats are fastened on with ropes that have knots on the ends which snap into carabiner clips that stay on the boat:







Once the seats were done they moved onto the floors - one for each boat. They flipped the boats upside down and traced the floor area onto clear plastic and cut it out:



The pattern was then used to cut plywood floors:



Initially they experimented with fastening the floor to the boat with ropes through the loops that were already there, but in the end they didn't need the ropes as it stays put just fine without them:



The floors were stained black and edged with hose:



The floor of the big boat is in two parts which fit together like a puzzle before being inserted into the boat, which makes storing and handling it easier:



Here's the little one with the floor in:





You can see the floor in the big one here, as well as the rig for the outboard motor:







The middle seat holds the fish bin which is a plastic tub that they made a plywood lid for, with a lip around the edge to catch any spills when gutting fish:





In one of the photos above you can also see the rod holders they made, fastened to the middle seat. The boat does come with rod holders:



But they made extra ones out of PVC pipe:







The rod holders on the boat originally don't go to waste. They use one for an extra rod (as seen above) and the other is a handy place to stash the net:



Under the seat they have a plastic tub full of extra gear:



And don't worry, they do have oars in case the motor conks out!



The smaller boat is attached with rope which has been threaded through plastic pipes and fastened on with carabiner clips. The plastic pipes prevent the small boat from drifting into the motor as they slow:





The name of the boat is quite appropriate:



So there you have it, the pimped up, tricked out boats!



And how much space do they take up in storage? This much, which is significantly smaller than a regular boat:



The total cost has been around NZ$400 (US$302 / £193 / R2,529), which I think is pretty good for what they've managed to put together (the motor is on "permanent loan" to them which helped to bring costs down.)

I must admit, I started out kind of rolling my eyes as they talked about the two small boats and the jetski, but I've ended up being quite impressed with their ingenuity and the results. (And I'm quite looking forward to tooling around up and down the river or in the bay in the summer!)

The boat solution part 1

Grant was picking out which boat he wanted before we even got to New Zealand. It's free to dream, but not free to acquire a nice fishing vessel. And sadly there is no money available for big boats right now.

But rather than give up on the dream he and his fishing buddy (our neighbour Paul) decided to make a plan and make it happen.

Plan A

The original plan was to buy two inflatable rowboats, string them together and tow them out with Paul's jetski. Grant was very excited the day his boat arrived ...





... but soon realised that there wasn't much space in the boat once the chilly bin (cooler) and tackle box was added.



So it was on to Plan B. Not that the 2-man rowboat above would be wasted. Just watch and see.

Plan B

Along with the 2-man boat above they decided to buy a 6-man inflatable boat. Although the 2-man one is fairly robust, the 6-man one is even more so, made of the same sort of materials that surf lifesaving boats are made of.



It has three inflation chambers, which also makes it a little safer if it springs a leak - if one of the chambers punctures it will still float. Here's a shot of Grant pumping it up with Paul's air compressor:



Another bonus is that it is designed to take an outboard motor.



So they invested in a second-hand 2hp motor to go onto it:



Here is the entire rig, which has been all tricked out - you can see how they tow the smaller boat behind like a trailer for extra gear or children. (If the two of them go out fishing by themselves they don't take the smaller boat.) I will do a separate post detailing all of the modifications they have made.





Two happy fishermen!





More details on the modifications and specs, costs, and a post on their first couple of fishing trips coming up!