Well you guys have offered help so I think I am going to take you up on your offer My Slickcraft is in need of setting up and I have never had a boat this big before and have only fished on ones this size twice so I'd like some advice from the experts. Here are some pictures of the way things stand right now:
Sitting in the drive way after picking her up
In storage next to some trailers (She looks a lot bigger next to them )
The electronics include: Lowrance X-135 ? Fishfinder, Motorola Marine Radio, C/Star Costal Navigator, Osprey Trolling Speed Indicator, and Autohelm SportPilot +
Cockpit overview: not perfect, but not bad for a 36 year old boat either
Stearn: I will be the first one to ever name her! The name? I haven't come up with the right one yet
Now for the rigging
The boat only came with 6 rod holders (3 per side) 4 of them are Titelocks the rear ones on each side are an older style that are mounted on a ball and have a wing nut that tightens the end down on the ball to hold them in place. The problem with these are that they still can rotate some even when tightened down. To prevent this, the previous owner ran a chain from the open end of the rod holder back to a stand off for the rail. The rear most rod holder is about 4ft. from the back of the deck. The next two rod holders are about 3ft. from those and are within 1ft. of each other. (See the picture below to get a visual of the set up).
Right now I am planning on making some replacements for the rear holders (I have full access to a tool shop), or buying some if I find them for the right price (anyone? ). Also, I'm not sure about the whole spacing of the holders. On my old boat, I only ever ran one leadcore and one dipsey per side. Right now I have 4 leadcore set ups and 2 dipseys, but I'm not sure I want to run 2 leadcores per side, especially if the holders are that close together. I'm open to opinions and ideas.
Next for the rigging list is downriggers. Right now I have in my possession 6 workable downriggers. I have 2 old style Rivieras, the ones that the wire runs over top of the rigger arm. I have two newer Rivieras that the wire runs under the arm (they are old enough that they do not have clutches). For these, I have two bases, but I am considering making (or buying new from Riviera) bases for the other two. I have also considered converting the older downriggers to the newer style to reduce the chance of the cable coming of the pulleys and such. All of the Rivieras are manual, have 4ft arms on them, and all have working counters.
Next I recently purchased two Proos downriggers,both with 3ft. arms. One is an electric model, and one is manual. I tried the electric one and it seems to work fine other than the "clutch" plate not being tight enough. The manual rigger is in a little worse shape. It is missing the pulley that fits on the actual counter, and the rivet that goes trough the large pulley on the end is broken. Both of these are relatively easy to replace.
So, now for the questions.
Which and how many downriggers would you choose to keep, or would you get some different used ones (new down riggers really don't fit in my budget and there are enough used ones for sale that I could find almost any brand and type in good shape). Electric downriggers are appealing because they are very handy especially if I go fishing by myself. Opinions?
Next, how would you mount the downriggers? The Proos riggers do not have any swivel bases (again I plan on making my own or buying a used pair for the right price). If I were to mount only 2 down riggers, mounting them strait to the boat would be easy because the gunnels are flat. However, if I were to do corner and boom riggers, I would most likely need to mount them on a rigging board because the stern has a slope on it. Would you go with 1 downrigger per corner or 2?
Next, rod holders and spacing. Would you leave them where they are, add more, or just change the position?
The last thing is my autopilot. According to the previous owner, the autopilot on the boat is broken. I haven't had the boat on the water yet so I haven't tested it myself. I downloaded the manual from Raymarine's website and looked through it. My first thought is that it might need to be calibrated again for some reason. Other than that, all I know is that Raymarine doesn't service the units anymore so if it is something really bad, I am out of luck.
Anyways guys, thats my boat and the situation. Feel free to comment and give your opinions because as I said, this is the first boat I have ever owned of this size and I'd like to get the setup right the first time.
