Have you been putting off buying that big boat for quite some time now? Do you keep getting reminded about the more important things in life like mortgages, school fees, rates, power bills and oh, how the list goes on? Or what about the need to have a good investment for your future, maybe a negative geared property or perhaps low risk shares like BHP (oops, low blow that one). Th en you remind yourself about the friend, neighbour or family member who sadly died too young and the realisation that we only have a limited time to make the most of life, springs you into action.
Now I have written many an article about Jungle Jim Nilsson, maybe a few too many in recent times, but that’s because we have done a lot of fi shing together. So when he phoned me last week to ask me to help him draft up an advertisement to sell his 6.4 metre custom built ally plate fi shing boat, I was somewhat surprised. Jim had spent quite some time, back in 2008, researching to have the right boat for the south west conditions. When he was not entirely happy with the trailer that came with the boat, in 2012 he then purchased, for $11,500, a new custom built aluminium trailer with the revolutionary ‘boat catch’, to make launching and retrieval at his favorite haunt, Gnarabup boatramp, a breeze.
Like most decent off shore fi shing boats, it has all the tweeters and woofers to make fi shing safer and easier. Th e walk around deck with a centre cabin provides ample fi shing for three when drift ing and with a builders plate for up to eight people, if anchoring they could all be accommodated, but who wants to go fi shing with seven mates? Other features include positive fl otation, deck wash, fl ush deck, anchor winch (joy for the deckie), 150hp Evinrude (260 hours), colour echo sounder, VHF radio, 200+ litre fuel tank and the list goes on. So I asked the obvious question, which was why was he selling it and the simple answer was he reckons it is time to downsize. Because Jim is sometimes just a little technologically disadvantaged, I naturally asked if he would like a hand to download all his GPS fi shing waypoints, which, of course, I could store in a very safe location, namely my GPS. Funnily enough he did not take up the off er and assured me that any possible purchaser would have to do the hard work he had done for many years to fi nd their own fi shing spots.
I did, however, talk Jim into throwing in some of the quality safety gear he had purchased from me over the years, including GPS EPIRB, Stormy infl atable lifejackets, safety barrel and off shore fl ares. I assured him that this would be more attractive to any prospective buyer, but he understood my ulterior motive was that it would mean him purchasing it off me all over again for any future boat. So there you have it for anyone thinking of upsizing, as opposed to downsizing. Ring Jim on 0427 572 498, check it out on Gumtree or Boatsonline, listed as- Evolution 6.4m Warrior Series Custom Built, 2008, Centre Cabin, 5mm ally plate. Asking price $65,000, but tell Jim I sent you and I know you’ll get it cheaper.
To answer last week’s question, Twisties were invented in 1950. Th is week’s question is, ‘How many times already this year, would a skipper have been rescued much quicker using VHF Channel 80 in the Capes region?’