How do you use your convertible/sportfish?

There hasn't been a fish on my boat since I bought it many years ago. Admittedly, there has been Blue Crabs and Beer but they weren't caught but rather bought.

I'd love to hear why you chose a SF with no plans to use it for fishing.

Hi O.B., I like the look of S.F. style and their seaworthiness ( real or imagined ) . The boat suits our purposes perfectly for where we use it. Probably a little bit overkill, in fact.

Well, you're certainly not alone in that regard. I've run across a lot of people who just not interested in anything else. Also run across people who wanted a Viking and that's all they were offering or wanted a Hatteras and just didn't like their MY's. I think too there has just been a lot of good boat building in the SF end of the industry. Look at the custom builders on the east coast.

Our convertible suits us, and it happens I do "fish" a little. Only in the Spring, only trolling, only during our "trophy" rockfish (striped bass) season... and mostly as the seasonal systems check. Buds care about fish, so they're free crew... and I get to enjoy exercising the boat.

Wouldn't mind more inside accommodation, but don't want to be without a cockpit... and suitable CPMYs just never showed up. Also, our fore and aft sightlines from the helm are excellent, unlike many of the sport bridge/sedan bridge, MY, or trawler models. Since we eschew guests (don't get to use that word often enough), the internal space arrangement works fine for us.

Larger models usually offer more staterooms, but if we were ever to go larger we'd want only a full-beam master stateroom and a forward stateroom (centerline berth)... IOW, more staterooms isn't an attraction, for us. A boat that size would likely come with a third stateroom anyway, but I'd probably use that as office space.

-Chris

This too.

I've had owners buy SF that never fished for a few reasons. They liked the rough water capability and speed of a SF, the looks, the open cockpit for other water activities like diving, bbq'ing, and of course the excellent visibility of the bow/sides/stern on most of them.

Although our Tiara open isn't the offshore battle wagon that some of the big convertibles are, we chose it for its hull design and sea keeping ability (along with our budget). Our old Tiara Sovran, along with a lot of other production express boats are geared towards more fair weathered cruisers. They have made the hulls a bit bulbous trying to get more interior volume which is a large trade off in a head sea. Although its got live wells, dead wells, bait wells etc, the boat has never been fished and most of those compartments are filled with cleaning supplies and cruising gear. The only time the boat is involved in fishing and the factory rod holders get used is when we're grilling some swordfish in the cockpit as I have a rod holder mount on my grill...

Love the lines on a SF, and.................heck of a lot easier to board.

70/30 in favor of cruising.
That's because a fishing trip takes a lot of time and planning.

But 50% of the 70% really isn't cruising. It's maintenance and hanging out.

Not an owner. But I've seen people put a nice table where the fighting chair used to be with chairs. Also see an aft sunshade that extends almost all of the way to the transom a lot of times. Have even seen outdoor carpet in the cockpit before.

When we replaced the back deck, we removed the fighting chair entirely. Removed the riggers too. The deck is a nice place to be when anchored out. Carpet on the floor is not a good idea unless you roll it up and stow it every time you leave.

my family has a 38 ft ocean SS that we use 70 % cruising and 30 % fishing down here in Trinidad in the southern Caribbean. We normally do atleast one trip a year to the grenadines, which is 150 miles north of us, and we would spend a week to 10 days island hopping and staying on the hook. There are a number of reasons that we chose a sport fish over a motor yacht.
- I love the look of a flybridge sportfish
- sport fish boats usually have better sea keeping than a similar size motor yacht, down here in the southern caribbean the seas arent exactly the calmest and with our busy schedule we don't get the luxury of picking our days when we are going on a trip. Unless its downright dangerous conditions, we are going
- greater fuel capacity and therefore greater ranger for cruising
- engine room is usually larger and more accessible for maintenance
- large open cockpit is great for socializing and having a bbq, watching the kids swim etc
- we normally raft up with other sportfish boats and its nice to be at the same level in the back to socialize and hop between boats etc
- the added height of the flybridge is great for navigating through the reefs, and provides overall better visibility than an express.
- for larger sportfish boats the large fore-deck is great place to store a large tender , and then to hang out with a couple of deck chairs once you launch the tender

as others have said above, there are many sportfish owners down here in Trinidad who have big bertrams and hatterases, who never even wet a line

Nothing different. No changes to interior. Never had a fighting chair. After our very short bout of fishing in the Spring, we put the cockpit carpet down and become cruisers. (Carpet is made for being outside all the time, tries quickly, clean it occasionally with just a powerwasher, adds a nice bit of cushioning compared to bare fiberglass.)

Sometimes we use the cockpit for lounging, mostly when the angle of sunrise or sunset dictates, with various sorts of comfortable folding chairs and tables... otherwise we usually hang out up on the bridge. Also, I can easily use our portable propane BBQ grill in the cockpit...

-Chris

Hi Ranger,
I was referring to the possible issue of blisters on the deck if the carpet was left there wet or water between the carpet and the deck. It would stink turn back the carpet and see a case of acne beginning.

Haven't had that problem.

The original carpet sucked; had some black rubber backing that peeled off during the aging process, got ground into the non-skid. Pain in the a$$ to get it off. The newer carpet has a different kind of backing, no issues so far and I think the oldest segment of that stuff is 4 years old now. And that's the actual cockpit carpet; we have some of the same stuff on the flying bridge and covering the Amtico (faux wood in the galley and head, mostly for cushioning.

In any case, over the 10+ years, no blistering. Given full sunlight, the carpet dries in about a half-day anyway...

-Chris

Got it, sounds like a nice set up.