Why no lower Helm on Sportfishers?

Good question. I would like to know as well...


Dan

+1........

You may have noticed that big hunk of fiberglass where the forward windows are on your lower helm yacht. It's there because it's not uncommon for a sportfisher to stuff his bow through a wave that you wouldn't want to even see on TV. Sport fishermen are fanatics who salivate at the words blue marlin, and would trade the wife and kids (OK maybe just the wife) for a shot at a swordfish. Dying doesn't matter. My friend sits out off Nantucket for a week through whatever weather comes along in his 36 footer in the slim hopes of landing a Giant Tuna. That forward f/g shield is there just to buy enough time to land the fish. Personally, I don't fish anymore(for a number of reasons), but most guys can understand the passion. It's a Hemmingway thing; a "Guy Thing". Me, I've been there done that. Now as I get older I'd just as soon hang in the calm waters entertaining those left behind wives...... Only kidding Hon.
P.S. Sorry ladies. Before you bury me, my tongue if firmly planted in my cheek. Love you and respect you. I know several of you have gotten into it in a big way these past several years and could undoubtedly kick my butt out there.
P.S. Does anyone remember Jim *****'s 167 Gallent Lady with the fighting chair on the back. Can you imagine dragging a bloody fish across those decks? I've got to believe it was sushi before it cleared the transom. Passion!

Guys,

Ocean Yachts has come out with the retro looking 37 Billfish. She has a lower station and no aft bulkhead. They say it is the first model of this new line. Will be interesting to see if they use the set up on a bigger version.

http://www.oceanyachtsinc.com/Fleet/Billfish/37_Billfish/index.html

JH

Sportfish boats always had a lower station (check out Hemmingway's "Pilar" in "To Have and Have Not"); it was only in recent times--the mid-eighties--that the mainstream manufacturers did away with windshields so they could add more stuff (galley appliances & storage, TVs & stereos) to an otherwise underutilized volume of space.
Plus, windshields had a tendency to leak, esp. if there was a tuna tower above that wracked the house in a seaway.
The place across from the helm was known as 'the chart flat'...anyone remember charts?

Older SFs used to have lower helms and windshields, sometimes owners would remove the lower helm altogether and eve glass the windshields...

Pure battlewagons dont' have bow rails or windlasses either, and nowadays, many of them have either fully enclosed flybridges or at least a hardtop or a good enclosure.

Thanks everyone!

Dan

You have to go back through the evolution of sport fishers. Originally you were dealing with normal, low boats. Then someone figured out that if you got higher you could spot the tuna schools further away, hence the tuna tower. Then the helm moved up so the skipper could also be the spotter, and boats started going out in worse weather as it became more of a tourist business. Now you're getting waves over the bow and coming through the glass (not safety glass). Since the helm is now moved up why not bring up the whole bridge ("flying bridge") and just close that lower glass so you can chase the school further. Then the new taller tower, then the enclosed upper helm and the really tall tower, now with a helm up there. Now we have 124 ft. sport fishers with 3 or 4 levels, plus towers and 5 helm stations capable of coming home from absolutely insane conditions. What's hard to understand? It's just another game of mine's bigger than yours.
I just saw a thread starting on the biggest fish you ever hooked (not landed). You know we'll soon be hearing about 25', 5,000lb marlin
Fishtigua,
first, you're commercial (real) not sport (showoff). Second, compare your glass to the glass on a 1970's cruiser. You wouldn't want to be standing behind it when a 1,000 gallons of seawater hit.

Fishtigua,
You've got to see some of the battlewagons that come into Nantauket during the summer. Huge towers, lit like a bordello, gorgeous teak and varnish, chairs that cost more than I make in a summer and some serious fish coming off them. Doubt if you could call it cost-effective, but they sure are impressive. I'll try to post some pics if I get out that way this summer. (Montauk has a few cute ones too ).
It's hard to put practicality and recreational boating into the same sentence.

Fishtigua,
Google the M/Y Marlena. Word is she was set to be 124' until the owner found out there was another 124 so he paid about 200K to extend the bow pulpit 2 feet so he could have the world's largest SF. Practical? BTW she mostly fishes for flounder and stripers. Local fishermen use her as a landmark as in : "where you at Joe"--"200 yrds S/E of Marlena" I took a tour of her a few years ago. Behind the main helm (one of 5) there's a 32' TV set used as a chart plotter so the guests can follow.

Had a feeling you were an old guy. We seem to be the only ones who think of things like practicality.lol. I used to captain a 51 Bertram that never dropped a line in the ocean. New boater/ first boat. Me, I started on a 14 footer.

I've got a couple of years on you, but yeah, you're old. These days daddy is buying the kid 30' Cigarettes before they even know what a spark plug is. 30' tides twice a day. Wow. Bet that taught you about spring lines fast.

Seen that many times, but never even close to that extreme.