C17 pilot house. Northwest overnight fishing weapon

[Jeff]

Nice!! jeff

[forgeandfruition]

Wife and I over nighted after work on Friday. I finally got a picture of the cockpit sole in full cruising mode with all the random gear out of the v-berth (wife is actually already tucked in).

The blue chair is on a big plastic livestock bucket that holds all the kitchen gear in the V-berth, but I pull it out and flip it over when I want a sit spot.

When underway all this is tossed into the V-berth on the right side. Even while underway I try to always have lay down space available in the V-berth.

I love all the open floor space.

-Derek

[forgeandfruition]

I've decided to put another cup holder in the cutting board, top left. The current one is always full of bait scents.

The bailer is set out in the middle of the sole on purpose, easy to find in the middle of the night, ready for bed.

You can see the anchor rode wrapped around the boat, we're anchored stern to. Catching the last bit of sun. I do have a stern anchor in that back hatch, I used the bow anchor so I only had to cast it off before bed.

[Jeff]

Nice!! Jeff

[narfi]

Very nice!

[TomW1]

Love it, looks well set up for overnighting and fishing. Tom

[fallguy1000]

Can you cook your catch onboard?

Does it have a portapotty?

I am jealous of those ling. When I built my boat, I had dreams of west coast fishing. I’m going to have to switch gears to the Gulf.

[rick berrey]

fallguy , we have ling on the Gulf Coast , locals call them ling , others call them colbia , keep calling them ling and you may blend in . You might have to come south from Texas to God,s country to catch them .

[forgeandfruition]

Fish pictures and fuel data.

This summer we have been heading to the coast more. 10 miles out of Newport my wife landed a sweet 44 inch Halibut. I pulled it in the boat and the hali went bazerk, I remember shouting, "Get in the V-berth!" as I fell on it with the knocker and knife.

I also got 2 Tuna trips in, both 50 miles out of Newport. A first for me, worth the effort, what an endurance fishing trip. We caught 28 Albacore tuna total. The green water turns blue out there, 62 degrees. Saw sharks, sunfish, and whales breeching. With swell around 2-5 feet with some 8 footers rolling through the fuel data from the second Tuna trip is as follows. loaded with 240 lbs of Ice, 32 gallons of gas and us two (the boat was heavy! you could feel it). We cruised around 4,500-5k rpm straight west up and over the swell around 3 hours getting out at 14-17 mph, then 5 hours trolling around 7mph that was around 2200-3000 rpm, finally 2-1/2 hours coming back in 5,500-6,000 rpm, FLYING with the swell around 20-26 mph ( we hit a top speed of 29 mph which is very fast for being so heavy, with all that weight our typical top speed is around 27mph. 31 mph is top speed with the boat as light as possible, totally stripped).

Total 11.5 hours on the motor that day.
We used 20.4 gallons of fuel to go 50 miles off shore, troll for 5 hours, and rip 50 miles back in.
Which is 1.77 gallons an hour, and an estimated 5.4 miles per gallon. You gotta love the efficiency of the C17 hull and the Honda 50 paired with it. Although on the way back in I would have had fun with another 50-100 HP, there was no escaping forward, only port or starboard.


The boat took some big hits coming off of swells both into it and with following seas, the classic 17 hull is tough! She took everything I threw at her and I was happily surprised that my worst fears of the hull ripping in half didn't come true.

As for boat work, I improved my bilge pumps before all the ocean play. They now drain high up under the bait station instead of the bottom of the splash well, and I put another cup holder in the bait station, that's still my favorite part of the boat. I find myself leaning against it and using the hand holds a lot in the ocean swell. I also finally got around to putting in a fuel water separator in the splash well and mounting a some rod holders on the roof.

[OlivierP]

Amazing trip and amazing fish ! And amazing boat of course. Well done !

The figures are consistent with my C17 - although I'm never loaded with so much fish...