BRISBANE, Queensland
Brisbane International Boat Show
August 26 – 29, 2010
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
Southbank, Brisbane
SANCTUARY COVE, Gold Coast
TBA 2011 – traditionally in May
Sanctuary Cove Resort
Coomera
ADELAIDE, South Australia
Adelaide Boat Show
TBA 2011 – traditionally in July
Adelaide Convention Centre
MELBOURNE, Victoria
Melbourne Boat Show
TBA 2011 – traditionally in July
Melbourne Exhibition Centre
2 Clarendon Street
Southbank
SYDNEY, New South Wales
Sydney International Boat Show
TBA 2011 - traditionally in July/August
Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre
and Cockle Bay Marina
Darling Drive, Darling Harbour
PERTH, Western Australia
Perth International Boat Show
TBA 2011 - traditionally in August
Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre
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Events
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The CruiseCraft factory supports a number of key events held
around around Australia each year and we would love to have you join us at them. These events also provide
a great opportunity for Team CruiseCraft members to get together
in conjunction with key personnel from the CruiseCraft factory.
Events fall into two basic categories - those of a general nature such as boat shows and family fun days; and those related to
fishing tournaments. You don't have to be a fishing guru to take part in a tournament - the emphasis is on having fun and helping to show novices the ropes. Many in Team CruiseCraft have said they have learned more about seamanship and fishing skills in one tournament with seasoned Team CruiseCraft owners, than in years of boating.
Events provide a great opportunity to get to know the people
behind the CruiseCraft brand and to discuss new design ideas. The CruiseCraft factory often makes special arrangements
for Team CruiseCraft at many of these events - have a look
at the program below to learn more about these activities.
Those coming soonest are on top.
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October 24, 2010
CruiseCraft Beach Olympics - Peel Island


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JULY 2010
All Tackle Masters
Richard Love in Sea Hawk won nearly every category
in the 2010 All Tackle Masters hosted by the the Little Ship
Club on North Stradbroke Island. (Yes, Richard's name is one
you hear a lot around Team CruiseCraft circles - he's always
among the first to help the newbies and does it with good
grace, good humor, modesty and a laugh you can hear halfway
across Queensland). Richard won Heaviest Catch with a 39kg
cobia; Champion Boat and Champion Angler. He took home a haul
of three trophies, four rods, four reels, three Yamaha prize
bags and a plaque. |
| JUNE 2010 Boyne-Tannum Hookup
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A fantastic showing of Team CruiseCraft “first timers”,
a million laughs, bags of great fish for those who ventured
out wide and an outstanding performance by CruiseCraft’s
Gladstone dealership ... They were just some of the key features
of Team CruiseCraft’s participation in the Boyne Tannum
Hookup 2010. The event was initially designed as an event
to boost tourism numbers to the region in the colder months,
but has since developed into a major regional event for all
members of the community.
Fifteen CruiseCrafts and 44 people formed the hub of Team CruiseCraft’s representation at the event this year. Almost a dozen Team CruiseCraft vessels travelled in convoy from the Gold Coast, Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast to the event. (Len Scorey and his team – Robbie, Jo-Anne and Carolyn) even had Y-Knot Fishing Team polo shirts made up for the event. Y Knot is the name of his Explorer 500.
Many thanks to David Green (who also manufactures the stainless steel fittings on CruiseCraft boats) and Richard Love for sharing their knowledge so willingly.
Furuno’s Shane Beardmore attended the event to help
owners of Furuno electronics fine-tune their equipment. Some
were using the very latest Furuno equipment for the first
time.
Oz Blacker’s Gladstone Marine Centre mounted an impressive
display of CruiseCraft boats in the exhibition area of the
Boyne Tannum Hookup headquarters in Bray Park. The dealership’s
manager, Mick Tedford was a great help throughout the event
and CruiseCraft’s Peter Benston was in attendance every
day to answer queries from the public about the models displayed
which included the new Explorer 485 and Explorer 530. Gladstone
Marine Centre also supplied the prize boat – a CruiseCraft
Explorer 575 complete with targa and full safety gear powered
by a Yamaha outboard on a CruiseCraft trailer. The prize boat
was won in a lucky draw by a very appreciative Trevor Gallehawk
from Maryborough.
Good fishing conditions at the start of the tournament later turned into fresh south-westerly and westerly winds making conditions wide offshore, uncomfortable. But upon arrival, several Team CruiseCraft vessels seized the window of opportunity and headed straight out to the wide grounds. Their journeys (some ventured 130km from home), saw them return laden with coral trout, sweetlip, red throat, mackerel, cod and hussar. But others decided to hug the protection of Facing Island and snare a few parrot and cod which were on the bite.
The way in which the event organisers, volunteers, service clubs, the local police and community work together to host and manage the Boyne Tannum Hookup so professionally, is simply outstanding and a real credit to the region
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April 2010 Port Stephens |
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The Trailer Boat Fishing Tournament at Nelson Bay,
Port Stephens provided a great Team CruiseCraft catch up.
Queenslanders as well as two Team CruiseCraft stalwarts from
northern New South Wales, Peter Dougherty and Graham Green
welcomed the opportunity to see how the locals go about their
fishing in an event that draws around 1500 competitors and
500 vessels.
It surely must be one of the prettiest venues on the east
coast of Australia for a fishing tournament. (It also must
be the only event where Team CruiseCraft participants tried
to out-do each other with the quality of flathead caught!)
And with all those lines from the movie Top Gun which seem
to get used a fair bit by Team CruiseCraft owners, there were
plenty of smiles when the team saw the name of the bar next
to tournament headquarters – Maverick’s. Talk
about karma.
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More than 220 people and 56 CruiseCraft boats starred in another hugely successful Team CruiseCraft family picnic day at Horseshoe Bay. Hosted by the CruiseCraft factory and supported by all members of the Nichols family, it was an outstanding day as indicated by the cross-section of photographs shown here.
A magnificent cavalcade of models was represented – some of them personalised and kitted out to a standard that had to be seen to be believed.
This annual picnic puts the emphasis on family participation and fun activities for everyone. Water volleyball was a major hit on a very warm day and there was a casting competition run in four categories – men, women, boys and girls.
Many thanks to Kord Luckus from L. Wilson & Co. fishing tackle for joining us and allowing the winners take home the rods and reels they used.
There were some fantastic lucky draw prizes given away as well. Australia’s foremost marine insurance company, Club Marine donated a $500 voucher for insurance as well as two other vouchers, both worth $250.
Greens Marine Stainless, the company which produces the outstanding
stainless bow rails and other stainless work on CruiseCraft
boats, donated two rocket launchers designed specifically for
storing fishing rods and rigging them in the garage. Ron Wilkinson
from Ron’s Organic Meats at Ney Road, Capalaba donated
a Christmas ham. Yamaha Australia also put up some great promotional
prizes.The CruiseCraft factory generously picked up the tab
on the rib fillet steaks, snags, salads, watermelons and soft
drinks for the day.
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August 2009
Moreton Bay Fishing Classic
gural Moreton Bay Classic, hosted by the Moreton Bay Trailer Boat Club at Manly on Brisbane’s eastern bayside, presented a cavalcade of prizes – more than $200,000 worth - as part of its strategy of adding a new event to the south-east Queensland fishing calendar.
And with modest numbers of people entering the inaugural event, the odds of success of taking home one of the major prizes – a CruiseCraft Explorer 500 provided by Wynnum Marine or a Suzuki Grand Vitara four-wheel-drive provided by the state distributor of Suzuki Motor vehicles, Suzuki Auto Co, were very attractive.
While the Moreton Bay Classic slotted neatly into the time-frame created by the winding up of the Straddie Classic (prompted by the redevelopment of the Stradbroke Island Resort Hotel and environs), it also brought about another major change. Unbelievable weather.
Conditions which moved from ‘very rugged’ on the opening day to ‘glassed out’ just a couple of days later, put smiles on the faces of CruiseCraft stalwart, Kevin Nichols; local gun fisherman Dougie The Deckie, and Wynnum Marine’s CruiseCraft sales specialist, George Baumber, pictured here.
On the final night, it was Cameron Bastow who walked away with new CruiseCraft Explorer 500 won in the final of the major prizes lucky draw. That’s him below celebrating his win with CruiseCraft directors, from left, Nathan Nichols, Darren Nichols and Justin Nichols.
And you had better believe that the luck is still running strongly in the Harris family from Springfield – Ben Harris won the Suzuki Grand Vitara in the lucky draw – it was his brother-in-law who won the Yaris in this year’s Toyota Fraser Island Fishing Expo.
As usual, Team CruiseCraft identities figured prominently on the leader board.
The Watt family virtually staged its own tournament with brothers Rod, Brendon and Troy and their dad, Melvyn shuffling pride of place on the leaderboard in the cobia division.
It was Rod who finally stamped his authority on the title weighing in a 42.150kg cobia that looked like it belonged in the Jurassic Park movie.
No wonder the Watt family figures so strongly in fishing photographs on the Team CruiseCraft web site and in the media.
Some great catches were recorded as can be seen here on the leader board.
The Moreton Bay Classic also saw the launch of Team CruiseCraft’s new range of clothing and merchandise. (You can see and order the latest items under the Merchandising button on this web site).
The range includes prominent use of the number 46 on Team CruiseCraft jerseys.
Why 46?
Well, that’s because the CruiseCraft has been manufacturing since 1946.
CruiseCraft director Justin Nichols secured number 46 as his entry number in the Moreton Bay Classic. It is these entry numbers which are used in the barrel for the nightly lucky draws as well as the draws for the major prize draws.
Justin’s number was independently pulled out of the barrel snaring Justin a great prize as well as entry into the major prize draw. But in a display of sponsorship generosity and integrity, Justin kept his number out of the draw, refused to accept the prize and told the event organisers to pull out another winning number instead.
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July 2009 All Tackle Masters
Team CruiseCraft dominated the All Tackle Masters tournament
with Daniel Lake and David Green starring in a brilliant
series of category quinellas.
Between them, they took out the Champion Boat , the
heaviest snapper, the second heaviest snapper (10.3kg
and 9.6kg respectively), as well as the heaviest cobia
and second heaviest cobia (43kg and 38kg) and the prize
for most fish.
The All Tackle Masters was hosted by Little Ship Club
on North Stradbroke Island, near Brisbane.
With guys aboard like Chris Eaton and Zeke Wolf offering
great support, how could they possibly have been beaten?
And if there had been a prize for the best Mel Brooks
look-alike, the affable Zeke would have nailed that
award as well.
Well done guys and in support of some very good charitable
causes backed strongly by Rotaract of Redlands. |
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June 2009
Boyne-Tannum Hookup
How good can an event be? Boyne Tannum 2009, held just south of Gladstone was outstanding again this year. Calm conditions which saw some in the Team CruiseCraft contingent head 100km-plus out to sea.
The Green brothers, David and Ken in Predator logged a 235km return journey in one day. Robbie Bertram in Bad Attitude, Richard Love in Sea Hawk, RodWatt’s team aboard Code 7, Mark Newman in Serial Killer – what an event.
Furuno’s resident technology guru, Shane Beardmore pictured here with a couple of impressive reds, seized the opportunity to double-check or tweak everyone’s sounders, plotters and radar systems. He also has introduced a new style out on the water – rock ‘n fishin’.
That’s where he uses rock band AC-DC to coax fish up from the deep, while making a video of the whole proceeding and simultaneously tracking everything on the sounder.
Make no mistake, it works!
Many travelled up in convoy with a departure from Brisbane at 2 a.m.– others met up at the event.
Once again many thanks to Kevin Nichols in Broomstick for organising the convoy, the accommodation and the logistics in conjunction with the other Team CruiseCraft participants.
The results? Well just have a look at Kevin’s grassy sweetlip here, Shane’s reds and John Brown’s coral trout to get an idea. And also note how calm the seas are in the background.
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May 2009 Fraser Island
Around 25 CruiseCraft vessels entered this 2009 Toyota Fishing Expo at Fraser Island. This year’s, the last event in its current format, was the biggest in the 26 year history the tournament. The increasing popularity of Explorer and Outsider 685’s was clearly evident. The CruiseCraft Explorer 500 which was one of the major random prize draws was won by Terry Harvey of Regents Park in Brisbane who attended the event with his brother-in-law Brian. That’s Terry pictured below with CruiseCraft identities Barry and Kevin Nichols along with a representative from Yamaha.
Remember last year’s event when Team CruiseCraft participant Christopher Dougherty won a brand new Toyota HiLux 4x4 Dual Cab SR Pickup V6 petrol ute in the lucky draw? Well this year his father Peter “Pedro The Practical Joker” Dougherty from Grafton managed to make the final draw for the car. Pedro was eliminated after 40 draws which certainly had hearts beating fast in Team CruiseCraft before it was his turn to sit down in what is a last man standing lucky draw.
Conditions for the first three days were not good which allowed the unbelievable talents of Bill Corten to shine. He took around 21 corporate guests of Toyota offshore in a series of runs to the Gardner Banks and brought home some magnificent fish like the red he is pictured below holding.
By Tuesday and Wednesday, the weather had deteriorated to the point of prohibiting launching from the beach. The photos below show how everyone kicked in to assist the launches and retrievals while the weather window remained open.
On Thursday conditions improved but with swells of three to four metres running. That still allowed the Team CruiseCraft participants to bring home a haul of parrot, hussar and red throat emperor.
Friday also was a “no go” day with very light winds but a huge swell. The Team decided to sit it out, but one non-CruiseCraft identity decided to chance his luck. In doing so, he finished up with a swamped vessel on the beach. |
November 2008
The Bedrooms, Gold Coast
Despite a last minute change of venue from Wave Break Island
to The Bedroom on South Stradbroke Island, around 200 participants
in Team CruiseCraft and 44 vessels fronted for a magnificent
day in a window of clear weather.

The change of venue was precipitated by Wave Break Island having
been scoured badly by weather late in the week which also saw
timbers falling into the water. The Bedrooms was selected as
a more suitable location and thanks to some great assistance
from CruiseCraft owners, the change in venue was made without
any vessels going missing.
Rob and Kath Edmunds who made the trip down the night before
from Buderim on the Sunshine Coast with Craig Mole, helped claim
a stretch of beach at The Bedrooma in the early morning. A few
hours later it was a magnificent display of CruiseCrafts.
The traditional beach cricket match was staged along with the
catch of the year being taken (see the photo gallery from the
day). Ray and Kathy Osborne were comfortable winners in the
Best Dressed Boat and Best Dressed Crew categories - when you
fit out your vessel like Santa's sleigh and turn up in Santa
gear, it's a hard act to top.
Experts Corner was another huge success thanks to the master
of bar crossings and offshore vessel handling and fishing techniques,
Bill Corten; as well reef fishing, stainless steel and marine
electronics expert, David Green; and engine maintenance and
servicing master technician, Darren Nichols of Wynnum Marine.
A number of folks were making their first appearance at a Team
CruiseCraft event which was great to see. A huge thank you to Yamaha
which donated some magnificent prizes for lucky draws as well
as to the CruiseCraft factory which sponsored the day, luncheon
and refreshments.
Perfect timing saw members leave just before an afternoon storm
moved in.
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November 2008
Tea Tree Snapper
It was a long haul for Queenslanders Kevin Nichols, David Green, Richard Love, Brendan Watt and John Daffy, but they towed two Explorer 685's down to Melbourne to join local CruiseCraft owners in Victoria's premier snapper fishing tournament held on the Morning Peninsula.
Local knowledge was a major factor in determining the results which saw local and visiting Team CruiseCraft members over-shadowed by some great results including Allen Rayner claiming the championship title with a 7.22kg snapper. Jason Angel nailed one at 7kg and John Dafilis brought in a 6.54kg specimen. Of the Team CruiseCraft members, it was local enthusiasts aboard Master Blaster - an Explorer 600 - who managed to get snapper aboard.
There were plenty of Australian salmon around which made for a spirited session of fishing, but the snapper were a little rod-shy. The event provided a great opportunity to catch up with Team CruiseCraft members which is one of the main reasons for entering events such as this.
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June 2008
Boyne-Tannum Hookup
Offshore conditions just do not get any smoother - have a look at this photo taken 30km offshore in this year's Boyne-Tannum Hookup. Mirror-like conditions with plenty of red throat emperor just waiting to be caught.
This event is held just south of Gladstone each Queen's Birthday long weekend in June.
All the regular Team CruiseCraft fishing guns were there as well as a few additional first-timers which was great to see.
Mind you two years ago the conditions were positively evil and last year they were good - it is a changeable event in terms of weather so don't think "glassy" is the norm. But one of the great attractions of this event is that despite inclement weather, you can always find a place to fish even if it's up river, hugging the shoreline. |


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May 2008
Fraser Island
The Toyota Fishing Expo at Fraser Island saw another strong contingent of vessels from Team CruiseCraft. They included Bill Corten in his brand new, special build Explorer 685 Reel Affair; diesel engines guru Richard Love in his Outsider 685 Sea Hawk, David Green his Explorer 685 Predator, Rodney Waite in his Outsider 625 Code 7; Brett Seng in his Outsider 625 Black Jack and Kevin Nichols in his twin engined Explorer 685 Broomstick.
Leaving aside the honor of winning daily prizes for the best fish species, the stand-out part of the event for Team CruiseCraft, other than the camaraderie, was Christopher Dougherty winning himself a brand new Toyota HiLux 4x4 Dual Cab SR Pickup V6 petrol ute.
It is valued at over $50,000. Christopher won the vehicle in a "last man standing" lucky draw. That's Christopher pictured above with Toyota's Marketing Manager for the Northern Region, Simon Clarke.
And also in the winners' circle was Leanne Read who took home a CruiseCraft Explorer 500 with Yamaha F100 motor and trailer valued at over $45,000. A number of Team CruiseCraft owners were 'first timers' this year at Fraser.
By being part of the team, they were able to get a few great tips on trailering up the beach, extended drawbar beach launches and places to stay as well as having the safety of other Team CruiseCraft vessels nearby when fishing offshore. Peel Island - September 2007 |

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June 2007
Boyne-Tannum Hookup
Another strong showing with Richard Love's Sea Hawk (that's him pictured below with a serious nannygai and laughing deckie, Laurie Jenson); Ken Green in his beautifully refurbished Explorer 570; fibreglass repairs guru Arnold Kurz in Cher (which carried a stack of 11kg-plus red emperors back to shore); fine wine aficionado Ray Osborne in his appropriately named Jag 1; event regular Robbie Bertram in Bad Attitude; stalwart David Green, gentleman Brett Seng, ski racer David McInnes, Kevin Nichols, CruiseCraft director Justin Nichols, southern rogue Pedro Dougherty and John Daffy on rotating shifts aboard Big Predator and Broomstick; as well as red hot fisho's Rod and Brendan Watt in Code 7 and Sniper.
The weather improved markedly over the three days raising the stakes from the nearby cobia grounds east of Facing Island to the Cod Shoals and then a serious offshore assault on Fitzroy Reef around 90km offshore. |
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