Meet Some Of The Owners

David Green Predator Explorer 685

Andrew Green Predator Explorer 685

Keep your eye on this lad - he's already following in his father's footsteps. Young Andrew Green has already landed some spectacular fish - among them this 31kg cobia which he nailed on the wreck of the Sea Dragon on the Gold Coast. And when he's not landing XXXL fish, Andrew can be found competing in enduro motorcycle events.

Julie Daffy My Orca Outsider 625

Julie Daffy persuaded the CruiseCraft factory to build her a cruiser version of an Outsider 625 fully fitted with embroidered dashboard mat and seat backs, beige upholstery in the cockpit and Mocca suede in the cabin, a rear dining table, mood lighting, an up-market sound system, long range tanks and fresh water supply, special seat covers, a special dashboard and a host of other features.

Julie is renown for her "Thelma and Louise" days - that's when she has "girls only" luncheon cruising days on the water with her friends.

So why the obvious big spend on electronics including radar? Well, that’s because Julie holds a Master Class 5 ticket, drives the monohull ferries on the Brisbane River and currently is working towards her Master Class 4 ticket.

And all those rod holders on the targa? Well, that's because some days she even invites her husband, John to go fishing with her – that’s him below with a serious coral trout.

Kevin Nichols Broomstick Explorer 685

Kevin is a one of the industry's most respected marine identities and an incredibly talented boat builder. He's a second generation member of the famous Nichols boat building family. Now working on special projects for the company, Kevin also is a regular host at Team CruiseCraft events.

Known under his call sign of Broomstick in fishing tournaments, Kevin most often is seen in a CruiseCraft Explorer 685 with every option available. He recently took delivery of his third Explorer 685. The first two were twin-engined rigs, but this time Kevin has gone for a 300hp Yamaha V6 four-stroke on the back.

The vessel name Broomstick? Well, he's never been known to use light fishing rods.

Bill Corten Reef Affair Explorer 685

He's too modest to admit it, but Bill is an absolute guru on bar crossings and offshore fishing techniques.

Most weekends he's out on his specially kitted Explorer 685 teaching people the safe way to cross the notorious South Passage Bar between South Stradbroke and Moreton Islands.

When not dicing with surf, pressure waves, wind and swells on the bar, Bill is busy penning various boating and fishing columns, most noticeably in Bush N Beach magazine. A regular face in offshore fishing tournaments, Bill has owned a number of CruiseCrafts including an Outsider 650, an Outsider 625 and Explorer 685.

David Steele - Explorer 685

How about these for some high quality photographs? Television and magazine boating and fishing identity Al McGlashan took these shots of David Steele and his mates from Sydney.

Together aboard David’s Explorer 685 they nailed seven yellowtail kingies of seven kg.  You can see more shots like these on Al’s Strike Zone DVD’s and plenty of kingie action on the River to Reef television program.

You also can check out the great shots on Al’s web site at almcglashan.com

Daniel's A Winner.. Again

Daniel Smith is still on a winning streak. The Brisbane-based marine biologist who works with Fisheries Queensland, won the CruiseCraft Explorer 530 which was the prize boat in the Brisbane Boat Show of 2010.

Well, Daniel recently rounded up a couple of mates - Wade Micke and Conor Lynch and headed off for the Luhrs fishing comp. at Port Stephens. The boys hooked five marlin, tagged four and weighed in this 143kg blue marlin. In doing so, they achieved a grand slam and also won the Peter Goadby award for best performance. Daniel is rapt in his new 530. "We were trolling in 30 knots on the first day, but the Explorer 530 was just so stable. It was surprising to see how good it was - you would have expected to be rocking and rolling everywhere, but it wasn't".

It's a major step up from his previous boat, a centre console - in fact, it's a step right up to the victory dais.

Matt and Brett Pick Up The Bills

Matt and Brett Skinner from Cronulla love January to May because that's when the marlin become their main fishing targets. On a recent trip to Port Stephens in their Outsider 625 Reel Time, the brothers caught and tagged a couple of serious striped marlin. They often travel around 35km offshore from Port Stephens in their quest for billfish.

In the past year, they've landed more than a dozen from their Outsider 625.

Part of their success lies in the way they have set up some live bait tubes in the outboard well of the boat. With sea water being pumped over the fish as they are held securely in place in the tubes, the live bait arrives in perfect condition when they hit the billfish grounds.

And then, the 3kg stripeys are sent overboard out to tempt some heavy duty predators.

Jay Furniss Kid Cougar Explorer 600

Not many kids grow up with a cougar as a playmate, but Jay Furniss pictured here, did.

He and Mal McInnes have been mates since the Ark and Mal once owned the Golden River Zoo at Mildura in Victoria’s north-east. Pride of the exhibits was a house-tamed and trained cougar which even once figured in the Cougar bourbon television advertisements.

To Jay, it was his big pet cat. Jay and Mal are still working together – this time in the real estate industry at Rye on the Mornington Peninsula, south-east of Melbourne. Together they bought a CruiseCraft Stinger 506 and now they have an Explorer 600.

The guys often head 70km offshore into Bass Strait after tuna like the one Jay is holding here. You can expect to see Jay crop up on television from time to time – he’s into his fishing in a big way and has taken a few television crews on his tuna assaults.

Mark Pettiford Kaegan Explorer 600

Mark is a Brisbane lad who loves his Explorer – even used it as a bridal boat when his daughter Megan got married. The ceremony was on the banks of the Brisbane River in front of the Toowong Rowing Club where the reception was held.

Megan arrived aboard Mark’s boat. One of his mates Jake Kettleton, used his Explorer 625 as the bridesmaids’ boat.

Both boats are maroon so it worked a treat – especially with the wedding ribbons streaming from the aerials.

Mark makes an annual pilgrimage to Fraser Island with his Friday Fourex team.

They normally head off in September but now have pulled the trip forward to May.

Mark has 18 mates in his team, seven Toyotas, five CruiseCrafts and one custom-designed freezer trailer.

Russ and Jan Cunneen Explorer 625

Russ and Jan Cunneen from Kingsley in Western Australia often get together with Bob and Lynley McDonald (Outsider 625) of Sorrento and head off on some interesting tours. They always manage to grab some great photos and send them through.  The WA contingent also has completed a seafari tour with Western Angler magazine that took in the Mackeral islands off Onslow.

Peter Dougherty Pedro Outsider 575

Pedro from Grafton has a long association with CruiseCraft and frequently makes trips up and down the east coast towing his CruiseCraft or his aluminium pop-top van. With a degree in planning and design and a masters in practical jokes, he’s a popular sight. He’s also pretty handy with a rod and reel as this quality pearl perch indicates.

Wife Lyn is an absolute delight and has been known to spoil the team with her cooking at fishing tournaments. Son, Christopher also is a regular participant in events and managed to pull off one of the greatest coups ever for Team CruiseCraft when he won the Toyota HiLux 4x4 Dual Cab SR Pickup V6 petrol ute in the Toyota Classic in 2008. It was valued at over $50,000. Christopher won the vehicle in a "last man standing" lucky draw. That's Christopher pictured below with Toyota's Marketing Manager for the Northern Region, Simon Clarke.

Sharon Musk and Casey Dent Outsider 625

and Casey are from Proserpine where they run R Marine Services North Queensland (Riviera). . A frequent sight around the Whitsundays, they use their Outsider 625 for touring to places like Hook Island and Macona Inlet.

David and Matthew Britton Team Shotgun Explorer 685

We regularly see photos and reports from David Britton and the Team Shotgun - Explorer 685 - they're the guys who slip across from Queenbeyan to Bateman's Bay. They've followed up on their striped marlin with this yellow fin tuna. It spun the scales around to 52.9kg. It took 35 minutes to land the fish on 37kg line. They were fishing Moruya in 500 fathoms. And here’s another typical catch below.

Arnold Kurtz Attack Outsider 625

One of the best fibreglass repairers in the business and a wealth of information. Couldn’t help himself here – just had to idle up behind the CruiseCraft factory and show them the snapper he caught .. and with a catch like that, who could blame him? Known to drive his vessels hard – but if you think he’s not frightened to push the throttle forward, you should see his wife Cheryl – we suspect she taught him.

Always ready for a laugh and great folks to have a beer with.

Gary Knott Reef Ranger Restoration

Gary Knott of Royal Park, South Australia has done a superb job restoring this Reef Ranger 18 footer. It was a complete rebuild with the hull and deck being the only original items. The restoration even included the trailer. And according to Gary, it’s still a superb boat in all conditions.

Here is a shot – during the restoration.

Brian Sharp Rover Restoration

Barry Sullivan Outsider 685

Barry Sullivan has turned around the old car racing adage that went: “Race on Sunday, Buy On Monday.”

Instead, he bought on Tuesday and won on Saturday. Bruce who has owned a string of vessels including Kevlacats, Bayliners and Rivieras, now has an ebony-colored Outsider 685 named Black Magic.

Based at Lake Macquarie, Barry collected his new vessel and a couple of days later, headed off to the David Irvine Memorial Snapper competition at Coffs Harbour on the northern New South Wales coastline.
Fishing around 10km north of Coffs Harbour, they nailed 38 snapper ranging from 2.5kg to 8kg. Here's one of Barry's mates, Scotty pictured above with a pearler of a snapper.

Peter Richter Blackfish Outsider 685

Peter Richter has undertaken a coastal voyage in his Outsider 685 from Brisbane to Mackay. The trip, stopping at every place of interest, took a week. Peter's first night anchorage was in Kauri creek north of Tin Can Bay inlet. The following day he travelled up the Great Sandy Strait inside of Fraser and stopped for fuel at Urangan.

He then continued on heading for 1770 but had to pull into Bundaberg to avoid strong northerlies. The next day he continued to 1770 and then Pancake Creek just north of Bustard Head. The next day it was on to Gladstone, through The Narrows west of Curtis Island and on to Yeppoon, Cape Manifold, Port Clinton, Pearl Bay, Island Head Creek, Hexham Island and Percy Island.

On the final leg from Percy Island to Mackay Peter and his team also checked out the Beverley Group of Islands before finally arriving in Mackay. Peter carried an extra 80 litres of fuel in four, 20 litre jerry cans, water, an inflatable dingy, a 4 hp outboard, portable electric cooler/fridge, spare propeller, spare battery, spare CQR anchor, an additional 100 metres of rope with extra chain, spare tool box, fishing gear and all food & drinks.

The overall fuel consumption for the trip was 1.1 km per litre which Peter said he regarded as quite reasonable considering he had head winds all the way to Mackay, extra weight and unkind weather.

Glenn Cooper Explorer 685

It's not a scene you witness often, but we couldn't resist this shot of Glenn Cooper from Adelaide taking his Explorer 685 down the Murray River.

Sally Jones Gizmo Explorer 575

Sally Jones from Southport on the Gold Coast grabbed this great sunset shot when fishing down the Pin (that's the Jumpinpin Bar area between North Stradbroke and South Stradbroke Islands at the northern end of the Gold Coast).



Sally managed to secure personalised CC575Q registration for her Explorer 575 named Gizmo after purchasing it in … wait for it, Melbourne!

Gizmo is pretty well loaded with extras including a Stress Free anchor winch, Sarca anchor, LED lights throughout, a permanent CTEK M300 charger in the boat and a fold up bow ladder off the bowsprit.

Rightly proud of her vessel, Sally even penned an editorial about Gizmo that was featured in Trailerboat magazine. They thought it was pretty cool for a boating chic to write about her vessel. You go girl.

Barry Stevens Master Blaster Explorer 600

Barry Stevens and sons Craig and Grant  headed off in their Explorer 600 Master Blaster to Bermagui (southern New South Wales) to fish out wide.  Well as you can see from this photo of Craig, it was an eventful trip with Mahi Mahi or dolphin fish being the catch of the day.

The Master Blaster guys are from Parkdale on Melbourne’s south-eastern bayside suburbs which puts them pretty close to the Mornington Peninsula’s snapper.