Meet Some Of The Owners

Meet some of the owners in Team CruiseCraft and their vessels:

Rod Watt -Code 7

Few people know more about catching big reds than Rod Watt. By now the big reds east of Waddy Point on Fraser Island off the Queensland would have learned to shiver in fear when Rod, his parents, Barbara and Melvyn or brothers Troy and Brendan are around.



His vessel - Code 7 has a reputation for hunting out the biggest reds in the water. On his last mission, Rod called "drop 'em" and by the time the lines had been cranked back up three times, there were nearly 50kgs of reds aboard - the largest tipping the scales at 17.8kg.



Want to know one of the secrets to his success? After those three drops into 40 metres, he moved off in search of new territory and new fish. Perhaps Rod's Outsider 625 should be named Code Red.

Julie Daffy - My Orca

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 four-stroke on the back. The vessel name Broomstick? Well, he's never been known to use light fishing rods.

Jay Furniss - Kid Cougar




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

Peter "Pedro" Dougherty - Outisder 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

Sharyn 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

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.

David Green - Predator Explorer 685

He's one of Team CruiseCraft's most active members and a guru of offshore fishing as well as in stainless steel marine fabrication - David Green. Always willing to share advice and a first port of call if you are trying to figure out how to fine-tune your sounder. We've seen plenty of photos of David in fishing publications and in Team CruiseCraft happenings, but the photo above would seem to indicate that he's caught so many fish, he's now doing away with the bother of cleaning and cooking them.

And what does he catch them on? The vessel pictured below.

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.

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 cruise 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.

What They've Been Doing

Who has been doing what, where and with whom

David Steele - King Hit

How are these for a couple of 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

David and Daniel - Winning Yet Again



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.

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 are a couple more shots – during and after the restoration.

Brian Sharp - Rover Restoration

Brian from Maryborough (Queensland) has taken on a mighty job – restoring this CruiseCraft 633 Rover.  The photo below shows progress to date. He has been in contact with the factory about a water storage unit for under the sink in the galley and securing original decals. The boat is being restored to original condition, however Brian is putting in a 350 cubic inch Chev motor developing around 330hp to replace the original 170hp Mercruiser. 

The original motor is still in pretty good condition and will be restored once he locates a riser for the heat exchanger manifold. The motor then will be for sale.

Barry Sullivan - Race On Sunday, Buy On Monday

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 - Brisbane To Mackay Trip

Peter Richter has taken 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 pulled 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 2 stroke motor, 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 / 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 - Murray River

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

Sally Jones - Southport

Sally Jones 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 from Southport on the Gold Coast, 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.

Greg Muir - Wineglass Bay

Greg Muir has every reason to smile - have a look at these blue eye caught in 320 metres off Wineglass Bay, Tasmania.

Bill Corten - Evans Head Trip



Bar crossings and offshore fishing techniques trainer, Bill Corten from Brisbane headed to Evans Head with his wife Ruth; Kord Lucks from L. Wilson tackle manufacturers and distributors; and Lance Warren from Bob Littler Agencies.

The event, located 230km by road south of Brisbane, is in three parts - beach, estuary and offshore. After being called on to deliver the offshore water and weather briefings, Bill found time to head out himself around 12 miles offshore targeting the snapper. Bill is pictured here with 'the evidence'.

Bill was pretty impressed with the reef formations starting from just outside the bar and extending out to the 50 fathom line. And he was particularly impressed with some of the big jewies and pearlies weighed in by some other anglers.

Barry Stevens - Bermagui Trip

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. In fact, they were one of the few boats to secure fish in the Tea Tree snapper competition last year.

Tips

Here you'll find a range of helpful tips from owners on a diverse range of subjects.

Bow rail ladder

The bow rail ladder idea grew out of a removable step that hooked on to the bow rail. This version, now available as a factory option, allows a person to be dropped off or collected bow-first from a boat ramp, jetty or beach. No more of those annoying little bumps on the ramp. Simply flick back the Velcro retaining strap and the ladder drops down and extends. Once aboard, simply lift the ladder back into position and snap the Velcro back into place. How secure are they? Well, we’ve seen them going through serious waves without even flinching, primarily because the design is very secure and they also are presented in end elevation to any oncoming seas.      

John Daffy - My Orca Outsider 625

A safe way to stow your radio aerial on some smaller CruiseCraft models such as the Explorer 500, is to use a length of platic tubing. Slip a length of plastic tubing over one end of the aerial and then let is slide down so you can slip the other end of the plastic tube over an aft cleat.

That way there is no pointy end of the aerial exposed which otherwise might poke a youngster in the eye. Also saves the aerial from "flogging" when you are towing your boat.

Kathy Osborne -SeaHawk

Want to impress your friends? Check out Kathy Osborne's receipe for Kahlua Fruit Dip which was a huge hit at our Family BBQ Picnic at The Bedrooms:

250 grams Philadelphia Cheese
250 grams Sour Cream
1/4 cup Kahlua
(you can substitute with Marnier or Tia Maria)
3 Tbsp Rich Brown Sugar
3 Tbsp Maple Syrup

Note: stir sour cream in last. You may use more or less depending on consistency.