The Original SeaBrat

Note: Originally written in 1995

After running the A-Maze-Mint, a 207 Quest by Four Winns, for nearly six years, we decided it was time to upgrade to a more suitable boat to fit our needs. Our primary boating uses were scuba diving and offshore fishing. The A-Maze-Mint had been a loyal performer, but we had learned a lot about offshore boating and were feeling a tad cramped. Initially we concentrated on 23 to 25 foot center consoles by Pursuit, Mako and Dusky, all of which seemed to be ideal boats for our use. Then we looked closely at the SeaCat line of power catamarans by North American Fiberglass.



Power catamarans are really just beginning to appear here in the United States. We started out looking seriously at the 25 foot SL5 SeaCat, a center console model. Sitting on a trailer, the boat looks much larger than its 25 feet, an effect caused largely by the height with which it rests on a trailer. While visiting the local dealer's boat show, we saw both the 21' SL1 and the 25' SL5 model sitting side-by-side. The 21' did not look much smaller than the 25', although it obviously was 4 feet shorter in length. At that time, we arranged for test rides in both boats and thus began our conversion to power catamarans.

We learned a lot about power cats when shopping for what was to be the SeaBrat. After nearly two years of research, shopping, looking and wishing we found a lot of hype, a little truth, enjoyed a few test rides and learned a big lesson (or two). If you've been thinking about buying a power catamaran and particularly a SeaCat, join us for the good, the bad, and the UGLY!

the Good...

The SeaCat is a power catamaran manufactured by International Class Catamarans, Inc. in North Carolina. Like most power cats, it provides an exceptionally smooth ride when seas are kicking up. Running directly into the wind, the boat provides a very gentle ride as it cuts through choppy 3-4' seas, an act that would probably cost you a kidney in most typical mono-hulls. The layout of the SeaCat lends itself well to scuba diving and fishing. It features an open transom design which, when combined with an Armstrong marine ladder, allows a diver to virtually walk right into the boat. It also has an unusually large amount of floor space due to its 8'6" beam and wide bow. The nearly vertical sides of the boat assure an extremely wide floor for its beam and the lack of a pointed bow creates a very large front deck area. The center console is roomy and the entire front opens to allow access to the interior.

In April of 1995, we concluded our negotiations with the dealer and bought the SeaBrat, our 21 foot SeaCat SL1. We chose to power it with twin Honda 50 horsepower engines, at that time a highly recommended combination by North American Fiberglass. We had discussed this setup with other owners who had rigged their SeaCats with these engines and all of them highly recommended them. The Honda outboards are 4 cycle engines as opposed to the standard 2-stroke outboard. A 4 cycle engine does not require an oil blended into the fuel, it's like a car engine. In fact, rumor has it that the Honda 90 horsepower outboard uses the old Honda Civic engine design.

Four cycle engines, since they don't burn an oil/gas mix, are also smoke free. There is no noticeable odor and the lack of the smell of burning oil is a godsend when trolling. The Hondas are extremely quiet and very fuel efficient. Operating at 3/4 throttle, or about 4,500 rpm, the SeaBrat delivers nearly 4.5 mpg. When running directly into the wind, this provides a nice smooth ride as the wind actually helps to lift the boat and reduces the effort the engines put into lifting the hull up on plane. Unfortunately, this throttle setting barely planes the boat in smooth water and not at all when running down wind (see "and the UGLY" below).

Under a typical load, operating the boat at around 5,200 rpm delivers a speed of 21 mph and about 3.3 mpg, still a respectable fuel consumption figure for twin outboards! Combine that fuel efficiency with the 80 gallon fuel capacity and you have an effective range of 250 to 350 miles. Last year we ran the boat for a total of 253 hours and 1,552 miles. Our old boat, the A-Maze-Mint with its Johnson 175 got an average of 1.7 mpg and would have burned over 400 gallons more fuel (along with a lot of oil). That's a substantial savings in operating costs and should quickly offset the higher initial cost of the Honda engines.

the Bad...

The SeaCat is a power catamaran and rigging these boats takes a lot of skill and knowledge. With the 50 horsepower outboards, the boat can only be described as marginally powered and often will yield disappointing results (see "and the UGLY" below). The bare hulls are heavy and expensive, largely due to the great amount of surface area as compared to a standard monohull. The knife-like leading edge on each sponson is apparently difficult to get resin into during manufacturing and seems to be prone to air voids. Our boat had a lot of problems with air voids which kept popping up all over. After our third trip to the repair shop for air voids, the local SeaCat representative began to make grumblings about not repairing anymore air voids under warranty! Fortunately, he did agree to fix the last batch and we have not had any more appear since then.

Trailering is also more difficult than with most boats. Given their design, they sit fairly high on the trailer, requiring that it be submerged further than you might expect when launching. We regularly spray the bunks with silicone spray and this allows the boat to be pushed off the trailer without having to submerge the trailer until the hull begins to float. Obviously, this can work against us as well and the boat must be securely fastened to the bow stop before backing down the ramp, or pulling the boat out.

Loading the boat on the trailer can be frustrating. Given the twin hull design, the boat does not naturally steer itself onto the trailer unless you are dead-on center. On our trailer with 2 by 6 bunks, the margin of error is less than 6 inches. If you miss, the boat is pushed off the carpeted bunks over to the side of the trailer where the hull will be damaged when it contacts bare metal. In 15 years of trailering boats, I had never damaged a hull as a result of loading or unloading. That all changed with the SeaCat.

The Honda outboards, like the hull, were also expensive. The Honda 50 costs as much, or slightly more than a standard 90 hp 2-stroke outboard. The initial cost of these engines is offset by the lower operating cost, however. Depending on how much you use the engine, you might find that the difference is made up pretty quickly. In our case, about 2-3 years of operation will more than save the difference in initial cost.

The Hondas are also somewhat heavier than a comparable 2-stroke, but this difference is not so much as you might be lead to believe. The Honda 50 weighs in around 200 pounds, only 10-20 pounds more than a 2-stroke of that size. Given the hull spec weight on our 21' SeaCat of 2,500 pounds, the additional 20-40 pounds of engine weight is pretty marginal.

The finish on these boats, or at least ours, leaves a bit to be desired. Within six months of purchase the boat was displaying a frightening amount of gel cracking, particularly in the transom area. The local rep agreed to fix those with the cautioning remark that such repairs were not normally a warranty item. A few months later, when air voids began to appear in several areas, he probably regretted having agreed to repair those gel cracks. There are still quite a few areas which are showing cracks and crazing. In some areas, particularly the front deck, the colored gel coat is extremely thin and is wearing through.

Other poor areas under fit and finish include the latching systems for the battery box covers. The battery compartments feature a plastic latch with a "living" hinge. We have re-riveted both of them in place and the local rep gave us a pair of stainless steel latches to replace them. The latching arrangement for the fish box and anchor locker consists of a post with a heavy rubber strap. The post on the fish box tore out of the glass and was replaced by the dealer three times before it finally held. It appears to be cracking loose again. The hinges on all hatches are unusual. They appear to be made from fairly thin sheets of stainless steel, but so far have held up very well.

The gunwale mounted rod holders were a $200+ option for four holders. They appear to be good strong stainless steel models, but are a little small for many offshore rods. They do have rubber inserts which can be removed so that the larger rods will fit, but wouldn't it have been easier to just use Lee holders of the appropriate size? Those inserts will eventually get lost or fall overboard.

Floor drainage doesn't work all that well, at least not on our boat. At rest and slow speeds, water tends to accumulate to the front of the boat and will not drain until the boat is underway which raises the bow. This is particularly annoying since the boat tends to take a lot of water over the bow when moving at trolling speeds into a choppy sea.

The SeaCat Hydropod, the little "nose" which sticks down from the middle of the bow and is supposed to help prevent the sneeze which occurs in moderate seas is both good and bad. It probably does reduce the amount of bow spray coming over the front of the boat, but the back side of that nose is drilled with several holes which allow that sneeze to vent into the front deck storage area.

and the UGLY!

We purchased our boat from Kenyon Power Boats in Clearwater, Florida. Kenyon specializes in Bayliners, a package boat, and they seemed to have an awful lot of trouble properly rigging our SeaCat. Regardless of what you may think of Bayliner, as package boats, they require little dealer expertise in rigging. This is not the case with the SeaCat boats. We incurred a substantial and unexpected cost in getting this boat to operate at an acceptable level. As an example, when the boat initially refused to plane out, Kenyon diagnosed the problem as the stock aluminum props. We purchased a set of stainless steel props from them which they recommended, although they refused to allow us to try the props before purchase. We now have a spare set of stainless steel props which, while pricey, do not work well with the boat.

At the time we bought this boat, the manufacturer (North American Fiberglass) was highly touting the advantages of the twin Honda 50 horsepower outboards. This setup, they claimed, would provide a top speed of 30 mph and could achieve 20 mph with one engine tilted up. In discussions with other SeaCat owners running Honda 45-hp engines, all confirmed their top speed to be at or near 30 mph with a cruising speed of 20-25 mph. In our initial runs with the SeaBrat, with the boat nearly empty, we found our top speed to be less than 26 mph. Loaded with fuel and gear, it was unable to plane and struggled to achieve 17 mph.

After spending hundreds of dollars on props and what seemed like a thousand dealer visits and complaints, we weighed the boat on certified scales at the local landfill and arrived at an estimated weight of 3,400 pounds, 900 pounds over the spec weight. Upon hearing this North American Fiberglass agreed to ship the hull back and fix the problem. They reportedly had a problem with their foam gun about the time our hull was being built and felt perhaps the boat was overweight with uncured or waterlogged foam. We would not see the boat again for four months!

Once the boat was returned, we re-weighed it to find that it appeared to have gained about 50 pounds! As it turned out, our weight estimating procedures were faulty. We had taken the shipping weight off the title for the trailer which was 600 pounds too low. Our boat was actually only about 300 pounds overweight. At this point, the local SeaCat representative began working with us in earnest to get the boat to operate as designed. The top speed (empty) was still only hitting about 26 mph, and the boat still failed under moderate loads.

It was decided to try dropping down 1-inch in pitch on the props from 13" to 12", another $400+ out of our pocket (remember, we had already bought a set of stainless steel props at the recommendation of the Kenyon staff). Although the result was a drop in top speed to 25 mph, the load carrying capacity was greatly enhanced, with the boat able to plane and hit nearly 20 mph when loaded close to the USCG limit. It's top speed on one engine, loaded or empty, was only 8 mph. A far cry from the advertised 20 mph.

At this point, at least the boat was usable, whether it met advertised performance claims or not. When running into the wind, the boat performs like a real champion. With the wind or running with even a mild ground swell, it falls off plane each time it attempts to climb up the back side of a swell, with speed dropping from 20+ mph to less than 15 mph. The final word from the local SeaCat representative was that the performance was "disappointing", but no additional solutions were offered. We are currently in the process of upgrading the engines to the larger 90 hp models.

Summary

Even careful shoppers can get burned. Although the performance of the boat was finally improved (and drastically so), it still falls short of the advertised claims. North American Fiberglass's response to the advertised claims issue follows:

The question of whether or not we advertise performance data prompts this answer. We do not and have not for quite some time. Having said that however, I must confess that we did make statements relating to speed with one Honda engine operating and two engines operating in old literature supplied by Larry Potter the designer of the 21'. As a result of our own testing we discovered that Mr. Potter's performance data was inaccurate prompting us to discontinue the sales literature a long time ago. Should we have checked his data out before using it? Yes we should have but, you would think that we could rely on information provided by the "designer". We also severed our relationship with him.

Graham Flanagan, CEO

I guess Mr. Flanagan and I have a disagreement as to what a long time ago is. Interestingly enough, I returned to the Kenyon showroom several days after I received that response and picked up a sales brochure which still made those performance claims.

As to the weight of our boat...it does appear to be overweight, but probably within acceptable limits compared to the spec weight. The spec weight on the 21' was revised from 2,000 pounds to 2,500 pounds sometime between 1993 and 1994. Our hull appears to weigh in around 2,800 pounds based on weight slips at the local landfill. That's 800 pounds heavier than the 1993 model and could easily explain much of the performance problems. Why on earth North American Fiberglass thought they could add 25% to the weight of a hull and NOT affect performance is inconceivable. Were our boat 500 pounds lighter I feel confident that it would easily achieve the 30 mph advertised speed, though I doubt it would even approach the fabled single engine performance of 20 mph.

In support of North American Fiberglass, much of their claims are true. The boat does ride very well and handles rough seas admirably, particularly compared to an equivalent sized monohull. We are very happy with the layout of the boat. Their agreeing to ship the boat back to their factory and attempt to correct the weight problem is to be admired and we appreciate the effort they extended in trying to get the best performance possible from this hull. Our local SeaCat representative, John Richardson, worked very hard to help us and extended every effort and resource available to him to solve the performance problem. He has our sincere gratitude.

Would we buy another SeaCat? Hmm, a qualified yes would be our answer. We would require the sale be contingent on a satisfactory sea-trial of the exact boat, not a dealer's demo model. This puts the performance of the boat in the dealer's best interest since he won't make the sale until he can demonstrate that your boat is rigged to perform at or near expected service levels. Our test ride in the dealer's 21' SeaCat was very impressive, and it was equipped with smaller, 45 horsepower Honda engines. We suspect it was also an older and lighter model.


The New and Improved SeaBrat (1997)



Our Motivation

This spring, while running about trying to find a kingfish or two, we finally came to the conclusion that we really needed to upgrade the engines on our boat. We'd been operating with the twin 50 Hondas for about two years and had been less than pleased with the performance. On this particular fishing trip, the seas were calm with a very mild groundswell of about 2 feet, but there was almost no wind or chop on the water. We had a pretty light load and the boat kept falling off plane while running with the rollers. It simply could not climb up the back of those swells... and these were pretty mild swells! I found this not only annoying, but in the future (inevitable??) event we should encounter heavier stuff, I was concerned for basic safety. Cheryl and I agreed that we needed to fix this problem.

Which Engines?

We spent nearly a month researching larger engines. We both really liked the Honda reliability and lack of smoky exhaust, but the price of the 90 hp engines were pretty steep. Several dealers tried to convince us that the Honda 75 would be big enough. Maybe, but the difference in price between the 75 and 90 was pretty small. Having found ourselves in the position of needing to buy larger engines, we didn't want to be there again. We were going to put the maximum horsepower on this boat. Something we should have done in the first place! Besides, the Honda 75 and Honda 90 were exactly the same size... BIG. The 75 was just a de-tuned 90 and both had a spec weight of 384 pounds, 170 pounds more than the existing 50s!!! We were about to add a total of 340 pounds to the rear of the SeaBrat. At least that ought to take care of the water not draining from the floor while at rest!

SeaCat's Advice

At this point, I decided to contact John Richardson, the local SeaCat representative. Mr. Richardson was more than happy to help us where he could and offered quite a bit of advice as well. He gave us the name of another person (John Thompson) who had just recently done the same thing that we were attempting. Mr. Thompson turned out to be a terrific source of advice and information. He even pointed us in the right direction to get the engines at the lowest possible price.

Boat Modifications

Mr. Richardson told us that the new boats were being made with a raised transom, though we probably didn't need to raise the transom of the SeaBrat. He also suggested that the batteries be moved forward under the center console. We asked Mr. Thompson what he had done and found that he had left his batteries and transom as-is. He agreed that he did pick up a lot more water in the back, since it now sat lower, but didn't feel that it was a problem. He strongly recommended that we replace the access covers with locking models in place of the stock pop-out type. Cheryl and I experimented by standing on the transom of our boat while at anchor to see what that the additional weight was going to do. We found that the scuppers wound up partially submerged and that water would frequently splash over the transom.

Obviously the locking access covers were a good idea and fortunately they were not overly pricey. Raising the transom would be nice, but at a fairly large cost. In addition to the cost of the transom work, we would then need to buy the extra-long shaft version of the outboards which cost more than the standard long shaft models. We decided to forego the transom operation. If we wanted to raise it later, we could. The engines could then be mounted on jack plates so the long shaft version would still work. Now we had a plan, all we needed to do was implement it.

Buying and Rigging the New Engines

The local Honda dealers, while not outrageous on price, were really into the nickel and dime routine. Every little thing was an extra, tachs, controls, gauges... nothing was included. We took Mr. Thompson's advice and looked outside the local dealer area and found a place that would sell us the engines we wanted, complete with gauges and controls, but we would have to pay to have them shipped. A little research found that we were still way ahead of the local dealer and we ordered the engines. While I could manhandle the 50s off the boat, there was no way I could possibly lift those 90s.

We found a nearby marine yard that was willing to accept the delivery of the new engines and would mount them on the boat for a modest fee. Our plan was almost completely in place. John Richardson loaned us his Honda manuals which detailed the rigging procedures. By the time my engines arrived, I had memorized the rigging we would have to do. We had to replace the tachometer (included with the engine) since it was a different type than the 50 used. We could reuse all the old controls. All we had to do was plug in the wiring harness and connect and adjust the throttle/shift cables. It was almost too easy.

Did It Work Out?

Our first sea trial with the new engines went without a hitch. We had bought a set of Powertech RXB 4-blade props which John Richardson recommended and they worked beautifully. Top speed was about 33 mph and we could easily cruise at 25 mph. Although the engines are mounted as high as possible using the existing holes, they could stand to be raised another 1/2 inch.

We could also probably repitch the props another inch or so and pick up a little more speed, though this would definitely reduce our single engine speed. With a little effort and a few more dollars, we could probably increase the top speed to about 37 mph, but I doubt it would improve our cruising speed any. Fuel efficiency, while pale in comparison to the old 50s, is still very good at an average of 2.6 mpg at cruise.

The OOA Incident

For you non-divers, OOA is an acronym for out-of-air... something no diver wants to (or should) experience. Here is what happened to us on a recent dive in the Florida Keys this year.


Almost all of the diving that Cheryl and I do in the Keys is relatively shallow with 30 foot maximum depths. There are abundant patch reefs and sealife in these depths and we tend to favor these over the deeper areas on the outside of the reef line. As a result of the shallow water, dives tend to last for an hour or more per tank.

I typically dive with 100 cubic-foot steel cylinders, while Cheryl favors her smaller 80 cubic-foot steel tanks. Our normal routine is to make a circuit around the reef area, returning to the boat near the end of our air supply. Since Cheryl has less air, she usually returns to the boat first and clips her gear to a float line I place behind the boat. I tend to finish off my tank searching the bottom near the boat and surface ten or fifteen minutes later.

On this particular dive, Cheryl had signaled to me that she was ready to return to the boat and I lead her over to where she could see the float line above us. She began her ascent and I returned my attention to a nearby coral head where I hoped to find a lobster. A few moments later, my peripheral vision caught sight of something sinking. I looked up to see one of Cheryl's dive fins falling to the bottom. I then looked up to see her swimming to the boat as her BC and tank began to sink rapidly to the sea floor. Only one dive fin remained attached to the float line above me!


Somewhat annoyed that she had been so sloppy about clipping her gear to the float (and had forgotten to inflate her BC), I swam over to retrieve the "lost" items. I tried to inflate her BC, but discovered that there was no air left in her tank! I immediately became much more concerned, grabbed the submerged gear and headed for the surface. Reboarding the boat, I was greatly relieved to find that she was completely ok. She told me she had tried to inflate her BC at the surface, but there had been no air left in the tank to do that. Her gear was so heavy though, that she couldn't swim with it so she had ditched it and then swam to the boat.

I told her that I was proud she hadn't panicked, but was concerned about two things: one - she had not managed her air supply properly (i.e. she shouldn't have waited so long to surface that she ran out of air), and two - that she ditched all her gear instead of just her dive weights. We discussed the incident for a while and agreed upon some new guidlines for her. She agreed to let me know when she was down to 1500 psi in her tank, whereupon we would begin our return to be near the boat for the end of the dive. She also agreed that once her pressure gauge got into the "red" zone on the gauge (around 750 psi), she would immediately surface and inflate her BC. If we should happen to be too far from the boat for her to be comfortable with a surface swim, she would stay at the surface while I returned to the boat, pull the anchor and then go back to get her (with the boat).

We also covered procedures that she should use when using the float line. She was in the habit of removing her fins first and clipping them to the float as she continued to breathe from her regulator. We discussed the problems with this and agreed that from now on, she would inflate her BC immediately upon reaching the surface, then clip the BC to the float and ditch it. She should also keep her fins on for her swim back to the boat.


We had been fortunate in that this had occured on a calm day with no current. Had conditions been windy and/or with a heavy current, she would have experienced much greater difficulty. The beauty of the dive site, along with the excellent diving conditions had led her to try and extend her dive beyond a safe limit - a mistake I am certain she will never again repeat.

Big Pine Key - 2008

Our journey to the Keys this year went off without a hitch. We left the house on Sunday morning at about 7:00am and arrived at Big Pine Key at 4:30pm. A long trip to be sure, but more than worth it for two weeks of fun in the sun!


Our first morning in the Keys, we loaded all six tanks and headed for Big Pine Shoal just a few miles south of our resort. The water was an azure blue as we skated over Hawks Channel on our way to the reef. Visibility on the reef itself was very nice, about 30 feet or so. The only problem was... there were no lobster! The reef was in beautiful shape with lots of growth and fish, but no lobster were around. We looked hard and made five different drops, burning all six tanks between the two of us. By the time we headed back in, we had three lobster and a few nice fish.


When we got back to the resort, we found that my parents had arrived in their RV and were camped at the first site next to our motel room. We chatted for a bit, then cleaned the fish/lobster and had dinner together. This essentially describes our entire trip! We had generally good weather and caught a few fish with the occasional lobster thrown in.


On Wednesday afternoon, my sister and her husband arrived after flying into Lauderdale and driving down to Big Pine. My mother had brought barbecued ribs from home and we had a terrific meal with the whole family. I love ribs, but the meal proved too rich for me and flared up both indigestion and a gout attack! The indigestion went away, but the gout is still hanging around.


Thursday dawned bright and clear, with no wind and we rallied everyone together for a trip out to Looe Key. This was something I had been trying to put together for several years and I couldn't have asked for a better day. Looe Key is the best snorkeling site in all the United States and it didn't dissapoint on this day. My sister was enthralled and spent most of the afternoon face down in the water watching the myriad fish swim about. Back at the boat, I demonstrated the voracity of the local yellowtail population by tossing crackers into the water near the rest of our group. The water would boil as huge schools of snapper raced to intercept the incoming treats even before they hit the water. We all enjoyed the barbequed pork sandwiches my mother had prepared and returned to camp at midafternoon.


Now was the time for the big fish fry! My sister loves fried fish (don't we all?) and the previous days of diving had provided a nice sampling of various species for the fry pot. Red grouper, hogfish, mangrove snapper and yellowtail snapper were all cut into fingers and fried up along with a heap of hush puppies! Oh boy... another night of indigestion for me, but the fish fry was a big success!


Cheryl and I went diving the next day, but the calm weather had given way to 15 to 20 knot winds and three foot seas inside the reef. That's certainly diveable, but Cheryl had forgotten to take her seasick pills and got the mal de mer after one dive. I noticed that the boat was listing to the right more than usual when we reboarded the boat and (combined with Cheryl's nausea) decided to head back to the resort.


After the boat was tied up back at the dock, I pulled the transom hatch on the right sponson to check the bilge, only to find that it was completely full of water all the way to the top of the hatch... yikes! The float switch and the bilge pump had both failed. Fortunately I had a manual pump and began the arduous process of emptying the bilge by hand. Once I got the water level down to a manageable level, I bummed a ride with my sister into town and bought a replacement pump. The float switch still didn't work, but the pump would suffice to keep the bilge dry - I just had to remember to manually switch it on. I traced the leak to the transducer cable which was run through the transom below the water line. Not a huge leak, but enough to be a problem docked overnight. I used some epoxy putty to reduce the leak even further, but plan to re-route that cable above the water line and fill the hole later.


The Key deer were plentiful at the campground (as always) and we would take a walk each evening to see them freely roaming the grounds. There was one buck that had been fighting and had a number of wounds around his neck. Every picture I took of him showed glowing eyes and I named him "demon deer". He seemed very aggressive and would paw at the ground while staring at us, so we gave him a wide berth. Others were outrageously friendly and would approach looking for handouts. Feeding the Key deer is a no-no, but these had obviously become accustomed to people feeding them.


My family stayed with us through the rest of the first week and then departed for home on Sunday leaving Cheryl and I to enjoy each others company for the second week of our vacation. I wish I could say that we finally found the lobster, but we only had one really successful day when we managed to catch ten spiney lobster and three shovelnose.


The diving was beautiful and the weather cooperated with only a few windy days (nothing the SeaBrat couldn't handle though). As we settled up our account on Saturday morning, Cheryl made sure to make our reservations for the same time next year. We can both hardly wait!

Scallops 2008

Captain Wilson (seen above in full doofus gear) issued a summons to appear at his house on Saturday, September 6th. Scallops had been observed gathering at the entrance to the Chassahowitzka River, possibly in preparation for a full scale invasion of the Gulf Coast. Our mission was to collect a generous sample of these invaders and thoroughly question them in an attempt to reveal their evil plan before the end of the day. Myself, Captain Wilson and Captain Bear drove up to the cabin on the river where we met Jeff for a full assault on the local scallop population.

It was a complete slaughter as we descended into the briny depths in search of our quarry. They tried to hide, they tried to run, but they were no match for our elite diving skills. Within a few short hours, our task was complete and we had managed to capture a large number of these shelled creatures.


Captain Wilson let our captives chill out in an icey cooler as we slowly motored back into the river. He selected a small shady cove just off the main channel as the perfect location to question our now subdued bivalves. We tried waterboarding, kitchen knives and even spoon torture, but all refused to talk. Each one was questioned in turn, but immediately clammed up. We carefully extracted what we wanted, but none ever cracked. Ok, a couple cracked, but I was still able to scrape out what I was seeking with careful application of my chosen torture implement, a simple table spoon. It took hours and we let the soft silt of the cove bottom slowly swallow their corpses to hide our crimes. As we left the cove, we iced down the final evidence and headed for the swimming hole to clean their grisly remains from our own bodies.


One lonely manatee was strolling around the cool waters of the submerged spring and I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures as the rest of the team scrubbed their clothing clean of all scallop residue. The manatee was chowing down on any greenery that it could find and we left it to prepare our own meal of lightly fried scallops, rice, some fresh steamed peas and a pasta salad prepared in advance by Captain Bear.


My comrades in arms decided to celebrate our victory after our meal by heading to a local watering hole called The Freezer. As for myself, I had not gotten to bed until 2:30am and risen at 5:00am for the drive up. I was just too tired to go with them and chose to take a shower and hit the sack.

None of our captives ever talked, and we will have to try once again next year should they begin gathering in such numbers once again.

Night Trip to 50 Mile Wreck

Well, the weather finally cooperated and Martha met Cheryl and I at the Seminole boat ramp at 6:00pm last Saturday for an overnight trip to a wreck 50 miles west of Clearwater Pass. This spot is one of my favorites and has almost always been a good producer.

We spent more than an hour trying to catch bait with no luck and we didn't reach our waypoint until after dark. There was a strong surface current out of the west and we had no trouble positioning the boat directly over the wreck. We set out the underwater light and soon squid were swimming in big schools around it, some up to two feet in length! Unfortunately, they stayed deep and swam too fast to sabiki them and the squid jigs I bought were completely ignored. Martha succeeded in catching a nice mangrove snapper, but after several hours with no bites we decided to try to re-anchor.

I had just reset the anchor, deployed the chum bag and the night light when Martha had a massive hit that nearly spun her around where she sat on a cooler! I assisted her with the rod for several minutes before she gave up and handed it off to me. After a few more minutes, I found myself sitting on the floor and bracing the rod over the gunnel. I kept as much pressure on as I thought the 65lb. test spectra line could hold, but it was quite some time before I could get the fish up off the bottom. When our quarry was finally cranked to the surface, we were all disappointed to find ourselves staring at a huge stingray! Martha cut the leader to free the beast and we went back to fishing. Well, Martha went back to fishing while I lay panting on the floor of the boat trying to catch my breath!

The rest of the night proved uneventful, and I took a nap from about 4:30am to sunrise. We pulled anchor and set out a few trolling rods as we headed back in with our nearly empty fish box. We did have two good strikes, but both came unbuttoned before we could get them close enough to identify them. After a couple of hours of trolling, I decided to head back to the hard bottom area where we caught our grouper on our last trip back in May.

After a 30-minute boat ride, we arrived at the spot and started drifting sardines on bottom rigs. The red grouper were still there and we started catching them immediately. I was the first to land a keeper, a 23-inch red grouper that went directly in the fish box. A few minutes later, Martha scored with a 26-incher which joined the first one in the box. I landed the last keeper, a nice 28-inch red grouper that finished out our limit, so we pulled in our lines and headed back to the dock. At least we (I) had a few fish to clean!

As we headed in with the autopilot steering the way, I leaned back in my seat contemplating on how we had a few fish and nothing on the boat had broken when suddenly the back of the seat snapped off! Damn, now I had to sit up for the rest of the ride home and we reached the dock about noon.

Both seat backs had been loose since I bought the boat and I had fixing them on my list for quite a while. As it turned out, the plywood backing was rotted out around the now very rusty bolts which had snapped off. I considered having both of them reupholstered, but decided to just replace the plywood and bolts myself, putting off the reupholstery job for later. Originally the seat backs had been bolted to the console with carriage bolts, but I decided to use stainless steel t-nuts with 1/4-inch bolts. I just now finished that task and both seats have very solid backs once again. Except for the weathered vinyl, the seats are like new!

Now I just need to install the remote spotlight I bought last month and the boat will be ready for the next night trip, which will hopefully be in the next couple of weeks. This time we will head to a nice ledge area about 25 miles out in search of snapper once again.

First Trip: 2008

So, the Sea Brat has been sitting on the trailer since Cheryl and I got back from the Keys last fall. We did make a few half-hearted attempts in the spring, but the weather never really cooperated. Finally, at the end of May, we got a break and left Clearwater Pass a little after 7:00 am.

First stop - catching bait, which was everywhere. We loaded the livewell with huge threadfin, blue runners, pigfish and pinfish. Within an hour, we were ready to head offshore and fish. The wind was blowing out of the east and by the time we reached the Rube Allyn Reef, things were a little choppy. We idled around until we found a culvert pile with the sonar, dropped a marker on it and anchored up. Martha quickly hooked up and began cranking in her catch when it nearly yanked her over the side! I jumped over and helped hold and lift the rod while she cranked the reel. A few moments later the enormous shape of a Goliath Grouper (aka Jewfish) appeared beneath the boat. Almost immediately, it spit out Martha's grouper and swam back down to the bottom. We fished for another hour with little success before moving on.

Our second drop for the day was the "cave" area southwest of Pinellas County Number 2 Reef. It's not really a cave, but a deeply undercut ledge. We've done well on grouper this time of year here in the past, but after multiple anchorings and hours of attempts, we still had no fish in the box.

I was contemplating running further offshore to a wreck in 120 feet of water. It always seems to hold good numbers of fish, but would take more than an hour to get there. Scanning my notebook of waypoints, I settled on a flat hard bottom area just 3 miles to our west. Ten minutes later we arrived and quickly dropped a marker. The wind had settled quite a bit and we were able to drift the area effectively. The red grouper were definitely there in numbers, and quite a few of them were large enough to keep. Martha brought up the big boy of the day, a nice red grouper about 26" in length. All of the larger grouper that we brought up spit up a lot of interesting critters including two fairly large octopus, squid and frequently our baits from previous drops! Martha and I had no problems using regurgitated bait, but Cheryl refused on principle. Within an hour, we had caught our limits and decided to head for home.

Big Pine Key 2007 (Week 2)

Sunday morning we awoke to tropical showers and wind. With a small craft advisory up, we decided to abandon our diving and fishing plans for the day. We spent the morning in the room, watching TV and reading books. The lodge has quite a collection of paperbacks and we had no problem finding one to occupy our time.

In the afternoon, the rain had ended and we took a walk on the adjacent beach. Big Pine Key is the heart of the Key Deer refuge and there are always a few browsing through the campground.

Monday, unfortunately, was a repeat of the previous day. The small craft advisory was still in effect and rain continued throughout the day. We did manage to catch a break in rain for a little walk, and as we returned to our rental unit I heard a loud "whoosh" sound come from next to the boat. A manatee had made its way into the canal and was lounging right next to the Sea Brat! Cheryl and I spent a half hour or more, just watching him (it?) as it continued to rise and submerge before it finally moved on.

When we awoke on Tuesday, we were greeted with sunny skies and the wind had subsided enough for the small craft advisory to be lifted. So of course we quickly loaded up the boat and headed back out to Big Pine Shoal. I still had a few spots that we hadn't gone to the previous week and we were hopeful that the tropical weather had prompted more lobster to move in on the reef. We were not disappointed as the water was very clear and we managed to bag our daily limit of lobster (6 each for a total of 12).

I found a new dive spot for our second dive and the bonus for the day was when Cheryl swam away from me to investigate a coral head, she spooked a big black grouper which swam away from her and right at me! He noticed me a moment too late and found himself making a mad dash into a hole with my spear firmly embedded in his skull. He stirred up so much silt in his little cave that it took 20 minutes for the water to clear up enough that I could find him. It always amazes me how these big fish can squeeze themselves into such small openings, but find him I did. He was a carbon copy of the one I had taken two days before, measuring 30 inches and 15 pounds! Finally, I was going to be spending more than 5 minutes at the fish cleaning station.

Wednesday, the wind had died back down to nothing and we were able to do two dives and then head offshore for some more trolling. The dives were nice, though the water had gotten murkier than the day before. We even had a visit from a curious dolphin (mammal) during our second dive. I had been hearing their clicks, pops and squeals for a while and knew there were some around. Cheryl was focusing on trying to coax a lobster out of its hole when a large dolphin appeared behind her. It was very curious as to what she was doing and approached to within a couple of feet of her. I poked her to get her attention and pointed to the dolphin which was still watching her intently. It rolled its head from side to side, trying to get a better look while we remained motionless watching to see what it would do next. It soon got bored and disappeared. Although we didn't manage to get a limit of lobster, we did better than previous days with a total of 10 for the day. The trolling action was a little slow, but we came home with a nice dolphin (fish) for our efforts and prepared blackened mahi for dinner that night.

Thursday, we were again blessed with calm seas and sunshine. We made our last trip out to Big Pine Shoal and did two dives on spots we had dove the previous week. Where were all the lobster? Our theory that a bunch had moved in with the tropical weather was not holding up and we only found three! We followed our dives with several hours of offshore trolling, but the flat seas and bright sun seemed to put the fish off their feed and we didn't catch a thing.

Friday we slept in and started packing up for our drive home. We pulled the boat out of the water at high tide and loaded up our belongings for the long trip home on Saturday. We started home early Saturday morning and arrived at our home in the early evening. Nothing is so tiring as trailering a 5-ton boat over the road like that, so we put off unloading and cleaning until Sunday.

We're already looking forward to next year!

Big Pine Key 2007 (Week 1)

Team SeaBrat (Cheryl and I) headed down to Big Pine Key for a 2-week vacation on September 22, 2007. Unlike last year, when we had a trailer tire blow out and nearly wrecked, the trip down (and back) was uneventful! We arrived at the fishing lodge around 6pm, launched the boat and unpacked for our stay. We had a 2 bedroom efficiency right on the canal with the boat docked just a few steps from our door.

Sunday morning, we got up and headed out for a 2-tank dive at Big Pine Shoal just a short boat ride from the lodge. Cheryl brought along her new underwater digital camera complete with strobe to practice her photography skills. Our first drop was on a spot we named "Black Rock" due to all the black grouper there when we first found it.

No big blackies this time, but a nice fat red grouper was quickly speared (after a short modeling session for Cheryl and her camera) and our dinner plans were fulfilled. We swam the entire patch of reef searching for lobster, but only found a couple.

For our second dive, we moved about a quarter mile to another nearby patch reef named spot "I" which had produced many lobster in the past few years. The rechargeable batteries in Cheryl's camera had given out so she grabbed her tickle stick and net to join me in the hunt! On this dive we stumbled onto an even larger red grouper, about 26", and added him to our catch. Although the reef was in great shape and recovering well from the hurricanes a couple of years ago, there were just not many lobster to be found. I speared a few mango snapper to add to our dinner plans. At least it wouldn't take long to clean our catch!

Monday we decided to be a little lazy and slept in before heading back out to hunt for more lobster and fish. We returned to nearby Big Pine Shoal since the wind was making the water a bit rough. Our first dive was "BPS-003" and like the day before the water was beautifully clear. The dive was great, but we failed to find any lobster at all!

After a short surface interval, we moved further south to a patch reef near to the deep water drop off. We managed to find a few lobster here, but things weren't looking like a good lobster season for us!

Tuesday morning we arose early and loaded scuba tanks and fishing rods for a nice long day on the water. The wind had finally subsided and we wanted to make the most of the day. We went back to Big Pine Shoal for two more dives, one at BPS-001 and the second at BPS-005. We collected a few lobster and I shot a couple of mango snapper. After our second dive we put away the dive gear and put out the trolling rods, heading to the deeper offshore waters to our south. We trolled surface lures and one deep runner for several hours, picking up a number of small, bait-sized bonita and one "keepable" dolphin. It was a nice day, but long, and I was thankful there weren't more fish to clean!

Wednesday, we awoke to thunderstorms and windy weather. We decided to go out for breakfast and then do some shopping. When we got back to our room that afternoon, the skies had cleared and the wind calmed, so we grabbed the rods and headed back offshore to do some trolling. It was almost a repeat of the previous day as we continued to catch small bonito and another small dolphin.

Thursday morning we arose early, anticipating clear sunny skies and flat calm seas. For once, the weatherman actually got it right so we loaded up for a 3-tank dive trip and headed all the way over to American Shoal, a much longer trip than Big Pine Shoal. We've done well there in the past and we made three stops at patch reefs. Although the lobster were still eluding us, I did manage to spear several nice snapper, triggerfish and a couple of small rock hind grouper. Cheryl tried her camera, but the batteries died after just a few pictures. I gave up on them and we bought some new rechargeable ones at the local Radio Shack. I know, hard to believe it, but there actually was one on Big Pine Key right next to the Winn Dixie grocery store - convenient!

Friday we headed back to Big Pine Shoal and hit two spots near the shoal marker on the outside (deeper) edge of the reef. We managed to pick up a three or four lobster and I found a lobster net and tickle stick lying on the bottom. On the second dive, I found a reef anchor with about 200 feet of rope still attached. Someone had a bad day, but found gear is always the luckiest! After our two dives, we ran south for more trolling, but sadly not even the bonito were biting!

Saturday already - it was hard to believe our first week of vacation was already over! The weather forecast was for increasing wind and rain as a tropical system approached. We decided to go back to Big Pine Shoal and tough things out before they got worse. The water was a little rough but still diveable. Our first dive produced a couple of lobster, but on the second dive I spotted a large black grouper hiding behind a coral head. He was holding still with just his head showing and I was able to get solid shot on him. He promptly holed up inside the coral, which was hollowed out underneath. It took me nearly 10 minutes to get him out of there, but during the process a big lobster decided he had had enough of all the activity and wandered out of the hole. I grabbed and bagged him, then managed to pull my fish out next. The grouper measured 30-inches and weighed 15 pounds - nice fish! With the wind kicking up, it was too rough to troll so we headed back in, happy with the day and the end of our first week of vacation.

Scallops!

Team SeaBrat Pillages the Scallop Grounds!

Back in August, team mate Chris invited the SeaBrat crew to his cabin on the Chassahowitzka River for a trip to the fabled scallop grounds. Leaving the tanks and spearguns behind, we ventured out on his 21 foot Carolina Skiff for a sweet day on the water with perfect weather. Chris's grandfather once had a cabin on an island near the mouth of the river, and Chris regaled us with stories from the past and his experiences there.

We only made two stops to collect our limit. The water was warm, reasonably clear and shallow, making the diving very enjoyable. We found the scallops to be fairly large (for bay scallops anyway) and present in large numbers.

It took us almost as long to clean them as it did to catch them, partly because I didn't catch on to the trick of cleaning them until we were nearly done!

June 06 Middlegrounds

The Florida Middlegrounds in June! Perfect weather and nice long days on the water for Team SeaBrat. I got my best gag to date and one of the larger reds that I have taken in quite a while.



















While team mate Chris took this beautiful Hogfish!

















Of course, on the ride back everyone else relaxes in their bean bags while yours truly pilots the boat home. Thank god for the auto-pilot! It makes those long rides a lot easier on me.