(Photo/Pepper Ailor)
By Capt. Scott “Fraz” Murie
Walking up and down the docks, I keep seeing that owners are having their boats outfitted with a few things they feel are must-haves to compete and keep their rigs running smoothly. First is the Furuno omnidirectional sonar. This machine is a real difference-maker when it comes to finding, targeting and catching fish. If you don’t have one, then it’s hard to bet against the guys that do—especially the captains who know how to use them! There is nothing automatic about these units. It takes time to learn to operate this machine, but once you get dialed in look out! The cost for one of these units is around $125,000 depending on the specific installation requirements.
Next are tuna tubes. Live baiting has become all the rage. If you are not packing 20 or 30 tubes aboard your boat nowadays, and you want to compete, you are just playing. Being able to fill all of your tubes while the bait is biting is a big deal. Just knowing that you have a couple dozen live baits on board is a beautiful thing because when you are on the bite bait can be hard to come by. So the more tubes you have the more opportunities you have to maximize your time on the water. Tuna tubes installed correctly with the right pump system and thru-hulls, and redundant pumps, are not cheap. The sky is the limit, but you can figure an easy $20,000.
One of the newest gadgets out that I really like is called ElectroSea. This unit basically eliminates all algae and barnacle growth within raw water lines and sea strainers that are connected to it. Think about it—after installing the ElectroSea CLEARLINE system in your boat, you will never have to run acid through your air conditioning system or any other raw water lines again. Every time you acid descale your air conditioning system, you are taking life out of the unit.
I can personally attest to how great these units work. Hooked to the boat’s raw water sources such as chillers, watermakers, ice makers and refrigeration, the device’s electrochlorination technology literally makes sea growth and barnacles a thing of the past. After installation, instead of cleaning your sea strainers once or twice a week, you will hardly ever have to clean them again. You’ll simply need to inspect them once or twice a week! These units installed run about $10,000 depending on how many systems are plumbed into the cell. Money well spent for sure. Gotta have it, they say.
Leave a Reply