Builder Ritchie Howell provides a guided walk through of the “Galatea”— a 60′ vessel he built seven years ago. Listed with Michael Rafferty of IYC, the Galatea is a beautiful boat whose story is told by the man who built her.
InTheBite Dock Talk: Tropic Star Lodge in Pinas Bay, Panama
Panama’s Tropic Star Lodge has been a staple of the sportfishing landscape since 1963. The present is a very interesting time at Tropic Star.
This all access pass provides a look at one of the most unique and historic fishing operations in the world:
Read Tradition and Trajectory at Tropic Star in our latest issue of InTheBite
Broker Listing: Donnie Caison 49’ Custom Carolina Express “SPARHAWK”
Meet your next fishing machine! The 2010 Donnie Caison 49’ Custom Carolina Express, “SPARHAWK”, is a true cold-molded Custom Carolina built sportfish. She is a proven fish raiser and tournament champion with a ride and fuel efficiency that are unparalleled for a vessel of her size. “SPARHAWK” is the recipient of meticulous maintenance, continuous custom upgrades, and an electrical refit in 2018 in excess of $300,000. If you are in the market for a beautiful, head turning, hard core custom express boat, your search should start and end with “SPARHAWK”.
Below please find a summary of highlights onboard The “SPARKHAWK”:
- Cold molded custom Carolina construction
- Unparalleled ride and fuel efficiency
- Mezzanine seating
- C 9 CAT power
- Zeus pod drives with Joystick control
- Skyhook dynamic positioning system
- 2018 extensive refit
- 8000 series GARMIN fully networked electronics package
- FLIR night vision
- EPLEX state of the art electrical system with touch screen breaker panel and ship board monitoring system
- SAT TV and phone system
- Custom full anodized aluminum tower with clear ceramic coating
- Ice chipper
- Water maker
- Custom faux teak painted transom and toe rail
- Miya Epoch US9 super HD electric teaser reels (NEW 2018)
- 2018 custom SEA DECK on helm deck
- Unprecedented rod storage for over 30 rods out of sight in custom storage lockers
- Fresh bottom paint and prop speed 6/18
SEE MORE ON THE 2010 Donnie Caison 49’ Custom Carolina Express, “SPARHAWK” HERE
Willy Vac – 2019 Latest Model
Owner Bill Wallace shows us the latest model of the Willy Vac— a system that vacuums up standing water in the trouble areas that every boat has.
New High-Resolution Charts and Maps From Garmin
Garmin® adds high-resolution relief shading to its premium BlueChart® g3 Vision and LakeVü g3 Ultra cartography
New charts and maps offer unrivaled detail and enhancements
OLATHE, Kan./Feb. 13, 2019/Business Wire – Garmin International, Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRMN), today announced that it has added high-resolution relief shading to its exclusive BlueChart g3 Vision and LakeVü g3 Ultra cartography products for coastal and inland fishing and boating. High-resolution relief shading brings an entirely new level of detail to the ocean floor and lake bottom, making it easier than ever to find structure, artificial reefs, underwater shelves and more – the kind of detail anglers and divers depend on.
With industry-leading coverage, clarity and detail, Garmin’s new g3 cartography blends the best of both Garmin and Navionics content together, and offers enhancements like built-in Auto Guidance1 technology that searches through relevant charts to create a suggested route based upon the user’s desired depth and overheard clearance. For mariners who want the most feature-rich data available, the premium BlueChart g3 Vision and LakeVü g3 Ultra accessory cards and downloads include everything available with g3, and now for the first time, add high-resolution relief shading that combines color and shadow to give mariners an easy-to-interpret, clearer view of bottom structure than contour lines alone. Garmin’s high-resolution relief shading is available with coverage for U.S. coastal waters – east coast, west coast and Gulf of Mexico – along with more than 150 Garmin-surveyed lakes.
“The recent upgrades we’ve made to our g3 cartography products – more detail, dimension and routing sophistication – is a true testament to our long-standing commitment to continually improving our cartography to give our customers the highest quality and most detailed, accurate charts and maps on the water today,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin worldwide vice president of consumer sales. “We’re excited to offer high-resolution relief shading to our premium BlueChart g3 Vision charts and LakeVü g3 Ultra maps and look forward to continuing to bring even more detail to our customers.”
The new Garmin g3 cartography products brings unrivaled detail and convenience to users with navigational aids, spot soundings, depth contours, tides and currents, and detailed harbors and marinas. The data offers seamless chart presentation with up to 1-foot fishing contours that provide a more accurate depiction of bottom structure for improved fishing charts and enhanced detail in canals, marinas and port plans. Raster cartography that gives the chartplotter paper-chart like views of NOAA nautical charts, has also been added to the new g3 cartography product line and is available as a free downloadable feature via the Garmin ActiveCaptain® app.
In addition to high-resolution relief shading, BlueChart g3 Vision also includes high-resolution satellite imagery that provides the user with a realistic view of their surroundings. Unique 3-D views, including MarinerEye and FishEye, provide additional perspective both above and below the water line, and aerial photography shows exceptional detail of many ports, harbors and marinas, which is especially useful when entering unfamiliar ports. For inland customers, LakeVü g3 Ultra includes maps of more than 17,000 lakes with up to 1-foot contours. Of those, over 150 are Garmin Elite surveyed lakes with high-resolution satellite imagery, multi-beam sonar views shore-to-shore, side scan photos and photos of notable spots above the water too.
The new BlueChart g3 Vision and LakeVü g3 Ultra accessory cards and downloads vary in price from $249.99 to $349.99 and will be available with high-resolution relief shading in Q2 2019. At this time, high-resolution relief shading and raster charts are only available for the U.S. Availability for other regions is expected in Q4 2019. To learn more, visit garmin.com/maps.
Garmin is the world’s leading marine electronics manufacturer2 and was recently named Manufacturer of the Year for the fourth consecutive year by the NMEA, an honor given to the most recognized marine electronics company for support of products in the field. Garmin’s portfolio includes some of the industry’s most sophisticated chartplotters and touchscreen multifunction displays, sonar technology, high-definition radar, autopilots, high-resolution mapping, sailing instrumentation, audio, entertainment and other products and services that are known for innovation, reliability, and ease-of-use. Other Garmin marine brands include FUSION Entertainment, Navionics, a premier supplier of electronic charts, and EmpirBus.
For decades, Garmin has pioneered new GPS navigation and wireless devices and applications that are designed for people who live an active lifestyle. Garmin serves five primary markets, including automotive, aviation, fitness, marine, and outdoor recreation. For more information, visit Garmin’s virtual pressroom at garmin.com/newsroom, contact the Media Relations department at 913-397-8200, or follow us at facebook.com/garmin, twitter.com/garmin, instagram.com/garmin or youtube.com/garmin.
The Young Guns of Sportfishing: Chris Kubik
By Elliott Stark
Although you have to be pretty dedicated to fishing to buy and run a bluewater charter boat, there are some people whose desire to make a sportfishing career happen goes the extra mile. Captain Chris Kubik is one of those people. Having grown up in Atlanta, Kubik travelled to the Outer Banks in the summers as a child. When he was 16, he saved up enough to charter a boat. After catching a white marlin, he was hooked.
Growing up Kubik would read anything about fishing he could get his hands on – magazines, fishing reports, you name it. “I read a story about a guy who wanted to fish and headed to the dock to start handing out ice until he got a job fishing…So that’s what I did,” Kubik recalls.
“I loaded up my Honda Accord and headed to Oregon Inlet. I drove overnight from Atlanta, it took about nine hours. I got there early and slept in my car for an hour and I started handing out ice. I got a job on an inshore boat about three weeks later and started picking up freelance offshore trips from there,” he says.
Kubik rented a place to sleep while waiting for his fishing dreams to materialize. Does this sound like an awesome thing to do? “It definitely was not awesome. It was terrible. I rented a piece of crap trailer – it was the most God-awful place you could imagine. It was rented by the week, if that tells you anything. There was a house on some land with a bunch of trailers on the property. It was a bunch of crackheads and me. I was afraid to unload my stuff out of my car because they might have stolen it,” Kubik says.
Kubik worked on the inshore boat over the summer and soon made friends with a mate who had an extra room where he stayed. His living conditions improved and Kubik has never looked back. “Fin Gaddy had an opening,” Chris recalls. An owner/operator, Gaddy runs the Qualifier, a 54-foot Mann, out of Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. “I knew the mate who was leaving and Fin let me freelance for a couple of days. I’m not sure why he hired me because to be honest at the time I was not very good… I guess he thought he could teach me and he did.”
Captain Chris Kubik – Point Runner, 60-foot Guthrie
Kubik would fish with Gaddy for ten years. Fin provides a bit of perspective on what makes Kubik such a force on the water. “He just has a competitive spirit about him. When I first met him, he’d only fished a little bit offshore. He was such a genuinely nice and sincere person that it almost made me uncomfortable,” Gaddy says with a bit of a laugh. Soon after hiring Kubik, Gaddy and the Qualifier headed to Isla Mujeres, Mexico. “He’d never caught a sailfish. After two days he’d caught 58. It was sort of a trial by fire. Chris got to learn in the right places. It was his dream to come here and fish and he made it happen.”
“Fin taught me everything I know about marlin fishing – teasers, dredges, maneuvering on fish. Attention to detail was the biggest thing – the importance of keeping everything perfect… knots, connections, everything. He is very meticulous in that regard,” Kubik recalls. “If he wanted to teach me to rig something on our day off, he would pull out five or six mackerel and show me how to do it. A lot of guys won’t do that because they don’t want to waste the bait.”
“When I left the Qualifier, I started mating on the Point Runner. I would run it when Capt. Danny Wadsworth (owner/operator) needed a day off. I worked there for three years and bought it last year,” says Kubik. The Point Runner is a 60-foot Guthrie powered by c12.9 Cats. Kubik’s operation is based out of the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. Kubik follows in one of sportfishing’s greatest traditions – the North Carolina owner/operator charterman.
When asked about the lessons he has learned along the way, Kubik provides some wise perspective. “Spend time learning before you think about moving up,” he says. Advice to young guys breaking into the industry? “Don’t feel like you deserve anything… because you don’t. These days it seems like there is a lot of entitlement. All the young kids want to be paid to ride out. Don’t be afraid to start on the bottom and work your way up. If you work hard and are motivated, you’ll succeed in fishing. If you look around at tournaments, most guys pull the same thing. But if you pay attention to detail, you can stand out.”
You can find Captain Chris Kubik and the Point Runner available for charter out of Oregon Inlet most of the year. In the winter time, Kubik runs a private boat – the Sea Hag, a 61-foot Blackwell – in Florida and Isla Mujeres. If you’d like to book a trip with Captain Chris Kubik, send him a note at Chris@pointrunner.com
or visit www.pointrunner.com.
November Sportfish Sales
Here are some boats of interest sold this November. Congratulations to both the buyers and sellers.
Note: Final selling prices are not displayed.
SLO-FIGHT
2011 42’7” Viking
Engines: Cummins QSC 8.3 Zeus
Hours: 633
List Price: $695,000
Sold Date: 11/9/2018
OUTLAW
2013 50’ Viking
Engines: MAN
Hours:
List Price: $1,395,000
Sold Date: 11/15/2018
Sold By: HMY Yacht Sales
JOLLY ROGER
2000 55’ Viking
Engines: MAN 2842LE
Hours: n/a
List Price: $539,000
Sold Date: 11/27/2018
Sold By: HMY Yachts
Blue Water Desalination Shares Lastest All-in-One Watermaker System
The New Legend ClearMate can produce Ultra Pure Water from either Seawater or Dock Water
Long Beach, California (November 9,2018) – Blue Water Desalination (BWD) proudly unveiled the all-new Legend ClearMate during the 2018 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. This newest model in their impressive watermaker lineup uses the same leading-edge technology as the popular Legend Series to provide fully automatic operation. However, the Legend ClearMate is an “all in one” machine that can produce ultra-pure water from either dock water or sea water. This system is available in several different configurations and production outputs to best meet each customer’s needs.
The Legend ClearMate’s innovative dual-feed capability from seawater or dock water provides three modes of operation:
- Sea Water to Fresh Water
- Sea Water to Ultra Pure Water
- Dock Water to Ultra Pure Water
Rated production with seawater from 1,200 to 1,850 GPD (4,540 LPD to 7,000 LPD) and with dock water from 2,000 to 2,800 GPD (7,570 LPD to 10,600 LPD).
Features & Advantages:
- Fully automatic operation
- Compact design
- NMEA 2000 compatible
- Fresh Water Flush system
- Optional 5″ remote touchscreen control
- High Rejection membranes
- Product water Carbon filter
- Dual voltage 50/60 Hz Motors
- Stainless steel booster pump shaft
- Designed for ease of service & maintenance
Large vessels can now enjoy ultra pure water anywhere in the world, whether at port or at sea thanks to the new Legend ClearMate from Blue Water Desalination.
For more information about Blue Water Desalination including watermaker products, dealer and service locations and product specifications please visit BlueWaterDesalination.com
Viking Announces 38 Billfish Unveiling in February
The Viking Yacht Company is proud to announce the addition of three new boats to its industry-leading sportfishing fleet: the 38 Billfish, 38 Open and 46 Billfish. The 38 Billfish is an evolution of the highly successful 37 Billfish and another example of Viking faithfully carrying out its mission to build a better boat every day.
Viking President and CEO Pat Healey delivered the news to the Viking dealer network moments before the gates opened for the first day of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.
The 38 Billfish was designed and built with the same DNA as its predecessor. As owner/operator vessels, they offer simplicity and ease of maintenance, serving as ready-to-go fishing machines as well as versatile cruising boats with reliable inboard diesel power.
Like her convertible brethren, the 38 Billfish’s flybridge is designed with a tournament-style center console walk-around helm. One helm chair is standard and two are optional.
The 38 Billfish’s command deck holds a salon-like living area that includes a port-side U-shaped dinette and a fiberglass hi-lo table. The cockpit is the largest in its class-109 square feet with mezzanine seating. Below, there’s a large forward stateroom available with either a single queen bed or optional crossover bunks and two hanging lockers; an L-shaped galley; and a head with enclosed shower.
The 38 Billfish and 38 Open share the same hull, cockpit and have a similar mechanical arrangement but differ in command deck and bridge configurations.
The 38 Open’s command deck also has ample seating, with port and starboard L-shaped lounges and storage below. A raised centerline command station gives the driver excellent sightlines. Accommodations include a forward stateroom with a lower double bunk and upper single and a hanging locker; a starboard-side sofa with storage; a port-side galley; and a head with enclosed shower.
Soon to join the 38 Billfish and 38 Open is the 46 Billfish, another exciting new model with sharp styling, exciting performance and legendary Viking quality. During the 37 Billfish‘s 2-year run of success, demand grew for this style of a Viking in a larger size. “The 46 was a natural progression for the Billfish,” says John Leek IV, General Manager of Viking Mullica where the Billfish series is being manufactured. “Our customers really grasped onto the philosophy behind these boats.”
The 38 Billfish will make her debut at the Viking VIP, hosted by the Viking Yacht Service Center in Riviera Beach, Florida, February 1st and 2nd. Introductions of the 46 Billfish and 38 Open are slated for later in 2019 and both will debut during the fall boat show season.
Next Generation Gamefisherman: 43′ Walk Around Specs
43 Walk Around SPECS:
LOA: 43′ | Beam: 14’6″ | Draft: 2’6″
Displacement: 25,000 lb. | Fuel: 600 gal.
Water: 50 gal. | Power: Quad 350 Hp Outboards.
Gamefisherman News –
For several months, we have only shown bits and pieces of information on the latest NEX GEN series of Gamefisherman’s. In anticipation of the Fort Lauderdale show, we wanted to provide a brief description of what this recent model is all about. The first model to roll off of our assembly line will be a 43 walk around, and will be powered by quad 350 hp outboards. The oversized cockpit is equipped with a custom tackle station designed by our owner. It will be outfitted with Bausch American custom hardtop, carbon fiber outriggers and full air-conditioned helm deck with an isinglass enclosure. The Gamefisherman 43 walk around is thoughtfully designed for sport fishing with two 25 cubic feet in deck fish boxes and a 50 gallon livewell built into the transom. Below deck is a roomy V-berth forward with a large galley containing refrigeration and microwave, separate third bunk aft, spacious head and separate shower. The quad outboard engines are predicted to propel her to a cruise speed of 40 MPH, with a top end approaching 52 MPH.
