Opinions and INput

[Wdnich]

I am looking for input nad opinions on Black Watch boats. I have fished several times off older models while visiting Australia and was always impressed. Due to limited importation not alot of exposure for most in the states, so I figured the best way was to get input here where there is a larger exposure.

All opinons welcome good, bad, and ugly. Thanks.

[darbikrash]

First off there are two Black Watch brands, one US based (now defunct) based I think on a Ray Hunt (or Ted Hood) design? The other, which I think you refer to, is Australian (also defunct) and for a brief while imported into the US.

A friend of mine was the US importer, and there were about a dozen or so brought in ranging from 26’ to 40’ overall. The 40’ was by far the best hull, I believe it was based on the US Black Watch hull form, and in fact royalties were paid (or supposed to be paid) to the US designer. The 36’ was also a pretty good boat, but suffered from static trim problems (bow down when light on fuel) and like all Black Watch’s had gelcoat issues and generally not to US standards for build quality.

The 26’ was a fly bridge design with single diesel stern drive. It had a raised engine box in the aft cockpit, pretty much rendering the cockpit useless (a trip hazard) and was way too tender due to the high C/G of the fly bridge.

There was also a 30’ fly bridge, I never saw one of these and do not think any were brought into the US.

The 36’ and 40’ had surprisingly good rides, although the fly bridges are very small, as typical of Australian designs. Also the boats are built “to survey” which means many things but most relevant, the cockpit gunnels are way too wide, and too high off the water to gaff or release a fish without hanging way over the side.

Most were powered with “B” series Cummins, and were underpowered by US standards, a few had 420 HP Yanmars. I think a couple of 40's had "C" series Cummins. Some of the early 40’s were balsa cored below the waterline, these boats had problems (only one that I know of was brought into the US, in Florida) the rest were solid glass and were brought mostly into the West coast, Mexico, and a one or two to Hawaii. They are popular here because of the tuna tubes, live bait wells, and perception that they are a “big game” boat capable of handling big water, and I can’t deny that.

Bought right, a 40’ would be a great boat if you were willing to go through the boat top to bottom, repower for a more realistic speed, and likely rewire the boat front to back. Also, you might end up painting the gelcoat over, they put some kind of mold release in the tools that reacted with the gelcoat after exposure to the sun, and it yellowed on several boats I saw. One more thing, the fuel tanks leaked on a few of the California boats, the factory had to fly in guys to tear up the decks and replace the tanks. Make sure and pressure test the tanks as part of any survey.

The company was sold to a new group of investors with new management (PM me if you want the name) but I don’t think they produced many boats, and never exported any to the US, as far as I know.

Good luck