roof top tinnie

Hi Shane
We use a 3.75 Topper Tracker from Mako Craft, formerly Stessl.
We find it a good compromise. Do you want a boat for the river or sea?
Cheers Lyndon

Hi Shane,

Blue fin make a solid high sided tinny, I've got a Horizon and its ok too

I'm not sure if this is factual but I was told by a rhino roof loaders rep that most roofs can take 80kgs, So any tinny less then that should be ok


Cheers Mike

Shane

Have a look at the SeaJay Angler series - 3.75m = 86Kg

Very high sided boat - I flog mine and all is good. Might be a bit light duty construction to bounce around on a roof rack in severe off road conditions though.

For heavy duty look at the Magnum series - 4.0m = 141 kg - bit heavy to load on and off a rack though. Very deep hull and tough constructed

Have a look at some posts by NormC - he did a huge amount of investigation into this and his final set up was awesome.

Cheers

A

Hello Shane,
You can't go past a Quintrex 3.75 Dart. Good depth for a tinnie, great hull shape for both comfort and safety and weighs about 80kg. It does well in reasonably heavy sea conditions (winds up to say 15knotts in Shark Bay). We carried ours on top of a GU patrol in various road conditions including GRR and the track into Bungles. We have the long shaft transom which is good when you hit the beach but is less convenient when packing the outboard into the truck. had it teamed up with a Honda 15hp, which was good but a little heavy for someone getting a little physically challenged with older age. We now have a 9.8hp Tohatsu which is great.
Hope these notes help.
Mike and Jan.

Being an ex pro fisho I'd seriously question your reasons for wanting a higher sided tinny. In inclement weather ALL tinny's ship water. The higher sided ones just have a heap more windage and get blown about a lot more - oh and they hold more water too when a wave 'drops in', thus requiring more bouyancy (which they don't have over a low sided boat).
Have a look at boats like the oceancraft spear fishing range - on the web. 3.6m lightweight vessel that is self bailing and has sponsons. More seaworthy than most vessels three times its size. Worth a little bit more than a pressed tinny, but you're not going to die in it.
P.S. Never confuse relative comfort with seaworthiness. :)

Good luck, fair weather and good fishing.

thanks for all the replies, will take it on board.

Shane.

Shane,
We carry a Sea Jay 3.95 Angler, a large rooftopper, but very comfortable and with it's deep V, performs very well in 'rough' water. We upgraded from a Quintrex 3.75 Dart for extra size, depth and stability. Mine weights 115KG as it has a 2mm bottom.

Another boat worth looking at is the Blue Fin 3.8 m. Not quite as deep as mine, but very good all the same. Nice and wide, very stable and lighter than mine.

The Quintrex Dart 3.95 is also a good option, but not as wide as mine or the Blue Fin 3.8, but light for it's size.

I don't think you need to go bigger than a 3.95 for a roof topper. It is all a compromise - length, depth, width, weight, strength, motor capacity, etc. The bigger the boat, the bigger the motor needed to power it. We carry a 30 HP 4 stroke (73 KG), but for most people, that is way too heavy.

I drew up a spreadsheet of all the specs for the boats I was interested in. Narrowed it down to 2 or three, then looked closely at the build, how I would carry, etc for them. Made the decision much easier.

For a roof topper, get one made with a flat foredeck. Much easier for loading and a good place to stand when throwing the cast net from the boat. For bigger boats, you will need a good boat loader with winch.

Good luck,

Norm C