My Australian Bellboy any ideas?

[Dave C]

Dennis,
My boat measures right about the same as yours, if I'm figuring the metric conversion correctly. We're still in the process of converting over to metric, if we ever do.

It measures 4.7 meters (16 feet) straight (not gunwhale), with a beam of 1.60 meters (5'10") best I can figure. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.


Not sure about the double posting problem, maybe our webmaster can help with that.

Bet you have great fishing there.
Best, Kent

16 feet = 4.8768 meters 5'10"= 70" = 1.778 meters
But you're close enough for boat work.

SORRY, Dave

[Rockdweller]

G'day Kent,
those extra 3ft make it a lot bigger in terms of waterline performance between wave crests, but I can see that otherwise it would behave similar to my Bellboy. I'd also imagine your transom is higher and takes a bigger engine.
I've got at 30hp with short leg pushing mine (40hp max) I'd guess you are 10~20hp above that? and maybe 20" leg.
Nice action shots by the way.

Dennis

[westerner]

G'day Kent,
those extra 3ft make it a lot bigger in terms of waterline performance between wave crests, but I can see that otherwise it would behave similar to my Bellboy. I'd also imagine your transom is higher and takes a bigger engine.
I've got at 30hp with short leg pushing mine (40hp max) I'd guess you are 10~20hp above that? and maybe 20" leg.
Nice action shots by the way.

Dennis

G'day Dennis,
Thanks for the action shot compliment. Our club founder Marty Loken is a talented photographer and sometimes does "photo shoots" at some of our events, and those shots were taken by him.
Yes, my transom measures 21 1/2". I have a 50hp longshaft on it right now. Bit of an over kill actually, according to the original brochure the transom was designed for two 25's. One of the members of our club had a Bell Boy 16 (same hull as mine) and had two Yamaha 25hp's on it and it performed perfectly. I had a 35hp on mine a few years ago and it did O.K. but with the 50hp I can load it up with no problem. Also, if I decide to go to a little bigger boat in the future I can just change the motor over.

The first photo shows my 35hp and the 8hp kicker that I mostly use for trolling. Yes, it rains a lot here, but fortunately not all of our events look like this!
The second photo shows me full out with the 35hp.

[westerner]

16 feet = 4.8768 meters 5'10"= 70" = 1.778 meters
But you're close enough for boat work.

SORRY, Dave

Dave,
Thanks for the correction, I was just using a tape that had feet on one side and metric on the other when I measured. The tape was really a great deal at a local yard sale! Hmmmmmmmm.

Hope this isn't a double posting also.

[Rockdweller]

Kent, that must have been a really budget measure to have been that far out! never had one more then a mm (0.004") out, and I buy cheap ones all the time since I keep losing them.
Now what springs to mind is since almost everywhere in the world uses metric other then USA, the chances are it was made in a metric country and that raises the question of which side of the tape was incorrect, since you would have to assume the country of manufacture would get its own measurements correct.
so unless your tape was made in the US maybe your boat actually is 4.7m (15'5") and not 16'?

not that it really matters..