340 SUNDANCER THREAD

Frank, my signature pic shows those side vents(with the blue lights). Is that where you're thinking of mounting rod holders?
 
Bruce thanks for the clarification. It helps a lot.

Answering your second post, yes...the sportsman package has four gunwale-mounted rodholders but now that you mention that space where your sweet lights are I'll have to look more carefully at how it's done. The two most aft holders I can see being behind that space, but the two mid-gunwale ones...hmmm? I'm going to look at SeaRay.com and see if they have a separate manual for the sportsman package and at yachtworld to look at some pics.
 
sporters78 said:
I have four gunwale rod holders on mine, if you need pics let me know
Click to expand...
Hey Steve that would be great! And we hope to follow in your footsteps to a live aboard. Well, we think we do. Anyway, I'll pm my email address. Thank you very much.

Bruce from the pics of the Sportsman and I'm guessing all the 340's like ours are the same, the gunwale is pretty wide. The space you have your lights looks to be about half the width. The rodholders are on the inside half.
 
That sounds right because my port vent cover was loose a couple of years ago and I took it off and re-installed it with some 4200 after cleaning and sanding the areas first. When you go in your bilge next time you can look under there and see about where you can put those rod holders. Just keep in mind your space needed for your canvas. Do you have the camper package on your boat? If so, I don't think that's gonna work with the back sunshade up while the poles are in the holders.
 
Frank, go to yacht world.com and search our year boats 2004-2007 and type in "Fishing Package" under the price range feature and there's a bunch of em out there with good photos to make your decision about the placement of the rod holders.


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Bruce that's another good point and it just saved me big time. I bought that set from the guy in california. It's actually pretty specialized, instead of the standard three bow folding frame this frame has a vertical support at each corner, a curved support connecting those two aft supports, and a support down the centerline. There's not the diagonal piece like on the usual frame. I haven't received it yet but should soon. Your point however is huge because it makes me recognize I should install the frame anchors to the hull first since they need to be specifically located, then install the rodholders. I have some swivel inserts that I can angle outward and lock so I can offset the rods say 15 and 30 or 45 degrees so as not to interfere at all with even those aft supports. Make the aft two 10-15 degrees and the mid gunwales's 30-45 degrees.
 
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I wonder how difficult it would be to remove the seat base altogether for fishing trips.

Bruce mentioned the seat base bolts to the deck. Looking at the parts manual and photos it looks like the aft forward-facing seat base is one piece beginning on the port side and around the bend to the end of the starboard step. The aft forward-facing bolster is one long piece that begins and ends at the same places but is attached directly to the hull sides and not the base. Being able to stand next to the hull and lean against a bolster is really nice when pulling in bigger fish.
 
Frank, how many people are you talking about being on the fishing trip(s) at a time? I just personally think that it's gonna be a royal PITA to remove the aft section of that seat, cause remember, you have to unbolt everything, get it off the boat, then go store it somewhere before you leave the marina.
 
Bruce I know you're right but I hope you're not. :smt101

I read your post last night and have continued to think about it. I don't know how many bolts there are and I guess they go thru the deck sole which means that I'd want to cover those holes so water and stuff doesn't get in them. I also don't know how heavy the base is. It would be just me and my wife so the weight of the base could be prohibitive. Can you tell me...in the parts manual it looks like the seat base has 3 sides...top, front, and bottom. Is that the case? The top has all the cutouts for storage so I just don't imagine it to be prohibitively heavy, but I don't know.

I'd really like to see how and where it attaches to the deck. If it's pretty straight-forward then I can see installing deck plates over those holes, or glassing them over...and maybe not bolt the base back in. There are other ways to secure the base. Man I wish I could find some pictures of that storage area. That's not likely to be a Yachtworld selling item unfortunately.

My parent's condo is just down the street from my slip, that's the temporary storage unit unless it can fit in the cabin while fishing. On a multi-day trip the condo would be better.
 
Frank, if it's just you and the wife, I think the swim platform is plenty of space to fish from. I went to Destin last year and while there we purchased a couple of folding Beach chairs and just stored them on the boat when we got back. Well since then I have pulled them out when we were at a poker run and a couple of other times while being anchored at the beach. Wow!!! Really comfortable and not too close quarters were they. The beauty of it is, you're sitting in the warmth of the sun on the swim platform, then, if you get too hot, just walk back in the cockpit area under the aft sunshade cover, pop a cold one and cool off. :thumbsup:
 
That sounds like a really good time! I can see it for bottom fishing our local reefs or casting jigs for mackerel and even kings when it's calm, I don't know about being out there in 2's. The chairs might work for that. I spend most of my time trolling though. Crawling for grouper, 4-5 mph or so for kings, and 6-7 for macks. I can't do that from the swim platform, but again...when anchored up...that sounds fun! In the Keys it's the same except kings are replaced by dolphin. However, just south of me are the Ten Thousand Islands. Have to be careful with deeper draught boats but there's a lot of sea trout and redfish up inside the rivers and estuaries that have good water. Not much difference between the swim platform and the casting deck of a bay boat. heck for that matter the bow of the boat is awesome. We bought those West Marine folding cushion things when they were on sale. They're great. But for straight up casting the bow might work too.

Good things to think about! Thanks Bruce!!!
 
Yes. It's the only way to fly.This model doesn't have fishing patterns which was an oversight of mine. Nothing like the programmed S turns. I have one on my Proline, too. That one has all the patterns. The Proline is only a 19 degree deadrise, it's a great boat but in 2's or better it slams while trolling. And running heavy it's 7000# which pales to the 15000# 21 degree deadrise of the 340. On calm days I still take the Proline out. It's rigged and ready. But the reason we got the 340 was to be able to enjoy fishing in sportier seas.
 
Ok good, Raymarine now has a remote control that's a plug and play setup for the autopilot. My buddies have this on their boats and a lot of times we are on the bow at idle speed and they are literally driving their boats via handheld remote control.
 
Has anyone re-propped their 8.1's on the 340 with amazing results?

I know 'amazing' is subjective but I'm not talking about a second or two less to plane, or a couple of mph added to the top end. I re-propped my Proline from the mercury recommended 17p to a 14p. My WOT range is now within 100 of the max. MPG improved 35% across the board. Cruise rpm decreased almost 500 rpm to achieve the same speed. Top end improved 8 mph, and time to plane decreased over 5 seconds. That's the kind of amazing I'm talking about.
 
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