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My boat is
a 26 foot Panga (Panga is a Japanese word for a machete-like
blade). These boats are pound-for-pound some of the most
seaworthy, efficient boats in the world. They are roughly the
same shape as New England dories, surf rescue boats, North Sea
commercial fishing boats and Viking long ships.
This
particular design came about through a partnership between the
World Bank (a nonprofit, multi nationally funded organization)
and the Yamaha Corporation. The World Bank contracted Yamaha
to design and build a rugged hull that would allow commercial
fisherman in the poorer nations of the Caribbean, Mexico,
Central and South America to earn a living and help provide
for the planet’s growing demand for seafood.
Yamaha
enlisted a computer aided design team to come up with this
shape that is now the boat of choice for commercial fisherman,
smugglers and third world pirates from the Caribbean to
Indonesia.
I hand
built this boat from a bare hull with exposed stringers to be
the perfect vessel for its current job. I have more peace of
mind in this boat than in the dozen or so that I have run in
the last two decades.
The
electronics unit used is a top of the line Lowrance W.A.A.S.
GPS Chartplotter / Fishfinder.
I use all
Shimano reels with top of the line graphite rods. We use
nothing heavier than 30 pound test. This maximizes the fun
while still allowing us to catch the fish in a reasonable time
frame. State of the art terminal tackle is used in every
instance. |