Coastal Kids: Dec. 2019

My Fishing Adventures

By Christopher Sprague  Jr. Angler-Team Tuppens, Contributing Writer

34 Solace on display at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show.

Hello Anglers,

Last month I went to the Fort Lauderdale boat show with my Dad. We had a great time and I helped my Dad with the Solace. This boat has everything in it… literally everything in a house is on this boat. I have already taken a ride on this boat before, which was very interesting because this boat has a V bottom, but split motors. In the boating industry, split motors were only used for Cat boats (boats with two separate hulls) until now. This iconic design in the 34 Solace allows them to put a 4 foot floor piece in between the motors for a lot of extra space. This means that with the design, it is a 38 foot boat, and this floor has a 2 foot extension that can be retracted when running or set out when diving or just relaxing.  It makes it easier to get on and off the boat at a faster pace as well. This transom, the back of the boat, is especially useful for scuba diving. Since I do a lot of scuba diving, I understand the troubles of getting back on the boat. It is extremely difficult because you are carrying a little over 60 pounds on your back. When you have to get on the boat, a lot of the time the waves are over a foot high and you can have trouble getting back on the boat. When I was in my dive camp getting my divers certification, some other kids could not get on the boat since they were too young to have that weight on their back and jump up on the boat. This design also means that when you are fishing, if the fish swims fast to the back of the boat near the motors, you can easily keep fighting the fish with a lot less of a worry of getting the line stuck in the propeller. In our fishing tournaments, we have lost a few fish like this, especially when we first began fishing professionally.  Now it does not happen as much since our team has been trained and has many years of experience on our hands. We know how to combat all these problems such as sharks, other boats getting in the way, backlash, and hooks getting pulled out of the fish’s mouth.