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The ANU SCUBA club has two boats, which together can carry 12 divers. One (the Pufferfish) is a aluminium hulled 5.3m NAIAD with a 90hp Mercury engine; the other (the Tigger) is an aluminium hulled 5.3m ARIB with a 90hp Yamaha.
Both boats have marine radios, depth sounders, EPIRBs and all other safety equipment. We've also got a GPS to help us find those good spots.
We like to encourage all active club members to become familiar with the boating rules on our waterways, and to get a boat licence (which will entitle you to a $1/dive discount on dives done from the club boats).
Before using the boats, you'll need to make sure they're ready for towing and launching. When you get back, please be sure to wash the boats well.
For your own safety as well as the boats', please be careful launching and retrieving over sand.
The boats have lots of safety equipment and other fancy gear. Please become familiar with the radios and the rules of radio communication. You might also like to take a look at the excellent Introduction to GPS by our member Ron Henry. It's available as html page or as a PDF file for easy download and printing.
The manual for the new 406Mhz EPIRB (GME MT400) is here.
To learn about the motor on the Pufferfish please read the scanned version of the Mercury 90 manual. Among other things, it states the starting procedure for the motor, which is: put the motor in neutral and apply some throttle, and start with choke - this procedure is pretty much exactly what we have worked out anyway.
HyDrive have a manual online which describes the steering. On a similar note, there's a handy guide to outboard wiring colour schemes.
We rely on the generosity of boat towers to make our boat dives possible, and we try to make it easier for them by offering a subsidy to offset the extra cost of petrol etc. The towing subsidy page lists subsidies for boat towers to various dive trip destinations.
We have some notes on when and how the boats can be used by members for club and ad-hoc trips as well as for private usage.
Both boats were made by Jill Ferguson and Ed Boast at Australian Rigid Inflatable Boats:
Unit 2 / 1356 Lytton Road, Hemmant Qld 4174.
Tel: +61 (07) 3390 7133
Fax: +61 (07) 3390 7233
Email: info@aribs.com.au (or
jill@aribs.com.au).