My boat is the best & a short cruise
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My Delta, although not the trailerable version, is in fact kept on a trailer which I have had strengthened and altered to take the weight and have been fortunate enough to be able to explore the waterways of Lake Macquarie, the Hawkesbury and Port Stephens. I tow my girl with a Ford courier FWD light truck which does the job well.
Because she is on a trailer I have fitted a fresh water flushing system to the Delta so that the engine can be flushed as soon as I take her out of the water. I have have around 30 boats in my lifetime and I can say without doubt that the delta is the best. I keep in touch with Steve Leonard (the builder of the Deltas) and he has been more than helpful with any problems or enquiries that I may have had. In fact he is quite a gentleman and is only too happy to help any Delta owner who may have a problem. To be honest I think he misses those old days of Delta manufacture. Andrew, I would be quite happy for you to give my email address to anyone who owns a Delta and may require some assistance with any problems. I am sure I have just about had them all at one stage. I would feel very honoured if you would include my "Gillybean" on your site. |
6 March 2010 - I thought perhaps that you might like to see my beloved "Gillybean" as she is today and perhaps include her on your website. I think that most Deltacraft Islander owners would claim that their Deltacraft has got to be the best! My Mark 2 may not be the very best but it must be getting close. It has got to the point where my love of my Mark 2 has perhaps got to the obsessive stage in that I have spent so much time and money on her that there is just no point in selling her and making a huge loss.
My Delta now has just about everything that opens and shuts. As can be seen by the attached photos, she is not only quite glamorous on the exterior but she also caters for everything on the inside. I have refrigeration, a gas stove and oven, I have internet on board and can be contacted via Skype, Facebook or Email as well as the 27 meg and VHF and mobile. I have an electric toilet, hot shower, CD player with iPod, GPS and Depth sounder, LED lighting and just about everything you can think of to make my stay aboard quite comfortable. I even have gas lighting on board which I use in the winter to give me light as well as heating.
I have had my share of problems as everyone does but my worst problem occurred when my diesel tank decided that it would rust away and drop all the diesel fuel into the bilge! You can imagine that to install a new tank would normally cost a fortune, however, after a little research, I was able to fit an 80 Litre cruise tank under the starboard rear seating which fitted perfectly into the recess. (see attached pics) So to all Delta owners......if you have the same problem.....you know what to do. Because the tank is now above the engine one has to make very sure that there are no engine fuel leaks. I keep an extra 20 litres of fuel aboard so I still have the 100 litre capacity.
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5 August 2010 - Hi Andrew, I know other people say their Deltacraft is the best, but they are wrong. Ours is the best. We love it! The build plate states it was laminated 19 July 1984. It started life as a hire boat at Brooklyn on the Hawkesbury River, and still has the original 4108 Perkins 55 horsepower 4 cylinder diesel.
It has had many modifications which have improved the boat. Because we use it in the Moreton Bay Marine Park we had to take out the pump out toilet and we have replaced it with a porta-potti which sits on a tailor made varnished wooden plinth in the original space. Very fancy, and matches the rest of the varnished wood inside the boat. It has a full size stainless steel duckboard with a small cutaway on the transom to ease access, a power anchor winch, 140 watts of solar panels on the hardtop and 2X120 a/h AGM batteries with provision for a 3rd (we take another 120 a/h AGM out of our campervan if we are spending an extended period away on the boat). Because of the cutaway there is no longer the little table in the back of the boat. It came to us with a drop leaf table large enough to seat 6 comfortably. We found this table was too big and heavy and had it cut down to a more manageable size. There are many more extras. The full width duckboard with the ladder really makes a difference. We have a deck shower as well which is really handy to wash off the salt after a swim.
We bought 'Julianna' when were looking for a displacement boat. We had seen a couple of Cruisecraft 580Ds and a Roberts Longboat but this was the only boat that didn't smell musty inside, and it didn't have a big engine box to trip over, or struggle around to access the cabin. In fact the ease of movement around the cockpit and cabin is a huge point in favour of this boat.
When we bought the boat, the trip from the Gold Coast to Bribie Island was wonderful. We took our two (then) teenage daughters with us and it was such a great family time over the 2 day trip. The first day we were faced with some difficult weather but the mighty boat took to it beautifully. We all stayed perfectly dry although we had to use the wiper to see where we were going. The next day was sunny and calm. We spent some time on the Brisbane River where we were dwarfed by the commercial shipping, then we were out on Moreton Bay for the final leg of the journey. We have owned the boat a few years now and have spent many happy weekends puttering along Pumicestone Passage. We occasionally venture out into Moreton Bay but we prefer the quiet waters between Bribie Island and the mainland, with turtles, dugongs and dolphins all around us. Unfortunately we don't have as much time as we would like in the boat. We are in the process of building a trailer for it, and would love to use it as a caravan and take it on other waterways. What a great website! It is great to be able to share information about these boats. Brett and Angela |
The boat came with a log book which indicates the various owners lived in Gladesville, McLeans Ridges and Coraki in NSW before it moved to Queensland.
Ours also has a wedge on the back, which appears to part of the original hull moulding. I haven't seen that on any other Mark 2s.
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