The boat with the cheapest charter rate up there that I heard about was the one I deckied on for the Townsville part of the season. It was a 34' Black Watch so reasonabley small compared to all the 40+ footers setup for liveaboard that are all air conditioned etc. He was sub $2,000AUD a day and was virtually just using his daily rate from his home port because he wanted to give the Cairns season a good try out of a good boat. Actually Kas' figure worked out in AUD was pretty close to the mark.
Most of the guys up there are either skippering for a rich owner and the charters are offsetting the cost of owning the boat or the skippers lease the boat for the 3-4 month season and in that time they have got to try and make more than half of their money for the year up there as there is a long lay off over winter when fish and charters are scarce and fishing off the Gold Coast and Port Stephens or whereever has less money in it, more competition from the local charterboats and the clientele is probably more aimed at local Aussies with less money and who bitch and moan more about the fishing if it is tough compared to overseas charterers who are appreciative of any fishing better than their own, the sights etc. and possibly a bit more money to spend.
