Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:

On Thu, 07 Oct 2004 18:47:23 GMT, "TC" wrote:

I am looking at both boats. The Sea Hunt price for a 2004 is around
21K. I think the Mako is around 19K. Sea Hunt has not been around
long and while Mako has, I've heard quality has dropped due to it
being sold repeatedly.

Opinions?

New or used?

Six of one, half dozen of the other - sort of.

Sea Hunt has been around for a while, but like most boat
manufacturers, has changed hands and owners about a zillion times. In
their current incarnation they are a good solid entry level boat.
They aren't finished as well or as neatly as other boats in their
class, but they are solid. I'm kind of picky about fit and Sea Hunt
has it's problems, but they aren't as obvious as they could be so
that's a plus.

As to the Mako, I wouldn't own a new one - I have my reasons. Used is
a different story and depends on the year and size.

You might want to look at Sea Boss, Proline (although in my opinoin,
they are over priced) and a boat that I was VERY impressed with, the
Polar.

The Polar boats I've tested and run hard are very nice handling and
relatively inexpensive in the kind of boat you are looking for. This
is a boat where a lot of care was taken in the design of the boat -
it's built for fishing - no other way to describe it.

While I'm not much on Trophy, I will say that I was fairly happy with
one on a test run I made this summer for a friend who owns a repair
shop. I specificaly took the boat out to break it after repair (it
didn't break by the way) and kind of poked around the boat after doing
some testing. If I had need for a smaller boat of this type, I
wouldn't necessarily dismiss a Trophy out of hand.

And, oddly enough, Hydra-Sports makes a boat in this class that is
very nice - everything fits properly, the ride is comfortable, it's
fishability is great (it's a Hydra-Sports after all).

Assuming that these are new or left overs, I would take my time and
carefully look through the used market. There are a ton of used boats
out there that are in excellant shape and well worth the money. Just
remember that everything is negotiable and you might wind up with more
boat than you might have otherwise with a little patience and
forebearance.

By the way, I get to ride on these boats because I am asked to go
along on test drives - friends, friends of friends, etc. I get a lot
of time riding and looking and driving, etc.

Hey, I'm retired - what can I tell you? :)

Take care.

Tom

"The beatings will stop when morale improves."
E. Teach, 1717

Thanks for the info Tom! Boat manufacturers changing ownership seems
to be a requirement of the business.