"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
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wrote in message
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On Jan 11, 8:34 pm, "JoeSpareBedroom" wrote:
wrote in message

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Finally going to make the plunge and buy an aluminum boat, but i am
confused. Our goal is to buy a boat that will last for many years to
come and also turn heads when on the water. The more i talk to
salesman the more BS i hear. What should i be looking for as far as
the quality of the welds, some look like art and some look like my son
who is 12 tried to weld for the first time. Does the apperance of the
weld matter? We are looking at a 200 Sea Runner Hewes Craft right now,
any comments would help at this point

Thanks

I own a Lund, and the company makes a big selling point of the fact that
their aluminum hulls are double riveted. Welding is not mentioned
anywhere
in their literature, as far as I've noticed. I've been beating the crap
out
of the boat since 1999 and it's as tight as the day it was new.

www.lundboats.com
Thanks for the feedback
I appreciate your coment about rivetted boats but my wife said noway
to riveted boats, he dad had one and it always leaked. Infact you
should have seen the dirty looks she gave one of the salesman when he
was trying to sale us on a riveted boat. What would you look for or
like to see as far as welds?

================


I have no idea what to look for with welds. Tell your wife that her dad
bought a ****ty boat, and she should not judge all riveted boats based on
her father's bad judgement and low budget. If she's such a shmexpert,
maybe she should be designing boats.


You can buy a much better welded aluminum boat than a Riveted Fisher for
about the same money or less.

Go to http://www.boatingsportsman.com/ and register for the forums or just
browse the forums. Was Riverjetboat magazine up till this month. The welds
should look good on the upper end boats. Hewes makes a good boat. Not the
best, but will last and give you good service. Joe, your boat is not in the
same league with the boats he is looking at. These are a minimum 3/16
(0.190) thick aluminum. The newer boats should have great looking welds as
the equipment is so much better than when they built mine in 1991. Only
leak I had was a corrosion leak 2 years ago. The crap blocked the drain
hole from the anchor locker and there was probably a piece of copper wire in
there from the trolling motor connection. Depends if you want a jet drive
or a prop boat. Boulton makes really nice boats of both designs. Bruce
Wasson of Rogue makes great jet drives. Precision weld and HCM Hells Canyon
Marine make super top quality custom boats, but you are looking at $80-100K.
North River makes a very good cookie cutter boat in both jet and prop.