On Sun, 13 Jan 2008 01:47:16 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 20:30:21 -0500, Dan
wrote:

Don White wrote:
"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...
wrote in message
...
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


Same with Princecraft. hulls rivited...same as high stress airplane
bodies.
scroll down to... 'proven fastening methods'
http://www.princecraft.com/Content/e...ing_boats.aspx

Airplanes aren't designed for the water, bozo.

Nice job emulating Harry...If you own it, it's the BEST!

I owned it before Don did.

Want to call me a Bozo?

You neither own the Bozo's Bin nor are qualified to enter.

So quit trying.
--
John H

wrote:
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

www.blacklabmarine.com

plate welded aluminum boats

high quality, great welds, definitely turn heads

"HK" wrote in message
...
wrote:
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

www.blacklabmarine.com

plate welded aluminum boats

high quality, great welds, definitely turn heads

I guess so. Those things are butt ugly. You can't help but notice.

Jim wrote:


"HK" wrote in message
...
wrote:
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

www.blacklabmarine.com

plate welded aluminum boats

high quality, great welds, definitely turn heads

I guess so. Those things are butt ugly. You can't help but notice.

C_Kidman69, Where are you located? There's a bunch of aluminium boat
dealers here in Boise including a couple of builders. Customweld being
one. My next door neighbour owns an aluminium boat that he purchased
here but was built in Portland,Or I believe.I'll post more after I talk
to him. I don't push any brand because we own a couple of sailboats. Jim

--

James wrote:

Jim wrote:


"HK" wrote in message
...
wrote:
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

www.blacklabmarine.com

plate welded aluminum boats

high quality, great welds, definitely turn heads

I guess so. Those things are butt ugly. You can't help but notice.

C_Kidman69, Where are you located? There's a bunch of aluminium boat
dealers here in Boise including a couple of builders. Customweld being
one. My next door neighbour owns an aluminium boat that he purchased
here but was built in Portland,Or I believe.I'll post more after I
talk to him. I don't push any brand because we own a couple of
sailboats. Jim

My neighbour has a Thunderjet and his buddy has a Customweld. Jim

--

On Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:28:51 -0800 (PST), wrote:

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

There are two ways to look at this.

Riveted aluminum boats tend to be sounder than welded boats and as a
general rule, easier to repair. The better aluminum boats, like Lund,
Starcraft, Princecraft, are riveted boats. The trick is to seal the
seam and double rivet. Lund pretty much invented that process and to
tell the truth, it was a complete revolution in how a quality aluminum
boat should be made - a lot of other aluminum boat manufacturers use
this technique to varying degrees with the three I mentioned being the
best.

With a riveted boat, the secret is how large the overlap is for the
riveted panels - the more area, the more sealer, the more rivets for
strength.

Welded hulls have improved tremendously over the years. A lot of the
cheaper boats do have welds that look like globs of excess metal, but
you are dealing wtih aluminum and thin aluminum at that - even
experienced welders have trouble getting a good weld on thin aluminum.
Now, most manufacturers use formed and pressed panels which are then
welded precisely with robots with little excess. They also use lower
temperature welding gear which helps.

Dollar-for-dollar, I prefer riveted aluminum boats. I had a 16 foot
Lund open guide boat in 1978 that I sold to a friend who still uses it
for duck hunting and it's as dry and sound as the day I sold it. By
comparison, I owned a Bass Cat aluminum bass boat that was welded and
it warped, leaked and in general sucked - I sold it back to the
company six months after I bought it. (Which, by the way, speaks
volumes for what a quality operation Bass Cat is - they were aware of
the problems, tried to fix them and when they coulnd't, gave me my
money back without me even having to ask for it. I can't say enough
good things about Bass Cat and their ownership.)

Take it for what you will.

Good luck.

Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:

Riveted aluminum boats tend to be sounder than welded boats and as a
general rule, easier to repair. The better aluminum boats, like Lund,
Starcraft, Princecraft, are riveted boats.

Um... Are you at all familiar with the type of heavy duty
welded aluminum boats the poster inquired about?

For example:

http://www.precisionweldboats.com/

http://www.weldcraftmarine.com/

http://www.duckworthboats.com/

http://www.roguejet.com/

http://www.customweld.com/

http://www.thunderjet.com/

http://www.motionmarine.com/

http://www.hewescraft.com/

http://www.fish-rite.com/boats.html

http://www.northriverboats.com/

etc.

As to the original question I'm no welding expert but I did
examine a lot of boats before buying one. I liked the neat
consistency and smoothness found in the North River and many
others with a few notable exceptions (this was 8 years ago).
I've had some major rock hits since then and only required
one repair for a crack at the jet-pump intake seam. The
..25" bottom thickness helps.

I do see a lot Hewescraft on the Columbia river lately for
what it's worth.

On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 22:15:05 -0800, -rick- wrote:

Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:

Riveted aluminum boats tend to be sounder than welded boats and as a
general rule, easier to repair. The better aluminum boats, like Lund,
Starcraft, Princecraft, are riveted boats.

Um... Are you at all familiar with the type of heavy duty
welded aluminum boats the poster inquired about?

Yep - this is the one he referenced.

200 Sea Runner Hewes Craft

Has nothing to do with the rivet/weld debate.

I like the Weldcraft boats. I think CaliBill has one, but don't quote
me on that.

I'm not that familiar with the others.

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 22:15:05 -0800, -rick- wrote:

Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:

Riveted aluminum boats tend to be sounder than welded boats and as a
general rule, easier to repair. The better aluminum boats, like Lund,
Starcraft, Princecraft, are riveted boats.

Um... Are you at all familiar with the type of heavy duty
welded aluminum boats the poster inquired about?

Yep - this is the one he referenced.

200 Sea Runner Hewes Craft

Has nothing to do with the rivet/weld debate.

I like the Weldcraft boats. I think CaliBill has one, but don't quote
me on that.

I'm not that familiar with the others.

I have a Jetcraft boat. When they were made in Medford, OR. The guy who
made mine is Bruce Wasson who now owns Roguejet. The picture on the webpage
of a head on shot of a boat going over a small falls is actually a Jetcraft
at Shanghai Bend on the Feather River just below Yuba City.

"-rick-" wrote in message
news
Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:

Riveted aluminum boats tend to be sounder than welded boats and as a
general rule, easier to repair. The better aluminum boats, like Lund,
Starcraft, Princecraft, are riveted boats.

Um... Are you at all familiar with the type of heavy duty welded aluminum
boats the poster inquired about?

For example:

http://www.precisionweldboats.com/

http://www.weldcraftmarine.com/

http://www.duckworthboats.com/

http://www.roguejet.com/

http://www.customweld.com/

http://www.thunderjet.com/

http://www.motionmarine.com/

http://www.hewescraft.com/

http://www.fish-rite.com/boats.html

http://www.northriverboats.com/

etc.

As to the original question I'm no welding expert but I did examine a lot
of boats before buying one. I liked the neat consistency and smoothness
found in the North River and many others with a few notable exceptions
(this was 8 years ago). I've had some major rock hits since then and only
required one repair for a crack at the jet-pump intake seam. The .25"
bottom thickness helps.

I do see a lot Hewescraft on the Columbia river lately for what it's
worth.

0.25 on the bottom, don't have to worry about hull damage if you park in a
mess of logs. Going to take a look at Hewescraft.