Boat Thoughts

[Tin-Can]

I rented an old aluminum boat on Base several years ago (like 16 years) before I bought my first boat. The base was in the process of replacing all their old Lunds. Of course as rentals, they had not been taken as good of care as one might that owned the boat. Anyway, we went to Utah Lake on a Memorial Day Weekend, 16 ft. boat, 25 hp Mercury 4 stroke, no electronics at all so was never sure where the bottom was or where the fish were. But the 5 of us were having a great time (catching mostly Mud Cats) and about 3 hours into the time on the water, I noticed that one of our small bait buckets was floating in the bottom of the hull.
That un-nerved me a bit but realized if there was a big enough leak to cause us problems, we would have already been up to our hips in lake water. We bailed it out best we could, and pressed on fishing. At the ramp when we pulled out, I pulled the stern plug and I would guess a good 20 or 30 gals of water came out.

I mentioned that to the guys at the MWR rental on Tuesday when I returned the boat. Their response was "Oh yeah, just about any riveted boat will leak some as it gets older, but these Lunds would still float enough to get you back off the water as long as you bailed out the water once in awhile. "
Then I figured, hey I've worked on aircraft that are a bunch bigger and heavier and under way more stress than any small fishing boat, and the planes are riveted. I've seen B52's come back with lots and lots of popped rivet heads on the forward fuselage after just one flight.
So I bought a 17' Lund from Peterson Marine in 2004. Sold it in 2006 cuz the waters were all getting too shallow to put it in. Then in 2007 just couldn't stand not having a boat, so went back to Peterson Marine and bought the 14' Lund I have now. It may leak just a little now, but I bought the model with a deck and a bilge pump. I hit that pump switch once or twice during a full day on the water and it blows any water out that was deep enough to get to the pump (about 2 inches in the transom hull area.)

Riveted or welded, an aluminum boat is lighter than say a Bayliner of same length and width. Easier to tow, uses less gas. An aluminum hull can be repaired and dents removed pretty much the same way as a car. For the amount of $$ they cost, the top of the line Thunder Jets, Hewes Crafts, River Hawks, are worth every dime, if you got that many dimes [laugh]

IMHO, the next rung of the aluminum ladder is G3 boats by Yamaha. But they are used to sell that pricey motor. Yamaha marine motors are good, and quiet, but a bit too spendy for my wallet. After those I would rank the Crestliners, Fishers, King Fisher's, and Trackers...........all welded hull. And I think equal in reliability and strength would be the Lund family, difference being they are riveted.

There is one make of non-aluminum boat that I would closely consider if I had the money...........Triumph Boats..........no not the motorcycle. Do a web search on Triumph Boats. Pretty popular back east and down south. Built in North Carolina, I think. Don't know if there are any dealers out here handling them.

No matter what you get, if you get a new to you boat remember these adages, they came about because they all hold some bit of truth or accuracy.

1) A boat is just a hole in the water you throw money into........
2) BOAT stands for Break Out Another Thousand............
3) Whats the first thing most guys do after they buy a new boat.............?
They take it home and start drilling holes in it.....[laugh]
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