Help me find a boat

In reply to HappyAndy:

Yes and no. Yes on the babes, but a qualified no on the boat.

I'm weird about hull depth and deadrise. Deep boats are great on the Great Lakes or Ocean, but they're such a pain in the butt for how I use them; shore docking, draft, occasional fishing, and they don't look "fast." They look like a cadillac. I want a Porsche. Or a vette.

So many of the 'glass bowriders and luxury boats are a really deep vee. Great for soft comfy dry rides, and also great for first-time boaters who don't understand that cornering on the water can kill you. The deep hull (to me) is much like a production vehicle being designed with a ton of understeer. They're dumbing it down for the 95% of the boating population.

A typical high-production deep-vee boat is the 73 Camaro of the water. It excels at nothing but isn't fast enough to kill Joe McBoaterface. Anyone with a beer and a key can drive it and not die the first time out.

There. I said it. I need some vee for chop cutting, but I'm looking for a true performance hull.

This is a shot of a Baja Sunsport just like I had that shows the hull. This was a good example of a truly performance hull design that was still heavily on the "safe enough for general population" side of things. It would still smooth out a 2' chop at 60mph. I want to go one or two steps more "hot" than this.

Just a sample but here is 21ft of bow riding, 454cid jet boat.

Baja Jet Boat - $10999 http://toledo.craigslist.org/boa/5654787538.html

curtis73 wrote:

Flight Service wrote: 2001 Seaark Extreme 176 Bass Boat Patented Allison Hull Design Make sure it has the Allison hull.

Ok. Sell me on it. It doesn't look like anything special.

Allison holds the world record for the fastest 150hp boat available at 116 mph.

Seaark hired Allison to put the hull in an aluminum boat. They are obnoxiously fast, and get great fuel economy, actually they get the best fuel economy of any aluminum boat in the same class with the same motor. Seaark also builds a very good boat.

Efficient race hull, in a fish and ski combination that is affordable to operate. The only downside to them was they were expensive to produce which hurt their sales and eventually caused them to be discontinued. But if you get one, you have something. Available as 2001-02 models

Fast, light, durable and cheap to run. Being a boater you know that is a hard combination to find much less beat.

From another forum: "Hey Deepspots: I have done my homework with this boat. I've contacted Seaark and spoke with an engineer. He gave me some good insight on the performance but told me that Mr. Allison had the real numbers. I then, contacted Darris Allison...he commented that the boat was "wonderful"! He stated that with a 90HP, he was running about 55 alone and 52 with gear and another passenger. He then told me that with a 115, this boat would run well over 60! He stated that you can't use more than a 4" jackplate though because of the steering cables. As far as construction...he laughed and said that he told Seaark that they built them to good! Very well put together and solid. The boat would get up on the pad and really go. Easy to drive and the fishablity was excellent. Lots of storage and with the trolling batteries in the bow, the boat came out of the hole level and jumped on the pad. He was very impressed with the way this boat performed and fished. He even went on to say that the finish was great. Didn't look like an aluminum boat and didn't run like one either. After talking with him, I'm finally convinced that this is the boat for me. Solid, fast, great ride, very efficient, and layed out for fishing. Stated that he and Seaark really put something special together. As for me...since I can't afford an Allison, I'm talking to the dealer now about the Extreme 176....White/Charcoal with a 115! Hope this helps...now go get the boat and enjoy."

If you really want to scare the E36 M3 out of yourself put an ETEC 150HO on it. The boat is rated for up to 155 hp, and the 150HO is a "rated" 150hp about 1k rpm below redline. Dyno shows them at 181hp all day long.

In reply to curtis73:

Ok, which lake are you on? I have spent the last 13 late June through July 4th weeks at a friend's property on Lower Beverly Lake near Lyndhurst and maybe an hour north of Kingston. It's just north of Charleston Lake, probably the biggest lake near there unless you head east over to the Rideau region. Love the area and wish it wasn't so far from Pittsburgh so I could visit more often. Check out Raystown Lake in central PA when you get your boat (week day preferably). I grew up there. You might find some boats for sale up there that meet your parameters actually.

I was just looking at the Seaark Procat series - I'm not a catfisherman but it's about the only shallow draft aluminum tunnel hull I've found with dual console - walkthrough layout. Seems like a good compromise.

Of course I'm more likely to buy a $1500 70s trihull right now than a $30k aluminum boat...

Flight Service wrote: Allison holds the world record for the fastest 150hp boat available at 116 mph. Seaark hired Allison to put the hull in an aluminum boat. They are obnoxiously fast, and get great fuel economy, actually they get the best fuel economy of any aluminum boat in the same class with the same motor. Seaark also builds a very good boat.

You have my attention. I will do some research. My only real hangup after that sales pitch would be that it isn't a "hot" boat, but maybe it will impress me enough to consider one.

klb67 wrote: In reply to curtis73: Ok, which lake are you on? Check out Raystown Lake in central PA when you get your boat (week day preferably). I grew up there. You might find some boats for sale up there that meet your parameters actually.

Crotch Lake. Take 38 north out of Kingston (Harrowsmith, Verona, etc) all the way to the 7 at Sharbot Lake. From there its about another 20 minutes northwest.

I've been finding a few boats up here that fit the bill, but this is somewhat of a depressed area. Most of what you find are something like a 14' Smoker Craft with a 9.9hp tiller that looks like it has been in a demo derby race and they're asking $2000. Up here everyone needs a boat and they seem to recycle the same crap over and over and pay five times what its worth.

I haven't been to Raystown Lake in years. Mostly because I started to feel like a guppy in a pond full of drunken sharks. Weekends there in the summer are not fun in a 17' boat

Once I get back south I plan on calling the Landing and a few other marinas up that way to see what they have.

come down to the atlantic city area in a month...

curtis73 wrote:

Flight Service wrote: Allison holds the world record for the fastest 150hp boat available at 116 mph. Seaark hired Allison to put the hull in an aluminum boat. They are obnoxiously fast, and get great fuel economy, actually they get the best fuel economy of any aluminum boat in the same class with the same motor. Seaark also builds a very good boat.

You have my attention. I will do some research. My only real hangup after that sales pitch would be that it isn't a "hot" boat, but maybe it will impress me enough to consider one.

Oh, well if it sexy you want, go kick everything's ass on the lake and buy it's daddy, XS-2003 GrandSport, just bring a nice checkbook.

It's Baby brother the SS2000 isn't bad either,

STV and Mirage

Also show up most normal "hot" boats with a very promising "If you feel lucky punk, WELL DO YA?" attitude about them.

If you are stuck on inboard or sterndrive set up, the Donzi Sweet 16 & 18

or a FourWinns U19 (although if you find one with a dual prop you need to convert it to a single because they have been known to chine walk. Single prop is faster anyhow ) are very very classy.

curtis73 wrote: Crotch Lake. Take 38 north out of Kingston (Harrowsmith, Verona, etc) all the way to the 7 at Sharbot Lake. From there its about another 20 minutes northwest.

As a kid I spent summers on Bob's lake - which is about 20 mi SE of Crotch lake as the crow flies. I haven't been in 30 years - my uncle sold the cottage to fund a big boat for Lake Ontario - but I have nothing but good memories of blasting around the islands in a 20' bow rider.

Very familiar with Bob's Lake. Isn't this an awesome area up here?

Flight Service wrote: If you are stuck on inboard or sterndrive set up, the Donzi Sweet 16 & 18

I've been looking hard at them. I'm not stuck on a particular drive as long as it is trim-able. Shore docking here almost always requires getting the drive out of the water. (except for jet obviously)

So I'm limited to outboard, I/O, or jet. No inboard or vee drive.

I'm also stuck on bowrider. That one isn't an option. Must be bowrider. I refuse to have an 18' boat with only 6' of usable space, and I won't be crawling over a windshield and across beautiful gelcoat with sandy shoes to shore dock it three times a day. I'm also not a spring chicken, so the idea of that kinda makes my back hurt

So far the ONLY "performance" hull I've found in a bowrider is a Baja Sunsport.

curtis73 wrote: Crotch Lake.

Phrasing, Curtis!

Seriously, though, down here the "speed boats" seem to be fairly cheap, but the bass and offshore boats always hold value.

http://eastnc.craigslist.org/boa/5665870196.html

Brett_Murphy wrote:

curtis73 wrote: Crotch Lake.

Phrasing, Curtis! Seriously, though, down here the "speed boats" seem to be fairly cheap, but the bass and offshore boats always hold value. http://eastnc.craigslist.org/boa/5665870196.html

Meh, I gave up on euphemizing the name after adolescence. The lake is named Crotch. I embrace the Crotchness of its Crotchiosity.

Map to my Crotch

curtis73 wrote: Very familiar with Bob's Lake. Isn't this an awesome area up here?

Unbelievably beautiful and remote area. I can remember it taking an hour across the lake at full steam to get ice cream. The main channel was deeper than the fish finder could go. Deer flies and mosquitoes were the only drawback... if you weren't inside by dusk they would find your carcass drained of all fluids in the AM. I still like to sleep to the sound of a generator running out of gas and slowly fading to screeching insects.

You have just inspired my next moto camping journey... I wonder if I could still find the old place. It was a trailer on top of a knoll overlooking a cove near the end of 10 miles of 2 track behind a rickety gate from the dirt main road. It took us 2hrs to get to Westport and back. Somewhere in this area (44.676025, -76.569433) I believe. I am waxing full nostalgic right now.

I really like the Robalo 207 Dual console layouts. I dont know what they run used, or if you can find one, but great layout for a multi purpose boat. Not a screamer, 42 mpg with a 150, rated for 200.

Probably more freeboard than you want though

Robalo bought the hulls for one of the boats I was looking at (A Wahoo!). They're spendy, even used.

I had a Taylor SS Jet... I loved it.. (same as the sidewinder Hull)

It rode nice, mine was powered by a 455.. Stupid fun to do "doughnuts" and dump it into reverse at 40+mph and bury the bow.... Great for tubing and not terrible to ski behind unless you have a jerk for friends who like to play around with the diverter...

I would still have it... but racing Hobie 16's is more fun for far less money..

I just had to share this one I found.

Bayliner "bowel ridder" on Ebay

I imagine that riding on the bow of that at high speeds would force you to rid your bowels of anything in them...

Or this: Starcraft "cuddly"

typos on the boat ads are even more common than the car ads somehow, but the "bowel ridder" takes the cake. I gave up on sexy expensive boats and bought a cheap retro boat instead:

You can't go wrong with caramel colored, channel pleat vinyl after all.

To tie Crutis' two finds together...

Do you know why they don't put porthole windows the cuddly (cuddy) cabins of Bayliners?

No need, the light shines right through the fiberglass.