Those chinese knock off boats

M

MongooseX

Member
Im sure you guys seen the adds for the brightly coloured chinese knock off of stabicraft boats being sold here in bc.

Well heres where they get them. If you can navigate a chinese website... they make over 50 kinds of boats.
I did find a email address buried in there and aked for shipping to port of Vancouver. They did get back to me. And asked what boat to be shipped. I picked the BD750... 7.5m boat... welded up. $ 17,000 they said. Canadian or american im not sure. Pretty good deal. If i didn't have a boat id be really intrested in getting one of these.

http://www.botyboat.com/m/
 
Someone’s selling them up in Chemainus/Ladysmith area. They sure are a knockoff of Stabicraft. They are apparently structurally inadequate. Stabicraft has a video on the Chinese boats. Worth a watch.
 
Lol out of curiosity has anyone looked at one closely
How thick are hulls
What is deadrise
I definitely wouldn’t be a guinea pig but I also havnt heard of one sinking
 
On the basis of my experience with chinese-supplied goods, I would say that if you buy something like this, buy the demo model. At least it's probably built to the spec they claim it is.

About five units in, the 3/16 walls will quietly become 1/8, the quarter inch bottom is now 3/16. Longtitudinal bracing that was fillet welded 4x2 T extrusion on the demo will now be a single bar of 1/8x2" that's just been tacked in place every six inches and you won't know because the floor is welded in over top.

I have never dealt with chinese boats but I have almost never seen a manunfacturing run from china that didn't work the same way: they deliver a sample that's pretty good. The first production version might even be nearly identical to the sample.

The second you leave the factory they begin applying every cost-cutting tactic imaginable.


So completely aside from their open theft of intellectual property from the West, my experience has been that unless you keep a gun to their heads, as soon as your back is turned they build you a dollar store version of whatever you agreed to.
 
cracked_ribs said:
I have never dealt with chinese boats but I have almost never seen a manufacturing run from china that didn't work the same way: they deliver a sample that's pretty good. The first production version might even be nearly identical to the sample....The second you leave the factory they begin applying every cost-cutting tactic imaginable....
Click to expand...
Years ago when I sold fishing tackle I ordered some great looking Crab traps from a local wholesaler-when I received them they were exactly like you describe-half the features on the sample were completely missing; the wholesale manager tried to take a 'tough guy stance' when I sent several dozen back but I told him to look carefully at what he was shipping and get back to me-and I'm still waiting for that call.
 
With the recent trade spat our company was basically forced to source steel parts from china. They were 1/3 the price and the quality was a bit less but we seem to be getting almost the same life out of the parts.

Problem is with this is you don't have any a recourse being a little consumer as you do as a big international company.
 
Dogbreath said:
Years ago when I sold fishing tackle I ordered some great looking Crab traps from a local wholesaler-when I received them they were exactly like you describe-half the features on the sample were completely missing; the wholesale manager tried to take a 'tough guy stance' when I sent several dozen back but I told him to look carefully at what he was shipping and get back to me-and I'm still waiting for that call.
Click to expand...
Classic. I deal with a guy who spent a lot of his career sourcing out suppliers for manufacturing and he said similar stuff...always the same story.

It's hard to justify the costs of manufacturing stuff here but when I buy something built in North America, Western Europe, Japan or even South Korea, at least I believe that the suppliers have a similar idea to me about laws, standards, and responsibility. You occasionally get rip-off artists, but it's not the standard across an entire industry, and there's usually recourse if you get screwed.

Aluminum boats from China? I understand the temptation - I drive past those things every day on the highway outside Chemainus and a Stabicraft is exactly my tastes yet well beyond my budget. But the more chinese stuff I can keep out of my life these days, the better.
 
A couple of years ago I read an article about shoddy Chinese manufacturing standards. One interesting thing they pointed out was that China refuses to sign on to any international manufacturing quality standards regarding metal production. Most countries manufacturers comply with the ASTM standard, so you can have some faith that the metal used is up to the task it is used for.
The article had other things to say about quality control etc., but the non compliance issue is enough to turn me off of any Chinese product that may be required to save my butt.
 
There are well established US based quality control companies in China. Many ISO 9000 and six sigma.

It is actually frightening how advanced some of the manufacturing has gotten there. Never used to be that way. I think you would be suprised. Been there and seen it.

The trend now though Chinese workers are demanding more money and India is where a lot of stuff is going. It is shame really. All of our stuff should be made here in North America.

The metal production I agree with for some materials . I personally won't buy chinese steel and we had issues with it in another company I used to work for.
 
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