Best bigger Aluminum Vessel??

[Sharphooks]

I’m not an aluminum guy but I had a guy work on the aluminum sponson of my glass boat a few years ago and he did a wonderful job. Turned out he welds for Lee Shore boats. I’ve seen some of their boats and they look like they’re built extremely well—-their weld jobs are works of art!

I found this one:

https://skagit.craigslist.org/boa/d/la-conner-custom-31-offshore/6954057193.html


The only thing better then one Suzuki DF300 is a pair of them!

 

[Sentinel]

Agreed on bolt on vs welded railings... but bondo on the hull? Any proof? I fins that hard to believe.

There are several accounts of kingfisher owners finding bondo or a similar substrate used to fair in ground welds before paint. These are usually found when prepping to fix bubbling paint or cracked welds. Maybe they quit using bondo but I doubt it as it is the easiest way to hide ground welds. The newer ones I have seen still have ground welds under that pretty paint. Best way to find out is try to get them to deliver a boat sans paint and see what they say. I have never seen an unpainted kingfisher yet. A proper weld should never have to be ground.

 

[Rednex3]

A proper weld should never have to be ground.

THIS!!!^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The practise of using bondo started when they were manufacturing out of Sylvan Lake. It is a pretty common practise on the little river boats they built hundreds of. Look closely at the joint of the windshield to deck or gunnel. If it’s a smooth radius..............

Add the fact that most if not all of the ‘welders’ are not actual welders or have any sort of certification. Just because you can wear a helmet and pull a trigger on a gun someone else set up for you doesn’t make a welder.

When I moved back to the coast from Alberta (where I built probably 90 jet boats) to work at Eaglecraft, I went from being one of the best welders in the shop to the one that needed the most improvement. THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE between an assembly line shop to an actual custom boatbuilder. Certification, SKILLED welders and an actual quality control system as required by said certification.

 

[PaulPhisher]

I bought my first boat bigger than a 14′ this year. I bought a 17′ alumacraft tiller with a yamaha 75 on it. Ive been very happy with the boat with the exception of the latches on the compartments, all the set screws fell out and then the latch falls off. The motor is great VTS is something no one who trolls should live without Yamaha/alumacraft gets my vote. One thing that should be up for discussion is trailers. My boat came with a karavan and its a pile.

 

[Falcon]

Master Marine in Mt. Vernon Washington has some good deals on aluminum boats right now. If you don’t mind organizing some paperwork you can save 10 to 20 thousand buying down there, which I’m sure has been covered here lol

Bottom line is you do what’s in the best interest of your family first and foremost.

 

[UkeeDreamin]

Interesting that these threads always end up in some level of bashing of the non-custom aluminum boat manufacturers. I find it interesting that the same doesn’t happen in glass boat threads, but maybe it’s because there isn’t much for prominent custom glass boat manufacturing of PNW boats (there definitely is for flats boats).

I also find it interesting that while there are still some hand built automobiles, and all of us can appreciate the quality and craftsmanship that goes into a Rolls Royce or Bentley, the vast majority of us aren’t going to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for a hand built car. Instead, everyday we drive our assembly line cars and trucks, many assembled or with parts from third world countries. We trust our wives and sons and daughters to hurtle down highways over 100kph in these assembly line vehicles. The vast majority of us put way more time in our trucks than our boats as well. Won’t even get into the frequency of recalls and mass issues with assembly line cars vs boats.

Anyway, I just find this line of thinking interesting where an assembly line truck is fine but an assembly line boat isn’t.

Cheers!

Ukee

 

[Whole in the Water]

To answer the original question of this post in a word... Coastal Craft. https://www.coastalcraft.com/

 

[zurk]

i would look into https://www.lifeproofboats.com/yachtline

 

[Aquaholic]

To answer the original question of this post in a word... Coastal Craft. https://www.coastalcraft.com/

https://walkerboats.com/ is also an excellent choice. Coastal and Walker both use some Bruce Cope designs.

 

[BigReel]

Cozier Craft has some very nice builds. The 34 is my favorite with the half walk around design.