Weldcraft, Duckworth and Northwest (not the Northwest Aluminum Craft from Vancouver Island) all used to be made by Renaissance Marine Group. Which is when I bought my Weldcraft. Rod's Power and Marine on Vancouver Island was the rep for Weldcraft then. These boats are very well made for fishing in our kind of West Coast weather.
Then Kingfisher bought out Renaissance Marine Group and from what I was told by the rep, everything went to ****. Kingfisher started to change the ways the Weldcraft/Duckworth/Northwest boats were painted for one. And they were refusing to cover warranty issues that the rep had to pocket the costs themselves to keep their customers happy. A lawsuit then ensued. Which cost the rep even more money but they won in court and recovered some of their money they had to spend to cover Kingfisher's warranty issues on all these boats after they took over Renaissance Marine Group.
As far as I know Kingfisher has kept the hull designs and most other things the way they were with the Weldcraft/Duckworth and Northwest boats but the Kingfisher hull is not in the same category as the other three. Completely different boat and a bath tub shaped hull that gets blown all over the water. Doesn't ride through rough water conditions anywhere as comfortable as the other hulls do on the other three boats mentioned. I owned a Kingfisher 2525 and traded it in when I bought my Weldcraft a few years before Kingfisher bought out Renaissance. Kingfisher spends more money on marketing than any other aluminum boat manufacturer and tries to get their boats sponsored on a lot of the fishing shows. That's why everyone knows the name etc.. but they are a very sub par boat when it comes to off shore ride/performance/build quality etc when comparing them to a lot of the other custom aluminum west coast boat manufactures there are.
Pay attention to hull metal thickness, internal ribs/structure support for the hull, size/placement of reverse chines, deadrise degrees etc
I haven't heard anything negative about North River and their off shore boats but can't speak of any more knowledge as far as their ocean boats than that. I owned a North River jet boat and it was very well built, strong, and never had any issues with it for the 12 years I owned it for.
When you're going to spend that kind of money on a boat do a lot of homework on how the boat is made, warranty, power, layout etc. It's a huge investment that with hopefully be with you for a long time and worth taking your time for the purchase in my opinion. If you want more information on the Kingfisher/Renaissance buy out, warranty issues etc feel free to message me.
When I was at the boat show I took a picture of two Kingfisher boats sitting close to two North River boats. Look at the hulls and the chines. Kingfisher is shaped like a bathtub which is why they get blown all over the place and track very ****** especially with a wind. They also have a very less comfortable lift and ride due to the sub par chines.
Years ago Kingfisher even started putting bow thrusters on their smaller 25' boats and up because customers were complaining and having troubles docking their boats cause of the shallow hull shape and in windy conditions this gets amplified a lot.
My Weldcraft is 30' LOA, has no bow thruster and I can dock it into tight spots with a wind. Doesn't get blown around and tracks very straight in the water. Can walk away from the wheel and not worry about it wondering around on it's own like my Kingfisher did.
Another thing to consider is that when the manufacturers talk about boat measurements, most of them talk about the length that is measured to the inside edge of the stern. But Kingfisher, with all of their models has always "cheated" and published their measurements to the outside edge of the stern. Making it look like their boats are bigger than they are. It gives them an inflated 1.5 to 2' length to their models. For example a Weldcraft 260 (measured 26.5' to the inside of the stern-but 28' to the outside of the stern) is actually the same length as Kinfisher's 28' model because of the way they measure and market their boats. Their models they call 28' is actually shorter than my Weldcraft 260.
Kingfisher bathtub shaped hulls and small, shallow chines-Lake boat type hulls
North River deep west coast off shore shaped hulls and deep, wide chines
