Brands of welded hull boats..?

[rseas]

Portland has a lot more "sportsmen" than Seattle So a lot more of our kinda boats. My DB came from half way there. The big thing about down there is no Amazon or Microsquish to inflate the prices. Buy there, sell here. Give a shout if you want to make a run and look at some.

Our drift boat was an Oregon boat also. We got a good deal and had a great weekend road trip picking it up. Shoot we even ate at Kaleidoscope Pizza in Medford, Our favorite purveyor of pizza and beer. And yes, we have made the trip to Medford just to have pizza...

[beeman]

I just put money down on a Hewescraft Sportsman 180. Out of all the boats I looked at it was by far the best built.

Boats I looked at,
Cabellas - Riverhawk and spartan, riverhawk was nice at a good price but in the cabin the bow was open and you could see all the spray foam they put in, just looked cheap (and bugged me) also found a few soft spots in the floor. I really liked the way they had the stern set up. The spartans were too heavy for my towing rig. Another issue is riverhawk went through a bankruptcy so the warranty is a little suspect.

3 river marine - alumaweld 18', nice boat but I was not a fan of the Vinyl wrapped flooring or the bench area each side of the motor, especially the side they put a latch on but fill with spray foam, dealer said most buyers remove the foam and use it for storage, just seemed funky to me. They were also pushing the extended warranty on the yamaha for 1300 but failed to mention yami is including that for all sales this month for free.

Tom N Jerry (Anecortes) - Hewescraft love the build on these boats, solid great welds quality finish, I could find nothing not to like, even the downrigger brackets were designed to be much stronger than the other brands. I almost put money down but decided to think it over during lunch, glad I did as a quick search led me to Verles in shelton, I got a better deal with them including the upgraded trailer with folding tongue and spare tire included.

Here is what I am getting.
Sportsman 180
Yamaha 90
ezloader trailer (folding tongue & spare)
Full canvas
LED lights (including cabin)
wash down system
fish box/live well
2x scotty 1106's
Lowrance elite 7
2x captain chairs (with storage)
2x 37" bench seats (with storage)

Overall Verles beat Jerry's by about $2000 and the boat had extras that jerrys did not have, cannot wait to pick it up and get on the water.

[The Quadfather]

Beeman,
Thanks for sharing. Sounds like your patience and taking time paid off for you.
It was interesting to read what you said about some of the sloppy build quality that you saw in boats right there on the showroom floor. (Over spray of foam, etc)
I am still working my way towards this thing. After all the viewing and reading, I am much clearer now on the things that are important to me.
I really value a seating arrangement that is two rear seats (side console stearing). and one bow pedestal seat. Previous garage storage, etc.
I have one that fits that bill, but I prefer $$ to financing, and working my way towards, etc.
Expecting to go see a couple this weekend.
Have fun in your new boat.

[Mike Carey]

congrats beeman, great boat with lots of fun adventures in your future.

[TrackerPro16]

Sounds like a nice one!

[hewesfisher]

Congrats on your purchase!

Our first "real" boat was a Sportsman 160 fished it hard for 3yrs before upgrading to the ProV. Lot of great folks at Hewescraftowners.com.

[sickbayer]

so chris what did you get or you still looking?

[The Quadfather]

so chris what did you get or you still looking?

Well, I did look into welded hull boats, and in the end I wound up going back with a Lund again after all. I found a 2016 Lund Fury 1600 SS.
The boat was bought late 2016, only used 1 month in summer 2017, and 1 month summer 2018. I was able to hold out for the options I wanted most which were variable post seating, and side console steering. The boat comes standard with a 25 HP Suzuki 4 stroke, but some things happened when the guy I bought it from picked it up from the dealer. In the end they could not provide the original owner with either a 25 or 30 HP, so it came with the max rated 40 HP. The motor and boat only have 15 hours of use, as well as there are still paper stickers on the trailer. So, I’m pretty stoked.

Taking it out on Lake WA. tomorrow.
I’ll ad a couple pics tomorrow.

[sickbayer]

Fantastic mate!

[sickbayer]

Those Lund prices are quite high new, heck all the new boat prices are ludicrous.