boats

[johnr]

Are you using the front troller as an anchor cause you had to shit so bad you didn't have time to beach the boat properly?

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Are you using the front troller as an anchor cause you had to shit so bad you didn't have time to beach the boat properly?

I once had this predicament with a fellow fisherman in the boat with me, well I had him look towards the other direction and let the lake swallow the deuce from right over the gunnel. Was a do or dodo type of situation.

 

[Ristorapper]

thanks fellas, always nice to read different perspectives on a topic. wasn't wanting a big flashy glass boat. I would be perfectly content with a 17 ft aluminum with a 90 horse on it, just something to do some river fishin in and an occasional lake or two. would probably never be more than 3 people on board, just want something reliable that isn't going to break the bank.

there is a hold over 17 footer with either 90 or 115 (can't remember) at River City in Bismarck (three weeks ago). full windshield. Just UNDER $20,000. Probably not maxed out motor. I bought a 17' w/ 90 hp in '97 that was (over)rated for 150 hp. Did me perfectly fine for 14 years for a river boat. Had to pick and choose the days I wanted to be on the big lake. Worked great for me, took good care of it and it would have lasted me many more years had I hung on to it. Do your research, have fun in your quest and good luck with your decision.

 

[guywhofishes]

Wind was blowing gently into very rocky shore. Wanted to examine the giant walleye with big gill lodged in mouth (see it with ruler on shore). Stuck the talon at rear and let trolling motor act as a natural stop to keep hull off rocks. When finished I fired up outboard, hit reverse, raised talon, gently pulled away. Piddly scraping sound of trolling motor coming off rocks. No hull contact.

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That white box is Royce's rough tuff kennels water tote. They're awesome.

 

[KDM]

While I thoroughly enjoy having a boat at my disposal at a moments notice, I find myself preferentially using my feet to find great fishing the majority of the time. I find being a LBF (land based fisherman) has distinct advantages. I rarely have to sit on shore due to wind, insurance on a pair of boots is tolerable, trailering isn't very difficult, the electronics are fairly basic to nonexistent, the gas bill is minor, pirates are less of an issue, however, the chances of skunk encounters are dramatically increased. Also, take all the advice from this thread to heart, I have little to add that hasn't already been mentioned. Good Luck in your search!!

 

[SDMF]

While I thoroughly enjoy having a boat at my disposal at a moments notice, I find myself preferentially using my feet to find great fishing the majority of the time. I find being a LBF (land based fisherman) has distinct advantages. I rarely have to sit on shore due to wind, insurance on a pair of boots is tolerable, trailering isn't very difficult, the electronics are fairly basic to nonexistent, the gas bill is minor, pirates are less of an issue, however, the chances of skunk encounters are dramatically increased. Also, take all the advice from this thread to heart, I have little to add that hasn't already been mentioned. Good Luck in your search!!

That's crazy talk that borders on blasphemy!! That kinda talk in the wrong crowd will earn you a boot to the ding-ding.

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SDMF how do u feel about Crestliner?

I owned a 2006 1850 Crestliner Fishhawk with a factory pre-rigged 150HP Suzuki 4-stroke from brand new in May of '06 until last Saturday 6/20/15. Late last summer (Mid-August) I noticed a couple of cracks in the welds along the transom. That was the last time I had it in the water. Late Nov comes along, time to put the boat in storage, but, let's get those cracks fixed 1st. I knew a guy @ the local dealership and he gave me the phone number for Crestliner customer service. I called them up and they wanted NOTHING to do with me direct, they only wanted to deal with a dealer. The local dealer (Ray's, Moorhead MN) are good folks, but, I bought from a dealer that's no longer in business and I don't think Ray's should have to deal with this, they didn't make any $$ on it and I'm sure have better things to do than worry about a boat they didn't sell. Ray's removed my motor and hauled it down to New York Mills for me at no charge. So far so good. Boat sits in NYM from Dec until mid-March, which is fine, I wasn't using it and they weren't charging for storage. This is the only winter my boat's ever been outside. I've stored it indoors since I bought it. Anyway, the cracked welds get fixed under warrantee no questions asked and on the approximate timeline. I'm only ~85mi from the factory so when it was finished I picked it up and pulled it to the dealer to have the motor re-hung, and that's when the real trouble started.

Local dealer goes to hang the motor on a week later and calls me, "We can't hang the motor or, your transom wood is rotten and we're crushing the hull when we tighten the mounting bolts." Well, that's inconvenient, but, I figure it's just 1 more phone call and surely Crestliner would be interested in having my boat fixed properly the 2nd time, and hopefully more quickly than 3mo. Nope, Crestliner doesn't warrantee wood. Now, as I said, the boat is stored indoors all the time except for the days I fish. I take the tarp off when in the garage and often run a fan to get things dried out. Surely someone at Crestliner will see that there are no soft spots in my entire boat floor and realize that I either got a bad piece of wood, or some other unforeseen issue caused the rot. NOPE!!

Without seeing my boat again they told me, "Your motor wasn't pre-rigged and your dealer didn't seal up the holes well enough." Was the 1st story I got. But that was incorrect, as my boat is a Pre-Brunswick model and it indeed was factory pre-rigged, I know because I filled out the order form myself. So I pointed that out and if they believed the un-sealed holes was the problem, it was their doing. Next story was, "Well, I can see that your motor's been moved, whomever moved it didn't seal it back up and that's what caused the leak that in turn caused the rot." That was also incorrect. I had my boat back to Crestliner in '07 or '08 (don't recall which) to have the hull rockered due to too much "hook" in the hull. So again, if the mounting bolt holes weren't sealed, that should be Crestliner's responsibility. Then communication stopped for 2wks. So, I started calling, and calling, and calling, and callling................During the 1st 6 weeks of trying to figure out what caused the rot and should it be warrantee or not, there were only 2 times that my calls were returned and information conveyed when Crestliner said they would. Once was the 1st time the interim manager of customer service called me to say he was looking into things, and the 2nd was a conference call with the President of Crestliner. Other than those 2 calls, I had to HOUND them for information.

So, they schedule to have my boat returned to NYM to have the engineers and the President look at it to determine the cause of the rot. I shuffle my schedule so that I can be there on that day. But, Crestliner, again failed to communicate and the dealer didn't have my boat ready to travel. So another week goes by (it's up to 7 weeks now) until my boat gets down to NYM and the next week I cannot be down there when they "inspect it". I finally got a call back from the interim manager of Customer Service and he tells me that due to the age of my boat they don't see any reason to warantee my boat but due to my persistence they'd "only" charge me $2,000. That's the decision that's come down from the President and that's my only option.

So to re-cap, a boat that's been used for 8 seasons, stored indoors all but the 30-40 days/summer I fish with it, has no soft spots in the floor and no other damage or modifications somehow had a transom rot problem and Crestliner wouldn't stand behind it.

Originally posted by martinslanding
their customer service is in a category all it's own :;:stirthepot

See above.

The C-liner was an enjoyable boat to fish out of. The 150 Suzi was flawless for 8yrs and ~300hrs. Crestliner's customer service however sucks sweaty donkey balls.

 

[shorthairsrus]

Bank rat. Light a nice fire, grab a cool one don't get much better

 

[SDMF]

Bank rat. Light a nice fire, grab a cool one don't get much better

If I'd won the billion dollar lottery, I'd spend a summer going to every on water C-liner demo I could find and I'd burn down a used one.

 

[KDM]

That's crazy talk that borders on blasphemy!! That kinda talk in the wrong crowd will earn you a boot to the ding-ding.

That's why I'm an Internet Tough Guy. A Keyboard Ranger. A Monitor Master. I can sit in a dark closet and type my mind without threat of repercussions from Boat Bullies and other Computer Meanies!! So here's some more....

Shore fishing is better than boat fishing!!
True fishermen use their feet to find fish!!
The bigger the boat the "smaller" the fisherman!!
Motors are for sissies!!

:;:muahaha:;:muahaha:;:muahaha:;:muahaha

 

[guywhofishes]

advantage KDM

 

[johnr]

You forgot one, boat fisherman are too lazy to use their feet...

 

[all4eyes]

I own a Crestliner Superhawk and have had to contact the factory on carpet issues as my dealer also closed. Carpet is coming free from the wall panels. Boat is also stored indoors or under tarp when not in use. Crestliner er wanted to have the boat completely stripped of everything so it could go back to the factory. I said screw it and I'll fix the carpet when it becomes a problem. Overall very happy with the boat and the 115 merc 4s. Next one will be glass.

Now back to max hp on a boat I feel within 20% of max hp will do most fine. I have never caught a fish at 40+ mph. I have caught many at .5 mph. I am not in that big of a hurry to hit something in the water or push the boat faster in rough water that I or the boat can handle. If it was my first boat definitely a well equipped used boat and see how much it get used n your lifestyle. Many people only use them a few times a year. A boat is a lot of maintenance so keep that in mind. Used allows you to see what you reall like and don't like on a lot less money.

BOAT=bring out another thousand

 

[wildeyes]

I have 96 crestliner no problems great river boat, last year maxed out motor got to 40mph and the boat fills different it get on plane higher in the water . I had boats with rivets never again always leak even new. (Lund) don't get me wrong Lund is a good boat hate rivets

 

[SDMF]

Now back to max hp on a boat I feel within 20% of max hp will do most fine. I have never caught a fish at 40+ mph. I have caught many at .5 mph. I am not in that big of a hurry to hit something in the water or push the boat faster in rough water that I or the boat can handle.

For me, max HP isn't about running faster in big waves/rough water. It's nice to have extra HP on tap when you're powering out of a trough in big waves, not for extra speed, but extra control. It's also nice to make a long run @ ~3/4 throttle vs. WOT. There's also much more flexibility regarding where you put stuff and people when you have enough HP to negate an ill-balanced load.

 

[Still_Learnin']

For me, max HP isn't about running faster in big waves/rough water. It's nice to have extra HP on tap when you're powering out of a trough in big waves, not for extra speed, but extra control. It's also nice to make a long run @ ~3/4 throttle vs. WOT. There's also much more flexibility regarding where you put stuff and people when you have enough HP to negate an ill-balanced load.

Exactly! Very well said.

 

[martinslanding]

For me, max HP isn't about running faster in big waves/rough water. It's nice to have extra HP on tap when you're powering out of a trough in big waves, not for extra speed, but extra control. It's also nice to make a long run @ ~3/4 throttle vs. WOT. There's also much more flexibility regarding where you put stuff and people when you have enough HP to negate an ill-balanced load.

having the extra HP may shave a few minutes off of your return to dock trip...in mid-summer this could be the difference between sitting in the pick-up and loading the boat in a torrential down pour...

 

[guywhofishes]

having the extra HP may shave a few minutes off of your return to dock trip...in mid-summer this could be the difference between sitting in the pick-up and loading the boat in a torrential down pour...

Thumbs Up totally - ha ha ha...

this is me on high alert when rain/storms are forecast (my chubby boat hums along at 33-34 MPH)

 

[all4eyes]

I guess for me it was only 3mph top end but I can see the whole shot being a tad better. But a 500 into getting the prop worked was better then the 4000 for 3mph. I can see the benefits but I refuse to finance a boat and just didn't see the benefits.

 

[SDMF]

having the extra HP may shave a few minutes off of your return to dock trip...in mid-summer this could be the difference between sitting in the pick-up and loading the boat in a torrential down pour...

KDM and I experienced that very scenario last summer. The 1st hailstone hit him as he jumped off the bow to back the truck in and we got on the trailer and outta the water before the major hailstorm hit. It was nice to sit in the truck and not get beaten on by the hail. Listening to the radio and the storm made a turn and instead of tracking way to the N, turned right for us. We ran from down near the SE outlet by Jerusalem bay back to the ramp by Strpomme/Camp Grafton entrance as fast as my boat would go except for the off-plane run under the Wood Rutten road. I was damned glad to have the extra ~8MPH my Yar Craft has over my previous C-liner.

 

[Still_Learnin']

having the extra HP may shave a few minutes off of your return to dock trip...in mid-summer this could be the difference between sitting in the pick-up and loading the boat in a torrential down pour...

Ya know, on the flip side of that, if you wait just a little bit too long and decide to make that run at high speed when that rain does start to fall, that 60+ mph run really sucks! It like getting hit in the face with needles. One of the only times I wish I had a walleye boat instead of a bass boat so I could have a functioning windshield.

 

[Allen]

I had never heard the C-liner story before.

All I can say to that is OUCH! Good companies separate themselves from the herd using more than their product.