New England B.S. Thread

Morning, humans.

 

If you fly fish primarily you may want to consider a tiller to give you more deck space. And if you fly fish, my guess is you will hate trolling. But who knows.

If I fished the Quabbin I would probably just suck it up and rent one of thier boats a few times a year. That certification process seems like a PITA to me, and I don't think I'd do it. I guess it's easy for me to say- I live in Central NH where I have dozens of coldwater lakes within a half hour drive. In Western MA there are fewer options.

Tracker, unless it's from before 1998 I would avoid, but that is just me. They used to be sold in independant boat stores, now you can only buy them at Bass Pro. Go look at the hulls really close, they are so thin the stringers telegraph through the aluminum. You shouldn't see that. Horror stories of them cracking are all over the web. They are cheap for a reason... when you can buy a brand new 16' SC with trailer and motor for under $17K, well... there is a reason for that. Before 98 they were still owned by Johnny Morris, but they weren't corporate and they made nice boats. Plus I don't know if I would enjoy dealing with BPS exclusively. But if you are buying used, and older model before 98, they were built better. I don't know, it could be both good and bad to be in bed with the WalMart of fishing, but it's not for me.

Lowe is Brunswick, who owns Starcraft, Crestliner, Boston Whaler, Sea Ray... they are the largest recreational boat company on earth. I have owned a Crestliner and still own a Starcraft. My Starcraft has been the best boat I ever owned and I will probably never sell it. They make nice products. My Sylvan that I just bought is a Brunswick boat.

A 25hp is perfect for most uses. Plus if you want to come to NH you can operate it without a Safe Boaters Certification. My 14' Starcraft SC has a 25 and with just me and a little gear it will easily push 28mph. That's fast. Bigger motors just use more fuel anyway.

 

This weekend will be my attempt at getting my Front Runner Cab-Rack installed and then the Prinsu Cap-Rack lined up and design some custom brackets for it.

 

I'll be there. You'll find my truck and camper in the rv campground. Stop by and say hello if you see us around.

 

Which is the nice thing about aluminum; it's light enough that you can get away with a much smaller motor. My wide-ass 17' fiberglass unit is a heavy bitch, so the 45hp unit that it came with would either pop up on plane and top out at about 19mph with an 11p prop, or it'd take for-ev-er to get on plane and top out around 25mph with a 15p.
The 60hp unit that I replaced it with likes the 15p prop pretty well; she comes on plane in a hurry and tops around 30 or so, which is plenty fast enough for me. 30mph on the water feels a LOT faster than 30mph on land. And it handles a load a lot better, too. We took the GF's brother, wife, kids, and mom out for a pleasure cruise last fall and even with 5 adults, two kids and a dog it still got up on plane in about 20 seconds and topped out around 25mph.
But, if I put a 25hp on there I'd probably never get up on plane, even if it was just me in the boat.

 

Yep, there are advantages and disadvantages to both hull constructions. Aluminum strength to weight ratio is really good. I like being able to beach my boats and drag it onto a concrete launch and not worry about it. If I drag over a rock it most likely won't be an issue, but in a glass boat a rock strike can be a real problem. And when I camp with the boat for a week, I don't worry about it being beached all night even if the wind comes up. But for the same reasons light is good, it can be bad. My boat rocks and rolls over big seas when a heavy glass boat will just suck it up and stay put. If I lived on the water and had a dock I would have a glass boat for sure. But can you imagine if the 21' boat I just bought was fiberglass? It would weigh 5000+ lbs easy.

 

Depends on the boat; the GF's uncle just bought a 22 foot Triton last fall, and that weighs in around 2K dry and around 3k as it sits with motor, fuel, gear, etc.

The biggest determining factor for me getting a glass boat was that the price was right, lol. I'd been looking at aluminum, but stumbled across this one thru serendipity and for the $$ it was a deal I couldn't say 'no' to. And you're right about the stability; this thing doesn't care if it's choppy or like glass.

 

All this boat talk has me thinking about my BIL's new boat. I'll see if he can shoot me some pictures and details

 

Must be a bass boat. Bass boats are the exception, I'm talking a dual console, walkthrough windshild with 3' of freeboard.

 

At least we aren't talking about Fords and GMC's (the day has just begun though)

 

I had a 20 ft Grady with a 350 for years and that weighed North of 4k even with half a tank of fuel.
Most recent boat was a Sea Ox 20 footer (dual console) with a 150 Opti. That weighed about 1k less than the Grady.

 

Ah, yes. This is true; bass boats are built to be skimmers, and to be easy to wander around on, so they do tend to run lighter. No superstructure, so to speak.

 

The quiet or normal camp area, I will be at the quiet

 

Shows how many glass boats I have owned! Zero! Those are pretty light. My only experience is with my buddys boat, a 17' Glastron bow rider that we believe weighs 3000 lbs dry.

 

Mine is up there as well. I haven't actually driven it over a set of scales (and there's no internet spec-sheet for something this old, lol) but it's got to be at least 2500lbs before you figure the weight of a motor, fuel, & gear.

 

Im planning on being at NEMBAfest as well. Don't get anything for phone service tho, couldn't find Eammon last year. Strava flyby showed we just missed each other out on the trails.

 

The normal one.

 

I hoping to get this in the water this year and see if it floats lol . It hasn’t been used in probably 5-6 years . I got it when my dad past away in late 2015. We just found the title yesterday. I just need to make up a bill of sale .

 

I'm not volunteering this year, so my schedule is a lot more flexible. We should all pick a time and place to meet up for a ride together, or at least gather for some story swapping over beverages on Saturday evening before the band kicks off.

 

Nice setup. That 9.9 4 stroke is a nice motor. The boat reminds me of my old Grumman: