Hull Warranty

[SALTED]

Hi all.
More of a general,throw it out the opinion type of question.
Should the hull warranty be a major consideration in the purchase of a new boat?

To me the industry standard now seems to be about 5 years, is this now what we as boat owners/purchases take as the minimum in the purchase of a new boat?

Hypothetically speaking,and saying all other things are equal, would a $5000 price different for a 5yr warranty compared to say a 3yr be a money well spent?.

p.s i am ref to hull only.

Just curious on your thoughts.

Cheers

[Spaniard_King]

All depends on the fine print

IMO there would be very little difference required in quality of the goods to go from 3-5years so NO $5k is way too much

Garry

[Chimo]

Of course buyers should consider this factor. They should also consider what factors are going to stuff their new boat.

You should not however, have to pay extra for a hull warranty.

You should be forced to think about how you will store, carry, launch and retrive the hull though.

In the case of Seafarer for example they give a five year warranty if your boat is carried etc on a recommended trailer that is set up for the boat

If you go your own way on some other trailer I think the hull warranty is reduced to 1 year

So freedom of choice, its up to the buyer.

Hate to think how one of those computer designed egg shell thin boats stuck on an inapproprate trailer and dragged down one of our pot holed roads would get on? Probably would not get 1 year out of them.

From the Seafarer site http://www.seafarerboats.com/html/trailers.htm

"It is often the case that the trailer is the least considered component when purchasing a boat, yet the trailer is every bit as important as the quality of the hull and engine you choose to put it under.

If the trailer is not robust enough to carry the weight of the hull, fuel and engine, it will self destruct, possibly damaging your boat in the process. If the trailer has not been properly designed to evenly distribute weight over a maximum number of correctly positioned, quality rollers, it can cause severe hull damage. And if the trailer is flexing, of poor design, and has the wrong rollers in the wrong place, launching and retrieving a big boat can become a nightmare.
Recognising these problems, Seafarer has specified its own range of trailers to be built by Tinka, Australia's most respected heavy duty trailer builder. Specific models have been customised to meet the needs of Seafarer's heavy duty hulls, with beefed up frames and multiple heavy duty rollers positioned to perfectly cradle, launch and retrieve individual Seafarer models.
Underlining the importance of having the right trailer under your boat, Seafarer warrants its hulls for one year when supplied on any other make of trailer, and a full five years when delivered on a Seafarer Tinka Classic trailer.
Pictured above is the Seafarer Tinka Classic for the 6.8m hull. Similar dual axle models are custom built for the 6m and 6.2m hulls. "

Cheers

Chimo

[BM]

Lets face it. Even boats built 20yrs ago were going to last AT LEAST 5 yrs (more like 10+) before they had floor or transom issues. So paying any extra coin for a longer hull warranty would be in my opinion foolish.

Particularly if the underfloor stringer grid is fibreglass and the floor is a fully moulded fibreglass job.

Some of the yank boats are now "no wood" but time will tell how their inflexible transoms hold up.... Stringer grid and moulded floor in glass is fine but a non timber transom wont have the required flexibility to cope with the engine movements.

There are so many potential loopholes in the new boat warranty in terms of what caused the problem that it would be intriguing to see a case played out in court. You'd only have to fit a sounder transducer to your boat (yourself) and your transom replacement claim could potentially be out the window.

Cheers

[SALTED]

Thanks guys, great input.

It is just interesting to read through mags and the like and see the big hull warranty plastered all over it, 5yrs,6,7,10.

Another way to put it is say looking at a Yalta 535 for example 3yr warranty,and bout $35k, and Cruise craft Explorer 500 (smaller but closest example) $41k and 7yr warranty. Which would you buy??

[snelly1971]

I suppose there will always be a lemon ...no matter who builds it...I would personally go for a hull with a warranty...but that is only my personal choice..

The reason i would chose to go this way is that i am very hard on gear and also carry extremely heavy loads....When looking for a boat i do alot of research...I think you cant go past asking Pro..fisherman...divers...water police...ect...They are probably the operators who give boats and outboards there toughest test..

Cheers Mick

[BM]

I'd go the CruiseCraft hands down. They have an excellent reputation for excellence in build qualtiy, they always have had that rep too!!

Yalta, whilst being good boats, have changed hands about 5 times in the last 15yrs and the build qualitiy between business owners has varied WILDLY.... from excellent to sh!tfull........ so the public confidence will never be there as one will always wonder "Which owner built this one?????"

Cruisecraft boats are HEAVY, they are WELL BUILT and well worth putting your money into. If they have what suits your needs of course.

And NO, I am not affiliated with them in any way. Just sold quite a few of their older used rigs in the last 4 yrs.

Cheers

[deadbeatloser]

Hi all.
More of a general,throw it out the opinion type of question.
Should the hull warranty be a major consideration in the purchase of a new boat?

To me the industry standard now seems to be about 5 years, is this now what we as boat owners/purchases take as the minimum in the purchase of a new boat?

Hypothetically speaking,and saying all other things are equal, would a $5000 price different for a 5yr warranty compared to say a 3yr be a money well spent?.

p.s i am ref to hull only.

Just curious on your thoughts.

Cheers

mate i bought new allycraft an must say warranty n after service was crap . dont buy a ALLYCRAFT. mine had a hole in it from new .

[snelly1971]

Was the Allycraft replaced or fixed.???

[SALTED]

BM.

I too am a fan of the Cruise crafts, had a 570 Hustler for a while, and actually considered buying the last of the Reef Finder 533's until we bit the bullet and decided that we are going to buy new.
I am a firm believer, you get what you pay for, i made the post to get other views.

And also as SNELLY said i really don't think you can do too much homework or ask too many questions.

Saying that the opinions also help to decide what counts as "good quality, and also great value for money"

[BM]

Well........ yes you can do too much homework and ask too many questions (sorry Snelly, no offence intended) because eventually you will be bamboozled by the information and become unable to make a choice due to the information overload. I have seen this on many an occasion.

What is important is finding a) someone who knows his stuff with boats and, b) someone you can trust to accurately advise you..

Now I realise this is difficult...... ..........

I had a customer ring me today (I inspected a Caribbean Belmont for him about 3 months ago, which was knocked back as it was in too poor a condition for the dollars asked, among other issues it had also) and the purpose of his call was to "have a laugh with me, and tell me that I was really on the money" because the boat had originally been advertised at 18K, when he and I looked at it, it was advertised at 15K (I advised him that it was a 10K max boat due to condition) and it is presently on the market (trading post) for 12K.

I feel for the general public that blindly look at a boat for sale, because the pitfalls are so many and so big that to tip your bucks into a boat without having it professionally inspected in my opinion is SHEER MADNESS.

Thats why I set up a boat inspection service as part of my business. Sure its ok on the side income but I simply hate seeing peopel getting dudded. I cannot stand it.....

Cheers

[snelly1971]

Hi BM....I can see you point...but there are that many different makes and models of boats these days....That one cant help but be confused. Myself ..by working in the commercial industry for 15 years I have learnt one important thing...Commercial operators usually run the Best...strongest and safest boats..You dont see many commercial Ab divers...water police...Crab fisherman..ect running around in a second rate boat..That is why i made the point about speaking to the Pro`s. Especially the ones who have been around in the industry for awhile...And another point to this is that all there boats have to be up to survey standard...so surely this shows that just maybe the choice of boats they are using are superior to others on the market..

I will give an example of the boats used here...
1..Shark cats/Noosa cats
2.Tri-star Plate boats.
3.Stabi-craft.
4.#########.

Now that is about all that you will see running around down here..you wont see any commercial operators running around in allycrafts...quintrex`s...ect..so if I am looking into purchasing another boat then i will talk to and look at what the commercial operators use...this also goes for trailers and outboards as well..

I am not saying that you have to go out and spend 130k on a big cat...to have a safe ..strong...boat...there are many good second hand boats on the market that fall in to the above list mentioned plus others...all I am saying is that by speaking to commercial operators you can narrow down the list...

Cheers Mick

[snelly1971]

Ps..I will provide another example why when it comes down to purchase cost...

1...Tri-star marine 17 foot dingy...60 enduro yammie tiller steer...+ trailer....about $17k
2.Powercraft marine ..same set up as above....$15k

Back in the early days of fish farming here...we only used dingys...The owners tried several brands of boats and motors....

The tri-stars lasted 5-7 years before they were having problems with the bottom splitting ect.
The powercrafts lasted only 6 months before they were totally split from one end to the other...

Now for the extra 2 grand i find it is money well spent...But how is the average joe blow supposed to find this sort of information out unless he asks ????

[krazyfisher]

salted
you can not really compare one of the dearest boats with one of the cheapest

[BM]

Yep Snelly I agree. Sometimes (in Government situations) they get dudded in terms of hull or engine due to behind the scenes deals done to secure the contract. Wouldn't happen with commercial fisherman as its their money on the line and not Gov money.

"In survey" to a lot of people means all sorts of weird and wonderful things. I think from memory my mate who used to manage production at E.d.e.n.c.r.a.f.t when it was down south at Corowa NSW said the cost difference between producing a hull in survey or not was about $400. I'd have to double check that figure though.

All survey is, is tabling a set of plans for how you intend to build your boats, thicknesses, materlais, laminating schedule etc etc and then building them to that standard. Its more or less a guarantee of consistent construction. Obviously the designs and specifications need to be considered up to the task they are to perform.

I started going through this process about 12 months ago with the former E'Craft production manager when we were looking at producing a new boat based on the Bertram 20.

Cheers
Cheers