Boat tests

[Haji]

Has anyone else found that boat tests in some of the fishing/boating magazines tend to gloss over any shortcomings in on water performance?

One of my previous boats was a "first out of the mould" 6.5m Aussie Whaler (tri hull) which was brought down to Sydney from the Gold Coast where it was built, to be "road tested" by one of the mags before I took delivery.

The test was carried out on Pittwater where it was soon evident that the hull suffered from a lot of "hull slap" between the outer and inner hulls which made for a very noisy and bumpy ride over anything higher than a heavy dew. Not a word of that in the test report, only a glowing endorsement of the good points about the boat.

Whilst I loved the finish and internal layout of the boat it was a total dog offshore to the point that I only went out in it on two occasions and then sold it at a loss.

I guess my experience points up the value of a Forum such as this one where we can ask questions of fellow fishermen (who do not have to consider losing an advertiser) and know that we will likely get an honest answer.

More power to the Forum!

Haji

[xtosea]

You have put it very well Haji, at least someone on here will have owned a particualr type of boat, or know someone that does or has so most questions can be answered.

Kamil

[sydfish]

Here here, the boat business is even more dodgy than the used car sales gig or the indian telemarketers. Having had 4 boats over the past 7 years I can honestly say they all have faults that you would not stand for in any other industry. Just think when you buy a car, look at the quality that you get for your money, boat makers, dealers etc just rip you blind as it is a recreational industry.
My last tinny that i have just got rid of had the seams split in the transom and the side, all repaired under warranty, but things like that should not happen in the first place, the boat cost over 30k. The decks on the thing were warped before i even picked it up and then were supposed to be replaced with ally ones, I found out later when they warped that they had nopt been the aluminium wafer like they wrote on the warranty receipt.
All people writing reviews on boats are getting a kickback, paid to write what the blokes putting them up tell them to. Just like those so called experts from the tabacco industry telling us that smoking wont harm us. If they dont write in a favorable way they dont get paid to do it again. :banghead: :banghead:
So if you do go out to get a boat always test ride it, they dont like to do this but insist, ask people who have had them, and check out the resale value on them, the decent ones tend to keep their value over time, the rest lose big time.:ranting2:

[storms72]

Geez...I feel like the enemy replying in this topic but will anyway.

Worked selling boats for a few years a few years back and anyone showing a genuine interest in a boat ie; deposit ready to lay down or already paid fully refundable deposit (be sure to get this in writing on your reciept)was more than welcome to test the boat(unless it was a special order). Unfortunately the areas for testing are limited for most sales yards, and usually you will be testing the hull in enclosed bay conditions which don't give an honest reflection of a boats performance on blue water.
I will tell you all to ignore reviews and most of what a salesman tells you, if you buy a boat push the salesman into a corner with a return if not happy, believe me I did have a couple of sales come back because of the boat not doing the job/living up to expectations and manufacturers would come on board and assist so the business and the customer don't lose out (experienced this with Mustang where a customer returned a boat twice, twice it was replaced, twice fitted out by us, all out costs were covered by mustang, and finally the customer was happy).

I will leave you with the following tips:

If you are not happy speak out

make the issue the sales yards (don't let them make you deal directly with the builder unless you have to)

the more you bother someone the quicker they want you out of their hair so ring twice a day or more

Don't buy from a friend as the friendship will suffer if something goes wrong (just get his cheap price matched down the road)

Don't mention consumer affairs until you have called them, know you have a case and have the forms on the way.

This may help avoid any ugly situations

Jason

[hairy]

storms, why did the boats come back, was it because it had been miss represented by the sales staff or the buyers not knowing what they wanted out of a boat.
please expand on this one as i believe that the sales people in the marine industry are mostly a bunch of shonks as i found out when buying my boat, as some of the things i was told were down wright dangers.:banghead: