River Boats ?? !!

[Ruger4]

Any pictures ? who's gott'em , what's a reasonable amount ( not new ) a guy or 2 has to spend on a decent boat to get him up and down in a reasonable amount of time , packing a moose, elk , other on the way out !!

[lunatic]

I have a 20' Outlaw Nahanni that I bought new in 2001. Hard to say what a "reasonable" amount is. Depends on what you are looking for. Do you want a V8 motor or a lightweight V6 / jet combination? The Sportjet series are smaller 2 stroke V6's married to the jet drive that give considerable HP in a very lightweight package. We are talking about just over 300#. These are extremely popular in the north for shallow water. If you are using for hunting, you probably want a 6-8* deadrise for good weight carrying and slower speed planeing. Do you want UHMW on the bottom or a steel skid plate? 14 foot or 20+ foot? Painted, semi-painted, or just plain old aluminum? Lots of different options. I like a nice looking boat as I use it for all kinds of recreation not just for hunting. If it is strictly for hunting then buy just a plain aluminum boat with a good motor which you could pick up for "around" $20,000. If you want to get fancy then you are looking at a "minimum" of "around" $45,000. A good starter size would be 16-18 foot with a 6 or 8* deadrise, a Sportjet package, 7 - 9 stringers and FULL UHMW or QT 100 bottom. You can pick up an Outlaw Tuchodi Special which is an excellent boat for hunting with relatively low hours for somewhere in the low to mid $30's. Check out the websites for Marathon marine, Outlaw/Eagle, and Firefish. All are excellent boats and lots of good info on the sites to help you decide what you are looking for.

[Barracuda]

you can get going for a pretty reasonable investment if you do your homework .
I have a 15 foot beercan with a new merc 60/40 jet (thank you TNT Marine)and it goes in skinny water much easier then the big boat on the river simply because of how light and nimble it is (not to mention it is a quarter of the price to feed) but it it is a small boat and the hull is really takeing a beating. the nice thing about a little boat is it is easy to tow.

For our next boat once we get setteled in our new place would be the same size boat with an open bow well designed jet tunnel 3/16 bottom and very basic center console i think. .


I suppose it really depends on what you are doing I am still in the begginer stage seeing what works and what doesnt for us .

[recoil]

I would check out wahington state and oregon for a slightly used one, they are in worse economic shape there which translates to some wicked deals to be had. Also there is a pretty sweet harbercraft on repo.com right now with the 200hp sportjet motor, i have heard it is much more efficient than the v-8 powered boats. I would probably buy it if i had the cash.

[Dirty]

After looking at a Firefish up close and personal, I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole. Go for a tried and tested brand such as Shuman or Outlaw if you are headed up north.

[yama49]

After looking at a Firefish up close and personal, I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole. Go for a tried and tested brand such as Shuman or Outlaw if you are headed up north.

Dirty,
What didnt u like about firefish boats? i have been looking also and they were on my list, havent seen them in person yet.. does shuman have a website? have heard good things about outlaw...

[lunatic]

After looking at a Firefish up close and personal, I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole. Go for a tried and tested brand such as Shuman or Outlaw if you are headed up north.

Find this extremely hard to comprehend. I also have looked at Firefish hard, and the workmanship is excellent. I too would like to know what you found that you didn't like. I own an Outlaw which is considered one of the top boats up here, and I would take a Firefish any day over an Outlaw. Some VERY experienced boaters in Northern BC have switched to Firefish. Check their website like I said. I've not seen a single negative word spoken about their boats. Can't say the same about Harbercraft.

[bigwhiteys]

I am not a riverboat expert by any means, but I do know the shumans as my dad is great friends with them and know they build a kickass boat. One of our friends, just received his custom built shuman and couldn't be happier. According to him it's the best river boat he's had and he's been at it for a few years. It was LOTS of moolah though.

http://www.shumanboats.ca/ Not much of a website but you can contact them with questions.

Carl

[270WSMGB]

I would also give Omineca Fabricating in Prince George a call. You won't find much comparable to their boats other than Shuman.

[lunatic]

There are others out there. There is a guy in Dawson that builds awesome boats. First name is Miles if I remember right. Heard he can be a real p***k to deal with though. His way or no way. Eugene Moore also builds a nice boat but i'm not sure if he is still doing so. I've seen the Shuman and the Omineca boats as well. What is it that you guys find any different than Outlaw or Firefish? Any of them will custom build what you want and I find the quality about the same with all of them ( if they are custom built).