Based on what I’d discovered about Ali boats, I set about
looking for a 2nd hand boat that ticked all the boxes. This lead to a whole new learning curve on
quality and manufacturer related issues.
The quality of some ali boats is dubious.
When I was looking around at 2nd hand boats I often saw cracks in
welds, especially on stress points like ladders and near window frames. I am
actually glad that I looked at the 2nd hand market, because if you
are considering new, it will give you a good indication of how long a new boat of
certain brands will hold up before it starts looking tired.
Some builder have gone out of business a
number of times, a bit like those Rug shops with the “closing down” banners
permanently mounted out the front. A particular WA builder has changed owners
at least twice that I am aware of, and won’t warranty boats that were made by
previous owners.
Some “well known” builders have fundamental
design issues. I was particularly keen on certain builders style of boats,
they had a good reputation. Had good after sales support and their default boat
was 90% of what I wanted. After talking to at least 3 owners I discovered that
this particular make of boats would rest bow down when not moving. I didn’t
think that this was too much of an issue until they all said that if water came
over the side or into the back of the boat, then it would head straight to the
v-berth at the front. When the manufacturer was consulted about the apparent
issue, they pretty much said its not a problem with our boats…just work around
the problem by keeping the fuel and water tanks full. I genuinely considered
this as a workaround, but the owners said that once the fuel got below ¾ the
boat would nose down. I got suspicious when the sales guys started telling me
that I should put twins or a 300-350hp motor on the back because “these boats
love weight on the rear”.
The salesmen at some dealerships wont take
you out on the boat unless you put down a deposit. In this case I liked a
certain 2nd hand boat enough that I would consider buying it. When I asked if I could be
taken out on it to see how it performed the salesman basically said, sure, just
sign this “contract to purchase” …. When I challenged him and said you wouldn’t
buy a car without driving it, he basically gave me a bunch of excuses about his costs and time, and how buying a boat is different. Needless to say it put me
off enough and I walked away. I am
surprised that they are still in business, given that attitude.
Some boats are built in China and shipped
to Australia for fitting. This last
point wasn’t so much of a concern, more of a “it doesn’t suit me”. The reason
that it didn’t suit me is that I wanted to be involved in the building of my
boat, I wanted to see it progress and see how things went together. If a boat
was made overseas then I wouldn’t get the chance to be involved. It was this factor that made the decision for
me. On the other hand for the owners of this particular brand of boat, I had heard of quality issues with the
aluminium and some owners were concerned about workmanship. So if I had decided
to forgo the “being involved” aspect, then I would have looked more into the
quality and workmanship concerns.
As a side note: I have consciously avoided putting the
manufacturer names or any specific descriptions into the post above. The simple
reason is that it could open me up to litigation, specifically libel. So if
your reading this, then do your own digging and see what you find. The above
examples were easy to find out just by asking the right questions.
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