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Random Quote: Fishing "A pleasure disguised as a sport"
I looked over a 20ft "premier" CC at Bass pro this weekend. It was a nice looking boat but for the price ($38k with a 150 mercury, optimax I think) I was surprised at the lack of details that had been addressed. Why these companies don't take the extra 10 minutes to do things right I don't know. It wasn't just this boat, it was about every boat I looked at except the cheapest aluminum rig that seemed to have all of it's the details taken care of. Go figure.. It guess they make the boat 95% right and figure that's close enough. On this particular boat the bow nav. light was not sealed (no fitting attached to the hull had any sealer or bedding). It sits on a little centerline seam moulded into the hull that is a slight depression. You could see the unsealed wire splices under the light. There was a gap under the base of the light you could almost get you little finger into. It was a direct opening to the elements with the wire splices sitting right in the middle of it. 10 seconds and $.10 of silicone would have saved someone getting run over at night when their corroded out nav light splice fails.. I certainly don't think it's specific mfg. issue, it's an industry issue. I spent a weekend pulling and bedding hardware on my boat that should have been done at the factory when it wouldn't have taken any more effort. My battery cable also came heat shrinked but the lugs where uncrimped. Had to fix them myself. details, details nobody seems to be payng attention to them anymore...
The boat I was looking very closely at had a ladder bracket on the back that had been simply screwed onto the transom (not through bolted) with no sealer and it was already pulling loose. None of the hull fittings where bedded. One of the cleats had 3 stainless washers and 1 zinc washer (already rusting) under the nuts. There was a nice access hatch with a stretched tight live well hose going right across the middle of it. Made access difficult. 2 more ft of hose and everything would have fit nicely. A handful of wire splices (crimp type, unsealed) where laying about an inch off the bottom in the bilge. One wire loom would have saved all of those connections from a dunking as soon as a little water get in the bilge. It would have taken 2 hrs for someone to take this boat from being a 95% also ran into being a 100% leader..
Maybe I looked at the only 3 brands of boats (and bought a fourth) in the country that isn't taking care of the details.. Funny thing was the bottom of the line aluminum rig had all of its wires shrink tubed, loomed out of the way and every hull fitting was bedded????
It just makes me mad to see people doing so much right on building a boat and then fumbling on the 1ft line... Sorry for the rant...
It was more than both. I had a little time to kill waiting on the wife and I was just having fun being picky with boats there. As soon as I found a few details I didn't like I went to the next one. One particular boat was a stand out though. It was still one of the best one's there in my opinion. Just kills me to see a $50 polished stainless fitting with no bedding and a zinc washer under it..
I'm not into name calling, I don't think I've ever bashed another brand of boat on a public forum but I'm not above bashing the industry as a whole...
Quote:
A Few Dollars - 2/6/2006 10:18 AM
"20ft "premier" CC at Bass pro "
I don't think you can use those words in the same sentence.
Maybe when you drive an Angler Panga, premier becomes a relative term...
It is a marginal industry - people don't need boats, they WANT them. And most are uneducated compared to the users of this forum. Price is king.
You have to go to a SeaVee, Jupiter, Intrepid, etc. to get real A+ quality in a CC. And people that buy those boats are few and far between. You yourself talk alot of what a good value your boat is, and while I do not disagree, nor think you made a bad choice, you knew what you were getting - a mid-tier boat on which some corners were cut.
I guess my point is this: Its a very competitive market. If most (of their) customers don't know the difference, why should the manufacturer drive up costs and lower margins with quality that the customer doesn't notice anyway?
Price is king, the production manager wants x number of boats to go out the door each week. To him getting that number out the door is the highest priority, not how well each boat is made. When the production managers boss decides that quality is a priority, with the resulting increase in labor and parts (don't hold your breath for that to happen) is when things will change.
When you really start to believe that the little things don't matter, or that the customer won't notice, your business is heading in the wrong direction. These items that Arlon mentions are not stuff that would cause a lot of money to fix. An experienced, conscientious person could go over one of these boats in an hour or so, and tie up all of the loose ends in another hour. In my business (construction), I don't expect the $10/hour guy to catch all of the problems, but between him, his foreman, and myself, we darn sure better catch 98 percent of them before the project is completed. You try to build quality into your production process, but you still need some QC (or a walkthrough) at the end of the project.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not advocating this - I'm just calling it like I see it.
I wish this wasn't the case, but evidence to the contrary is just not there.
I don't think the Johnny Morris companies are doing this on accident. They, and many others, do installation details like this in a manner with primary regard to cost. 9 times out of 10 it's not a matter of "not catching it", just a cheap installation.
My 20' kencraft has issues as well, though not as bad as what you've mentioned. Everything has stainless hardware and caulking, but there's still issues. For instance: rod holders than drain directly onto the flotation foam (the water does have a route into the bilge). Or the cheapest bilge hose money can buy...
details, details.. does anyone care anymore? 
