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I am considering an aluminum boat for pleasure.


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I have the Crestliner Kodiak 18 with a 50-or-60-horse Mercury Four Stroke in mind. My boat would have the side console option and a GPS/depthfinder as well as navigation lights and a hand-held floating marine walkie-talkie with NDB. Most fellows think of these for duck hunting and fishing but mine would be an economy day cruiser for inland waters. Aluminum has its virtues. Lightweight, lasts forever and the boat is simple to clean, maintain and detail. My first and last boat was a then-purchased-new Lowe 14-footer sporting 25-horse Johnson 2-stroke power. Johnson outboards are out of production. This boat proved to small for my two German shepherds and a human companion on deck and also had tiller control which I hated. I would use my aluminum boat to navigate the inland waters of northern California: navigable rivers, sloughs, lakes, reservoirs and the Delta since I live in the Sacramento Valley. Crestliner is built with welds and not weaker rivets. These aluminum hulls have nothing but longevity. Here is a mock-up of what this Kodiak would look like in special paint.

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Edited by JonDavenport
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  • 2 weeks later...

So lets talk about some of the "less important" wink.png stuff, you know stuff like alloy grade, bottom/side thickness etc

Crestliner is aluminum, all-welded construction, no rivets. Don't know much about grade or thickness. I have never heard of any all-welded aluminum hull's failing. It would seem that an all-welded "floating beer can" would even outlive her owner. My family had a riveted Grumman aluminum canoe that developed minor seepage at the rivets after about five years or so. We bought this canoe new. I had a Lowe aluminum 14-footer I bought brand new a few years ago. She was riveted, I believe. I used to pull the drain plug after a day on the lake and a few gallons or more of water would ooze out. Not sure if this was rivet leakage or just water splashing over the bow. My wet dogs and I would get on board the Lowe after swimming in the lake too. Once I tried to launch her with the drain plug out but caught myself before she rolled off the boat trailer at the ramp. Never heard anything bad about a Crestliner hull.

There should never be leakage/seepage on all-welded aluminum.

Edited by JonDavenport
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Considering Oz builders have been building big, small and in between alloy plate and pressed fully welded boats for probably a lot longer and in greater qualties than the US then trust me that they can/will & do split at times, You should never say never on this one as there are quite a few variables in this that no one can simply make a blanket statement like that.

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Considering Oz builders have been building big, small and in between alloy plate and pressed fully welded boats for probably a lot longer and in greater qualties than the US then trust me that they can/will & do split at times, You should never say never on this one as there are quite a few variables in this that no one can simply make a blanket statement like that.

So you are saying Crestliner stinks?

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Considering Oz builders have been building big, small and in between alloy plate and pressed fully welded boats for probably a lot longer and in greater qualties than the US then trust me that they can/will & do split at times, You should never say never on this one as there are quite a few variables in this that no one can simply make a blanket statement like that.

So you are saying Crestliner stinks?

No, what I said was that any welded alloy boat can/could leak, split, take on water etc there is no guarantee that just because it's an all-welded aluminium boat that it will/should never leak. Regardless of being a Crestliner or not.

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Considering Oz builders have been building big, small and in between alloy plate and pressed fully welded boats for probably a lot longer and in greater qualties than the US then trust me that they can/will & do split at times, You should never say never on this one as there are quite a few variables in this that no one can simply make a blanket statement like that.

So you are saying Crestliner stinks?

No, what I said was that any welded alloy boat can/could leak, split, take on water etc there is no guarantee that just because it's an all-welded aluminium boat that it will/should never leak. Regardless of being a Crestliner or not.

I can't say wooden or fiberglass boats are invincible either. I think aluminum has the best longevity. It won't rust or rot. I am not sure if Crestliner is alloy or not. Though no boat is perfect, I would have to say all-welded aluminum is the least likely to be troublesome. Sure, any boat can get destroyed in a wreck. I would have to say all-welded has the nod over rivets for leak-resistance.

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As far as rivited alloy boats are concerned most boat builders (over here anyway) have moved on many many years ago, yet there are still some 40 year old rivited alloy boats still going today that were made by DeHavilland all those years ago. DeHavilland being an aircraft manufacturer knew very well about alloy stress and fatigue hence one reason why aircraft are still full of rivits today. With small light weight alloy boats rivits still have a place for the very reason of stess and fatigue with thin weled light gauge alloy. Different scenario when 6mm plate is being used but there can still be an issue with stress, fatigue and failure and when an all welded alloy plate boat fails it fails big time.

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