Fiberglass Boats
A great majority of customers do not understand that there is a huge variation in quality amongst fiberglass and fiberglass boats. If you look at the upper middle priced boat of any brand, I could build an identical looking boat for 1/2 the price. Would it ride as well? Will it be as strong? Will it look as good 30 years from now?  Will it be as comfortable? Will its upholstery last as well?  Will the rug be the same quality?  Of course not, but it will look the same.  There are a number of ways you can build a fiberglass boat and cut corners.  The most expensive way to build a boat is to use a new mold properly designed and supported and to use top of the line gelcoat that will not blister and hand lay up of chrome fiberglass and rowing each layer to be saturated to 40% in premium grade polyester resin.  A decent boat will have multiple layers of hand laid fiberglass material and be squeegied after each layer.  A 6 layer and up should be a standard starting point with smaller boats.  We have seen 12, 14 and up layers of fiberglass.  Someplace between the layers of woven fiberglass, fiberglass mat can be used as a sandwiched material to get the necessary thickness and also provide additional strength in a sandwiched form.  The normal ratio of a hand laid up fiberglass hull is 60% fiberglass material to 40% resin.  Yes, you can use kevlar in place of fiberglass but the average consumer cannot afford it.  Kevlar is usually used only to build high performance racing boats that take a tremendous beating.

At the other extreme of the cheapest boat that still looks the same is to use few layers of fiberglass material and the rest of the fiberglass is blown with an apparatus that shoots a cotton-like fiberglass fibers mixed with resin.  This way you can build the cheapest boat of questionable strength but will still look fabulous and also, it will weigh much more than hand laid up so regardless of the inferior strenght and inferior ride, it is heavier and the strenght is built up by thickness.  Can you visualize taking random cotton fibers, saturating them in glue as opposed to taking woven material and saturating it in glue?  What a difference there would be in strength.

Many similarities can be seen in the rest of the materials when you build a boat.  This is why a $30,000 boat may look identical to one that costs $18,000 because the only thing you see is the surface.  What is behind it, the average guy has no clue.  So many times we have had customers ask why a boat that looks the same is so much more expensive.  If you are looking for a real cheapie, go to a relatively new manufacturer with no design and development department with no proving ground that has popped the mold from another manufacturer that developed the hull and used a blown technique to build the boat using the cheapest finishing materials.

There is another reason why boats that look alike can vary as much as 50% in value.  Some boats have a plywood floor covered with carpet that sooner or later rots out.  The plywood floor may be supported by stringers of white pine which is absolutely the cheapest way to construct.  Next is Sitka spruce which is more expensive and much better. Better yet is white or red oak.  The best structure for wood stringers is white oak saturated in anti-fungus chemicals and covered with fiberglass.  Better is to have floor stringers made of closed cell foam covered with numerous layers of hand laid up fiberglass.  The best is to eliminate plywood completely and go with a composite floor that is fully fiberglassed on top and resting on all fiberglass stringers.   There is also the transom which can be considered the head of the boat with the stringers as a backbone.  In 51 years we have seen many floors, transoms and stringers rotted out.  When that happens, you kiss the boat goodbye and that is when you wish you had not bought the cheapest. There is an enormous difference in costs amongst the above mentioned structures but this is what a customer does not see.  The customer should recognize why the boat is the cheapest.

How can a customer who is a neophyte in the art of boat building decide what he wants and choose a brand? Look for a dealer who has been many years in business with a good facility, a good service department, a good reputation and put your faith in his hands.  We have seen many. many marine dealers that come and go. Today they are here and tomorrow they are gone. In 50 years in business, we have seen 100s of those and they always carried the cheapest products for the cheapest prices.

Please keep in mind that if you take good care of your boat and it is money in the bank for a few hours a year of elbow grease investment.

Aluminum Boats.
Just like fiberglass, aluminum is not aluminum is not aluminum. Aluminum alloys range from 5050 alloy to 6040, T4 or even T6. All of the alloys look the same but there is an enormous difference in strength and price. Many cheaper aluminum boats are riveted. The cheapest is 5050 or 5051 alloy with a minimum thickness of the skin riveted with one line of rivets. 2 lines is better but more expensive. The cheaper hull is made of 4 pieces, the better of 2 pieces, and the best is 1 piece. The cheapest keel, keelsons and chine is formed aluminum and the much more expensive and much stronger is extruded. If you are looking for the best, get a single piece skin with extruded keel, keelsons and chine and all structures under the floor and transom reinforced with 3 welded knees. The supporting structure is all extruded, welded aluminum. In place of cheap plywood and carpet, the floor is composite carpeted or aluminum carpeted.
The size of the windshield makes a big difference in cost also. There is a huge difference in cost of the seats based on the quality. Cheap are wood based versus high impact plastic. Also the other amenities make a difference in cost.
So again, when you look at an aluminum boat, you see pretty paint but what is under it you will not know unless you do some major research. Over a period of years we have changed rotted out floors and transoms on aluminum boats where corners were cut in construction to bring the price down. In the longer run, who suffers? The unsuspecting customer.
Please keep in mind that if you take good care of your boat for an investment of a few hours of elbow grease each year, it is money in the bank.