Chris Z
Well-Known Member
Well, now that I've had a chance to spend a couple of up close and personal weekends with the new boat I have some things I'd like to share. I'll start with the good.
The elliptical pontoons with strakes are a great combo. Particularly when mated with the F150 on my G22. Speed is excellent, with about 4 hours on the motor I've been able to poke it to WOT briefly and am seeing a pleasing 38 mph (GPS) at about 5800 rpm. That's with three people and a 3/4 tank full of fuel. There's room to grow a bit as the motor continues to loosen up. Oh, and that's with the motor hung on hole #2 and spinning a Yam black stainless prop, 14 3/4 x 15.
The solidity and smoothness of the boat is really amazing. And the authority that engine trim has over the running attitude is much better than I thought it would be.
I had the opportunity to poke my nose outside of the sand dunes onto Lake Ontario on Saturday. With a stiff breeze out of the north we were seeing 2 to 3 foot rollers off the beaches. Ride was dry and manageable though I wouldn't want to spend an extended amount of time out there. Once again, I was happily surprised.
Fit and finish has so far been good. I've been detailing the boat and everything appears to be correct. The stereo would certainly benefit from the addition of a sub-woofer but for the most part it sounds fine.
Two stand out additions are the co-captains lounge and the ottoman with built in cooler. I was really impressed with the insulating abilities of that little cooler and the co-captains lounge is everyone's favorite seat on the boat.
On the down side I wish I was happier with the helm. If anything doesn't live up to the solidity of the rest of the boat it's right there. The glass they used is not thick enough and while it looks great, grab the wheel in a supportive way and you will feel the flex. The helm on my last boat was almost bullet proof, the glass was so thick. When I had the wheel in my hands there wasn't a hint of flex or the feeling that if you pulled a bit too hard it would break off in your hands. The Benny, not so much.
I have the fill seat that you can move from one gate to the other. It's a great feature and unfortunately, as it has been mentioned here before, the upholsterer couldn't really figure out a good clean way to attach the material to the underside of the seat without using 5 times too many staples all on the edge in a way that they drag along on the floor. I absolutely can see where this could scratch a hard surface and though I have carpeting I think that the bottom seat edges should be finished in a better way.
All in all, those are the two gripes. One is fixable, the other one is a design issue that I wouldn't have expected from a premium boat builder.
Over all, the boat is wonderful. It is doing precisely what I was hoping it would do and I think I'm going to enjoy it for a long time. But then you never know.... ;-)
Sorry for all the words but it was time to share some of this.
The elliptical pontoons with strakes are a great combo. Particularly when mated with the F150 on my G22. Speed is excellent, with about 4 hours on the motor I've been able to poke it to WOT briefly and am seeing a pleasing 38 mph (GPS) at about 5800 rpm. That's with three people and a 3/4 tank full of fuel. There's room to grow a bit as the motor continues to loosen up. Oh, and that's with the motor hung on hole #2 and spinning a Yam black stainless prop, 14 3/4 x 15.
The solidity and smoothness of the boat is really amazing. And the authority that engine trim has over the running attitude is much better than I thought it would be.
I had the opportunity to poke my nose outside of the sand dunes onto Lake Ontario on Saturday. With a stiff breeze out of the north we were seeing 2 to 3 foot rollers off the beaches. Ride was dry and manageable though I wouldn't want to spend an extended amount of time out there. Once again, I was happily surprised.
Fit and finish has so far been good. I've been detailing the boat and everything appears to be correct. The stereo would certainly benefit from the addition of a sub-woofer but for the most part it sounds fine.
Two stand out additions are the co-captains lounge and the ottoman with built in cooler. I was really impressed with the insulating abilities of that little cooler and the co-captains lounge is everyone's favorite seat on the boat.
On the down side I wish I was happier with the helm. If anything doesn't live up to the solidity of the rest of the boat it's right there. The glass they used is not thick enough and while it looks great, grab the wheel in a supportive way and you will feel the flex. The helm on my last boat was almost bullet proof, the glass was so thick. When I had the wheel in my hands there wasn't a hint of flex or the feeling that if you pulled a bit too hard it would break off in your hands. The Benny, not so much.
I have the fill seat that you can move from one gate to the other. It's a great feature and unfortunately, as it has been mentioned here before, the upholsterer couldn't really figure out a good clean way to attach the material to the underside of the seat without using 5 times too many staples all on the edge in a way that they drag along on the floor. I absolutely can see where this could scratch a hard surface and though I have carpeting I think that the bottom seat edges should be finished in a better way.
All in all, those are the two gripes. One is fixable, the other one is a design issue that I wouldn't have expected from a premium boat builder.
Over all, the boat is wonderful. It is doing precisely what I was hoping it would do and I think I'm going to enjoy it for a long time. But then you never know.... ;-)
Sorry for all the words but it was time to share some of this.
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