Brand quality?

[slowleak]

First off, this is my first post, just signed up.

I've owned two aluminum boats over the past 35 years, one welded, on riveted, both built by Grumman in the 80's.
The welded hull was great, never a single issue with that boat but being a flat bottom mod v hull I decided in 1989 to buy a new 14 SSF, which is a riveted 14.4' semi V hull with a wood floor and walk through middle bench.
That boat was fine till a few years ago when it started to pop rivets all over. So far I've lost and replaced almost a hundred rivets. The heads pop off clean, leaving the rivet still holding the metal secure without any leaks but the fact that they seem to be corroding off has me a bit concerned. The latest has been its losing rivets around the transom seam, I lost 14 of them last week alone. Again, it never leaks, just the heads of the rivets drop off. The boat is not corroded, has no sign of saltwater use and never has been in the salt. I replaced the transom panel last fall, and I found a lot of corrosion under the wood as well. Nothing that was through the skin but it was pretty well pitted all over.
My thought now is to fix the rivets and find another hull, is there any one brand that's any better than the next? With the price of new boats being more than $3k for a bare hull, most likely I'm going to be looking for something used in the 14 to 16' range. Something that can take a 9.9hp motor.

I looked at a pretty nice Sea Nymph, the guy said he'd sell me just the hull, minus the trailer, but I'm concerned about it being too heavy for a 9.9hp? https://southjersey.craigslist.org/boa/4562179743.html
I figured that I could toss the console and the heavy seats and use it as a tiller boat. The seller is willing to let it go minus the trailer for $1200 cash. Its a welded hull with some rivets.
Is Sea Nymph an OK hull? Someone here told me that they were the same as Lowe and Grumman in those years?
I've looked at several boats and what stood out about this thing is that all the decking is aluminum, it has no wood to rot and it feels pretty light.

 

[earl60446]

Sea Nymph is a good boat but that one needs a lot of work. I think he is asking too much. 9.9 is not gonna plane it either.
Tim

 

[slowleak]

I'm 6ft 4in tall, a 9.9hp isn't going to plane anything I'm running. I gave up on my 12' boat a few years ago after realizing that I alone am over the max weight limit, let alone a 110lb motor, a battery, my fishing tackle, and some rope.
What I don't want is a boat that won't make headway against the current or wind, I ran into that with a 14' with a 6hp a few years ago, it ran fine on a flat lake, but if I got near the dam or running current, I couldn't move against the current without ducking down low out of the wind and making sure I wasn't carrying any extra weight. I used to have to dump the ice out of the cooler and water out of the minnow buckets to head home up stream and even then it was a 6mph ride according to the GPS. The same boat with a borrowed 15hp Yamaha two stroke jumped right on plane and ran 15 to 18 mph against the current.

My thought on the Sea Nymph was that since its got an all aluminum deck and structure it should last forever other than maybe the transom core.

I couldn't find anything in my price range new built this way.

Most everything I've looked at has wood decks, wood based seats, and a wood transom.
Very few seemed as heavy duty as that Sea Nymph, but I read a few complaints online about transom issues, something about them using pressure treated wood and it eats away the hull from the inside out, but I couldn't figure what years that issue affected?

Work wise, that boat really only needs carpet, and the way its built, the deck panels are all removable with the carpet glued right to the panels. I figured a day or two of work on the carpet and couple of new seats and that would look like new. We're only talking about few hundred bucks in materials tops. I priced out four new seats at $29 each, and I can match the original carpet at a local carpet dealer for $40 for a pretty big roll, enough to do that boat three times.
I also figure the later model trailer has got to be worth $900 or more by itself. The dealer down the road is selling a similar trailer new for $1699 plus tax.
I'd be very tempted to remove the console and run it either stick steer or tiller as well, if I went with a tiller set up, I'd toss the two mid seats completely and run it from the pedestal seats or a single mid mounted seat.

There was a 17ft version of the same boat on CL here a few months ago with a blown up 85hp on it and a rusty, painted, fenderless trailer for $3200, it was up for about a day and it was gone, when I called, the owner said it sold to the first buyer for $2K cash.
When I look at something like this I try and think of what I would want for it if it were in my driveway and I don't think I'd let it go for what he's asking, not even close, mostly based on what something like that costs new and what it sold for new even back in the 90's.
I think I'll try a low offer and see what happens but I doubt he'll come down much more.

 

[onthewater102]

A major difference between the brands is in the thickness of the aluminum sheeting they make the hulls out of. This isn't a quality issue in and of itself, but if you're used to a thick skinned boat and start punishing a thin skinned boat in the same fashion you're going to have issues.

The number of rivets popping free after corroding isn't an issue I've heard of that I can remember. Perhaps the boat was inundated with salt water at some point?

Even if you're looking at an older model boat if you know what it weighs and how long it is you can make a rough guestimate of the material thickness by comparing the weight to a current production model by any given manufacturer of a similar design, which will usually list the thickness. If yours is substantially lighter with no visual cue to why (half as many benches/ribs etc.) then probably you're working with a lighter boat.

If you're going to trailer it weight isn't going to be an issue, but for my build I wanted to be able to still carry the boat with two people once it was done - so I opted for the lighter body design.

If the Sea Nymph is welded with aluminum decking for $1,200 you certainly have a great starting point.