Prostrikes hulls

[GregL]

IMO the Prostrike is a good start for Haines Hunter and I will bet my left one they will improve it with a new model.

I just hate seeing people being done over. I know haines will do the right thing for all their customers and fix all their problems. Companies don't stay in operaton for as long as they have without customer service.

I'm not 100% sure on how much people paid for these boats BUT I do know how much one in Sydney was paid for and I paid less for a 19fter with a 200 race motor including air freight of the motor from the states!

I'm about to go into my 3rd glass boat in 18 months. The first 2 have been very good and have handled everything I have thrown at them. I have taken both inshore reef fishing in some pretty average conditions and I do like my speed. Sydney harbor whips up a very nasty chop with a good afternoon sea breeze and combined with the harbor boat/ferry traffic it really gets your butt hole puckered sitting on 60mph+ from one end of the harbor to the other!

Cheers
Greg

PS good luck flu!

[GregL]

Oh and 1 more thing.

Congrates to Stratos boats!





I heard they sold their first boat in the country!





Haven't they been here for over a year?????

[Noddy]

Originally posted by GregL
Oh and 1 more thing.

Congrates to Stratos boats!

I heard they sold their first boat in the country!

Haven't they been here for over a year?????

A bloke in W.A. has one, I think he's had it probabaly more than six months already.

[SOL_LADY]

Hi Noddy, (Change of subject)

I took your advice and got myself a Shimano-Stradic 1000FH,the result has been everything you commented about them being "100% POSITIVE" in everyway
I can cast all day and night because its just so light.But its also incredible in strength for handling much larger fish."Very Gutsy"
( I JUST LOVE IT )

Thanks again for your advice,YOU WERE SPOT ON.

Gae.

Originally posted by Nath_18
Yep im with Drewy i know what the guy in Lakes entrance puts his boat through because I've seen it first hand. Im talking constant (one wave after the other) launching off heavy swell at high speeds.cheers, Nathan

Yep, that's great.

I've seen one first hand cracked up. Have you?

[Ranger 175C]

g'DAY All,
'
Not wanting to get drawn into a conditions debate, I will give you my .02 on glass hulls. I am on my 4th glass hulled boat....My 1st was a glass Nitro 190DC with a 150hp Johnson Fast Strike, followed by my 1st Ranger also 19ft also with a 150...Evinrude intruder, then my Bay Ranger with a 150 Ficht and now my Ranger 619VS with a 200 HO Evinrude. I have also driven just about every Bass Boat brand made......They all have stress cracks in the gel coat.....As JP pointed out. Fiberglass and wood stringers and sheet flex under strain and gelcoat does not....My own boats have the slight glass cracks along were the outboard meets the transom........Not the new boat yet but in time they will appear. As for conditions.....Lake Ontario and Erie have some of the worst conditions on Earth.......The waves have snapped Ocean going Ore carriers in half......IE THE EDMOND FItzgerald. We run deeper v hulls like mine on there as a matter of survivablity......Triton made a bass boat out of a a bay boat hull for fishing on such big water. I wil not bash any other boat brand or make. Everyone wants SPEED!!!! In order to make a bass boat fast you have to cut down on weight. Simple fact. if you lighten the stringer system and try and use thinner sheats of glass the hull will be faster but weaker. I know a few of the more popular brands that have had transoms separate from the hull, and also hulls bending in half after getting caught between two waves as they crested.......Bent the hull in half almost. I am sure there are stories about damage done to Rangers also. I have never personally seen one come apart. I have seen other boat brands flip, engines busted off after hitting logs....and collisions with other fixed objects.....
I switched from my bay boat to a multi-species type hull for comfort and lay out. My hull has as much free board and depth as most bay type boats so I am not worried. I gave up my bass boats as a result og being caught out on a huge lake with 8 to 10 foot waves and barely making it back in. I love a bass boat for what it is.....But they do have there limits. I can't speak to your conditions....But rough seas are rough seas.....You have to run the boat as conditions permit.....I don't belive jumping from wave to wave is what a manufactor ever intended a boat to be used for, yes they all show their boats doing it........But the resulting damage is to be expected. I personally like the looks of the Haines Hunter.....I have often commented that if I lived in AU I would consider owning one.....I would prefer a bit more length and a hp rating of at least 225hp.......just for the times you really need to fly......My current boat will not go past 58mph.....and I am ok with that.....I wanted fishability not speed. But that being said I enjoy running it at 55mph and getting there dry and quickly. Please do not take any of my comments as an attack on any brand or location. I am far from a boat building expert.....or an expert speed boat driver. I would never question your conditions as I have yet to visit Australia, I am sure it gets quite rough. These comments are just my opinions on glass boats after driving Bass and Bay type boats for the past 15 years.

Ranger 175C/Brian

[Ranger 175C]

I would like to apologize for basically repeating myself about the boats I owned. I listed them in another previous post about US style Bass Boats. It was not my intention to make it sound like I was your typical Amercian bragging about all my boats and gear. I have been fortunate to have a fairly well paying job in Law Enforcement that has allowed me to upgrade and change boats every 5 to 6 years .....That and a wonderful wife who understands my passion for fishing and cutting edge gear. I did not want to edit out my post .....I figured someone would have read it by now and maybe taken my boat listing as bragging......Far from it.....as much as I love my Ranger I love fishing from my leccy power aluminum v-hull just as much. Thanks to pigscuttler for making remeber my previous posts. I was just trying to offer an opinion from someone who has experience with US boats. The boats are made to do certain things and that stuff does happen to them all.



Ranger 175C/Brian

[GregL]

Originally posted by Noddy
A bloke in W.A. has one, I think he's had it probabaly more than six months already.

Isn't it an ex AFC boat?


I'm talking brand new

[bubba]

No Greg, it is actually an import (but not a new one regardless)

[Doc_Hollywood]

I wasnt going to weigh in on this because the way I see it, it seems like a lot of ill informed second hand bashing of a product about which most have no idea.
Totally agree with what has been said by JP and Ranger.
Oh and by the way, my prostrike is not ex anything, in fact with the exception of the first 4 ( i think ) team boats i had the first one sold to the general public.
Back to comments by JP and Ranger, a boats stability and quality come from its hull design and strrenght. Funnily enough to get a similar size US style bass boat the HP rating is a lot less, why, because of hull weight and thus strenght, the weight of similar nitro, skeeter and trackers, of which there are some over here is around 300kg difference. The prostike hull is heavy and strong, but if you drive it like an idiot which i do every now and again you are going to expect some cosmetic damage. Boats arent really designed to fly through the air, but some prostrike owners think they are and then complain when 50kg batteries do damage whilst floating around a compartment. I replaced my holding brackets with strong stainless ones, no problem now.
And hull strenght is second to non, hate to bring this up JP, but when a certain incident happened a certain boat literally broke its back. Now fast forward to an unfortunate incident when I put my prostike up on riverside drive and after careful external and internal inspection i had managed to chip some gelcoat of and not even a scratch on the hull. For those on the east coast riverside drive is a 3 foot high breakwall on the swan. Embarrasing but now happy i spent the money on buying a quality product.
But if you are going to buy a boat built for fishing and then drive it like an ocean going race boat, you will have to rebiuld it after every race like they do. You wouldnt take your street car to a race track and run it hard all day and expect not to crash or blow it up.
And finally someone mentioned about having batteries to low in the boat. Most high end boats are now running gel mat batteries which can operate underwater , or even cut in half with no loss of performance, but they are heavy and expensive so most wont entertain the idea of buying them.

Leon.

[GregL]

Doc
US boats have a lower HP rating than local boats because of the strict US HP calculations. For instance a 18.5ft ZX Skeeter has a max HP rating of 194hp but no one makes a 194hp motor so it has to go down to a 175hp rating.The local importer has allowed the HP to go to 200hp as they know the boats will handle the HP and it's not to far away from the 194 mark.

Weird thing is with my old Nitro that had a 135 opti I use to pass every Prostrike that had 150's on them. My nitro maxed out at 58mph fully loaded 2 up and 57mph with 3 on board. Thats livewells full and full of fuel. It did 55mph in near all enclosed conditions.

YES more HP is more power but design and less weight give you speed. Look at boats like Allison, <500kg 20ft hulls. Dave's boat will pass mine every day of the week and he's running and older hull and older motor. His Hull is 300+kgs lighter than my current boat.

IMO hull design gets you the speed and ridability. Personally I think the Prostikes are just a little to short in length to get a good ride in chop. I have heard the new Prostikes are going longer in length to make it ride better and a sharper dead rise.

Alot of the US boats use aluminium decks/hatches and the first gen P/S had wood ones(not sure what the current ones have) but just that would have to give the hull a couple of hundred extra kilos.

I have moved longer in length to get a better ride and I hope 20ft will give me that. The extra HP is just a bonus.

I started this thread not as a dig at H/H, more as a warning to P/S owners to keep an eye out on their own boats.

I only comment from what I have experienced and they are only MY opinons.

The 2 boats I have mentioned do not include Flu's boat either. I was only commenting on the hull peeling ones on the east coast. I do also know of a P/S owner that's very happy wth his. He's even blinged it up with a jack plate and nose cone to get those few extra mph out of his

G

[Drewy]

This is easily the best thread l've read in here for a while. Good honest opinions is what people seek and it's good too see it here. imo there isn't any product bashing just comments from experience.

[Dave W]

I love hearing about the 'weight means strength' theories in glass boat building................ IMHO that's a crock of $h1t.

It's all about the costs involved. I have no idea how the Pro-Strike is made so I won't comment on it exactly, but the cheapest way to manufacture a glass boat is with chopped strand matting sprayed into the mold. The weight comes from trying to make up for a poor manufacturing technique that uses more material than nessesary to create strength.

I have a hand laid hull that is 21 foot long, reinforced with Kevlar matting at stress points. The deck is that thin in some areas you can actually see light through it. Does it stress me out? Not in the slightest. I've put her through some very interesting conditions and had no issues - this hull is also 10 years old and the previous owner was a big lake fisho (US) who also gave it a fair bit. The hull weighs around 420kg, compared to (as an example) a smaller Pro-Strike that starts around the 600 mark.

The downside to a well made, hand laid glass or composite boat is cost. But if the boat is still running fine after 10 years of use aren't you better off? I'd hazard a guess there aren't too many US style glass hulls that have been running in Aus for 10 years +. It will be interesting to see how the current crop look down the track.

[bushido]

Hi Dave,
you make a very interesting point, I recently had a chance to have a good look over a few second hand US bass boats, the brands included skeeter and triton they ranged from five to eight years old in age.
The carpets were rotted, the ply in the seats was not marine ply it also was rotted, a couple of the skeeters had the onset of Osmosus and the wirering in both brands was not marine grade and there for stuffed,I could go on.
I think that our yank mate would agree that we here in Aust.we tend to forget that these boats are what the yanks call Brown water boats and not made for salt water use.

Cheers Samurai

[Dave W]

That's why I went an Allison - Timber free construction since the late 80's

I'm also fully prepared for a full re-wire if I have to, but signs so far suggest it's not going to be nessesary - I was expecting to have to do it, but personally believed it was a small price to pay for getting one of the best performing mono-hulls on the planet