Why aren't there more 15' Fish and Ski Bow Riders?

[ezmobee]

Re: So...are there any 15' boats being built?

Re: So...are there any 15' boats being built?

Any particular reason fiberglass is preferred? You'd have a lot to choose from in aluminum but I can't really think of any 16' glass runabouts other than Bayliner at the moment.

 

[nhmaina]

Re: So...are there any 15' boats being built?

Re: So...are there any 15' boats being built?

Any particular reason fiberglass is preferred? You'd have a lot to choose from in aluminum but I can't really think of any 16' glass runabouts other than Bayliner at the moment.

That is a good question, and perhaps once my motor gets fixed I will confirm my guess. I will be taking out my fiberglass larson on a lake with my brother's boat as well, a 15.5' foot aluminum boat. My belief is that the fiberglass larson will ride better over all. Specifically in planing, turning, and going over small waves. BUT, I will try and be objective and look at both of them equally.

 

[nhmaina]

Anyone know about invader?

Anyone know about invader?

Here is a newer version of my 1988, but from invader instead of larson, never heard of invader, but it looks just like the larsons.
http://boats.iboats.com/1995-invader-boats-150-alpha/682538.html

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Anyone know about invader?

Re: Anyone know about invader?

^^^That's a real nice boat and would probably haul butt with that motor.

Now I'm a relentless ambassador for the Starcraft club......have you checked out a Starcraft SuperSport 16'? The benefits would be it's a very light boat, easy to tow and handle, aluminum stringers so even if the deck and transom are rotted it's a far easier job to replace. The cons would be not as sleek of a design as the newer glass boats and the ride may be a little harsher. Check out this awesome restored example done by a fellow iboater http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=378656&page=4 (scroll halfway down for completed pics) These hulls can be had pretty cheaply and are easy to restore and/or customize.

 

[nhmaina]

Re: Anyone know about invader?

Re: Anyone know about invader?

^^^That's a real nice boat and would probably haul butt with that motor.

Now I'm a relentless ambassador for the Starcraft club......have you checked out a Starcraft SuperSport 16'? The benefits would be it's a very light boat, easy to tow and handle, aluminum stringers so even if the deck and transom are rotted it's a far easier job to replace. The cons would be not as sleek of a design as the newer glass boats and the ride may be a little harsher. Check out this awesome restored example done by a fellow iboater http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=378656&page=4 (scroll halfway down for completed pics) These hulls can be had pretty cheaply and are easy to restore and/or customize.

Actually if I considered a aluminum I would probably be looking at the Lund 165 FS, which seems to have a nice layout. I don't know if it has aluminum stringers, that would be nice vs wood.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Anyone know about invader?

Re: Anyone know about invader?

Tough to go wrong with a Lund. I also like this 165 Lowe http://www.loweboats.com/showroom/deep-v/fish-and-ski/fs165.php

No aluminum boats that I've ever heard of had anything other than aluminum stringers.

 

[jkust]

Re: Why aren't there more 15' Fish and Ski Bow Riders?

To your original question, maybe because people are so much heavier/larger than they used to be 30 years ago. One of our boats is a 16 foot Bayliner Capri and we still fit 4 of us in it just like my folks and sister did when we were growing up. It weighs 1050lbs including the engine and is pretty narrow but we did just fine on it for 26 years and never really wanted for more...until you step into that first wide beam 19 footer. My take on a lot of this supersizing in general is simply because times are so much easier than they used to be and because things come so easily in this generation - present economic downturn excluded. In the 80's nobody had money and interest rates on credit and mortgages were sky high. My house is over 5000 square feet and still has thousands more sq ft that could be finished and I don't need more than maybe 1200 sq feet as was my previous house but I can so I do. I think the reasons are easily explained.

 

[avenger79]

Re: Why aren't there more 15' Fish and Ski Bow Riders?

if you're interested in another.

http://madison.craigslist.org/boa/1947985737.html

 

[RotaryRacer]

Re: Why aren't there more 15' Fish and Ski Bow Riders?

I am a fan of smaller boats...why have more boat than you need?

I am also a fan of Four Winns boats. I had a 15' Saf-T-Mate (the company name before the Winns family bought it) tri-hull and then got my 18' Cuddy...for a cuddy it is small. However, I found that the 15' boat was just too small to be comfortable on anything but smaller lakes. The 18' Cuddy is about as small as I felt comfortable for big water adventures.

I really like outboards best and spent a lot of time looking for a nice boat in the 15-17' range for my next boat. Then I got to really studying the specs of different boats. I found that many of the 15'-16' boat are only rated for 5-7 passengers max. I need a capacity of 7 as a minimum. So I started looking more at 17-19 foot boats. I bought a '91 19' Larson...it was rated for 10 people...it turned out to be a bad deal on my part and had to sell it for a loss. I then splurged and bought my current '04 -18' Four Winns.

All of this is to say that I have been looking at, studying specs and really spending a lot of time trying to find a good boat that met my needs that wasn't too big.

To get to the point...

Larson had the All American line of boats that included a 15' model from the late eighties to the mid 90s. Nice little boat with some good features to make the best use of the space available.

Four Winns had a 150 Freedom from 89-90. These are nice little boats. They made a sold a ton of them. There are many great examples out there. However, they are small. 4 adults tops.

Other than that I don't know of many mainstream f/g boats that were 15' LOA...that were built in the last 20 years.

From there you pretty much step up to 17' boats to stay fiberglass.

That said the model dsignation doesn't always line up with the actual length of the boat.

Four Winns introduced a new hull design in 1997. The Horizon QX was the name it had the first couple of years. It is 16'6" long. It was called the 170 Horizon starting in 1999. Then in 2003 that hull was called the 170 Freedom. The hull design was discontinued after the 2004 model year.

For bang for the buck, I would highly reccomend these boats.