re: Fiberglass vs custom aluminum bay boat

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PolarPop5

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There's 5 of you guys now?

American Aluminum Marine and Metal Shark "Gravois" are at the top of the field and the price reflects it, usually well north of 100K. They build a hybrid boat, great for the bay and many days you can take near offshore.

Coming in behind the two above are Charles Leonard, Scully, Hanko, sportsman and Gaudet. While they do build some center consoles many are duel designed for bay fishing and winter time hunting.

While these boats won't preform like fiberglass in heavy seas they can and will out live most owners. I have friends who are on their third set of engines on the same boat.

They're all awesome but still a tough sell against a glass boat.

Fiberglass done right and well taken care of will last forever. There's countless sportfishers from the 70's out there still rock solid.

It isn't tough to make a case for either one but you're right about the price of regular glass boats these days. They're completely outrageous. It seems like they've doubled in price the last 10 years. You can easily spend $80k for an off the shelf 22' bay boat. They do seem to be much better made than they used to be though, at least in my opinion.

I bought mine 4 years ago from the original owner's son. Said his father paid 20k for the hull in 1983. Had an older Yamaha on it. I sold the engine and bought a new Optimax. It is a dual console bay. I use it on Larto and it works for me. Great on choppy days.

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fiberglass doesn't last, it has a given shelf life which can be extended with keeping it hidden out of the sun but it will crack and fail at some point, that's a plain and simple fact.

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LOL what? I call BS on this. Sure a metal boat in freshwater is great, but there's no freaking way I'd want a metal boat if I was mostly recreationally fishing saltwater. Aluminum is nothing like Steel with saltwater, but corrosion still happens and you have plenty of other issues to deal with.

There's a reason why fishing guides all run fiberglass boats.

Metal is fantastic for mostly freshwater use with occasional bay fishing, but if you want to make some rig runs on nice days or plan serious bay fishing no way'd want an aluminum boat.

LOL at anyone that thinks an $80k fiberglass bay bot now a days is not "custom". Aluminum production boats may be cheaper than high end fiberglass production boats, but the custom boats are all pretty dang close.

OP, you really need to figure out your price range. I would not worry about fiberglass at all, tons of charter/ commercial guys use fiberglass. The idea that fiberglass has to be babied and is not easy to repair is simply wrong. Its very tough, and no harder to repair than aluminum. Its just completely different repairs.

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Scully 
Hanko 
Gaudet 

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Nothing custom about these boats. You can choose from what options they have

If you want a standard boat with a short lead time that's how it works. They'll build whatever you want, you just have to open up the wallet.

We have a 25 ltd and I'm comfortable putting it up against most any thing out there. Great running boat. May not be "custom", but you really have to go out of your way to find much better.

Also it's a 2014 we got second hand in early 2016. The new ones cost what you say, but you can find deals, just keep looking!