A very popular question of late is what material is better for top shelf bass boats?
At the lowest end of the price range an aluminium boat represents a good choice, they are light, durable and cheap.
Many believe that aluminium is an excellent material for this type of boat and I agree.
For most small boat anglers it all started with a bare shell aluminium boat of around 10 to 15 feet long that was used on the holidays - almost perfect for that use.
With the popularity surge of sports fishing, in particular lure and fly fishing, along came few padded seats, a fish finder, carpet, casting decks, live bait wells and the like.
This sort of tinny is no longer what it was first designed for so is the hull material still the best for this now substantially heavier and more expensive craft?
The choice is always personal but perhaps at this point fibreglass may well be the better choice 'if' some thought was put into the design.
As much as I hate to admit it the Yanks are ahead of us here.
They have designed, manufactured and exhaustively tested a few hundred thousand boats more than us.
They have big and small impoundments like we do, and their needs are similar.
Some Australian fibreglass manufactures are making use of the Americans' extensive trial and error work.
Let's look at one of the project boats that I have been working on, a boat that has enlightened those who have experienced it to date.
I was asked by Savage boats to help design and test a 4.8m fibreglass boat that would take on the very best Australian aluminium craft available at that size.
At first I was pessimistic of a positive outcome for fibreglass because like everyone else I just accepted that aluminium is the ideal material for small boats.
We started by remodelling a 4.8m Savage Avalon fibreglass craft.
Firstly, I was surprised to learn that at this size fibreglass hull was very comparable in price ‘if' all the same features such as live wells, casting platforms and so forth were on both boats.
The price of the Avalon became even more attractive considering that it has extra depth beam compared to several of the best available brands in aluminium.
What also amazed me was the weight difference.
Depending on the thickness of the aluminium used by various manufacturers the aluminium hull sometimes weighed more than the glass hull.
Allow me to elaborate:
What has snuck up on Aussie anglers is that when a barebones tinny is suddenly fully decked out the weight of the hull practically doubles!
Because the hull thickness is not increased, at the new weight aluminium is no longer as bullet proof as it was in its original lightweight thin shell form.
In fact if reinforcing and hull thickness is not increased significantly for the now weighed down tinny, problems may arise with cracking in places, as the metal is bent forward and back repeatedly.
The early signs of this can be extra water in the hull after a day on the water.
Next time I'll be continuing this topic including how fibreglass manufactures have got the jump on aluminium when it comes to making an unsinkable craft.
Interesting reading indeed, I hope you can join me.
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