This last weekend a dock neighbor made a comment that he'd never have anything but a SeaRay, but he'd also never have one newer than a '95 because he heard in the mid 90's SeaRay started to shorten the layup by a couple layers in order to lighten the overall weight of their boats a little. Another guy said he'd heard the same thing. I'd never heard this before. Anyone know if there's any substance to this? I find it hard to believe.

LOL

My hull is at least 3/4" thick, if not thicker. They do do it with a chopper gun now rather than woven, so that is actually a little weaker, but I think it is a very stout hull.

I used to have a 95 SR 180. On more than one occasion, when people would ask what year the boat was, I would get comments like, "that's before they cheapened them up," or "they built a better boat back than than now."

I have no idea if these people new anything of any substance or just blowing smoke up my arse.

My buddy has a 2000 Tahoe 202 and when you press in on the hull it flexes... Now that's cheap.

Yeah, a boat show can reveal many deficiencies in hulls and other components. Tablerocker and I have been to a boat show where you could actually move the windshield back and forth (flexed) on one of the higher end GFBL boat brands. I won't say which, but it ends in an "i." Pretty sad actually.

Edit: it wasn't the brand ending in "i", it was the GFBL brand ending in "y" and is an acronym of "speed."

I had an '86 250 Sundancer and it seemed to be built much heavier than today's models from what i've seen. But, I'm also under the opinion that with today's methods, you don't need as much material to get the same strength. SeaRay uses an automated process to put down just the proper amount which actually saves weight in comparison to standard hand lay up methods, especially in corners and such. If you cut an older hull and looked at the cross section, you would see more resin in there as well versus todays hulls which use less as it is more metered.
Just my take on it, throw stones if you want, if you can pick'em up, I've been hit by bigger....

Here's a few unusual pictures of the portion of the hull that's above the water line on my 96' Dancer.







It's hard to tell from the pics but the hull thickness at that point is about 3/4".

When we installed a thru-hull transducer mount in the bottom of the hull we were surprised to find the thickness of the hull was over 4.5" of solid fiberglass/resin topped with a layer of 5/8" marine grade plywood that was topped with another layer of glass/resin. The area I'm speaking of is about 3' outboard from the centerline of the hull ahead of where the stbd engine sits.

I firmly believe that if we were on a "lesser boat" than the Sundancer when we were hit by a drunk boat operator there would have been substantially more damage and the boat likely would have sunk.

It's a testament to the quality of Sea Ray's hulls that we did not sink and were able to drive the boat about 3 miles back to the slip.

Tell your dock neighbor I said he should go pound sand.

That'll teach you for cutting through the cardboard boat derby...

Holly crap! When did this happen GoFirstClass?

Phatboy, that happened in July 2004 to the 330 I owned at that time. I liked the 330 so much I found another one that was the same year, same engines, low hours, etc., that I bought another one within a couple of months.

Yeah. Those durn cardboard boat derby contestants are a pretty serious bunch!

All boats built after the mid nineties are lighter mostky because of cad cam design programs. Before that they overbuilt because they did not have good computer modeling programs to estimate strength.

SeaRays are very well built although the larger hulls have had some problems with the core below the waterline. I think it was just one or two specific models that had troubles. They took quite a bashing for them though I think at least half the incidents were found to have been contributed by poor maintenance practices.

I believe those boats had balsa cores below the waterline which is probably not the best choice. I don't know if they have switched to a synthetic core or not in thier current models.

Yer durn tootin'!!

Good old mis-information. It doesn't take much to make professional idiots out of well-meaning folks...
(ahem )


One of the best reads on misformation in This Thread on the houseboat board, concerning Coast Guard regulations. It's a bit wordy, but quite a lesson on why you shouldn't always believe everything you read, or hear...

GoFirstClass - came into the slip a little fast?

I remember seeing those pics when the incident first happened. I had forgotten who they belonged too. Ouch.

I'm not believing that there is 3/4" of thickness of fiberglass in a recreational boat. So, I curious about how you know this.

GFC, just curious and I'm sure I already know the answer, but was that damage repairable or did the insurance co. just call it "totalled"? My God, what a mess! You said you bought a new one, but I wasn't sure if that was because it was beyond repair or you just didn't want to wait.

Cobalts are easily 3/4" including all layers. I have the drill plug from my flag pole install and it's about an inch. The keel is probably twice that as it's over lapped. Are you saying your Formula is not as thick?

Because I've drilled many holes in it to install various accessories.