Smoker Craft 162 Millentia boat purchase - continued from Page 2

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Would I recommend The Boat Shop or Smoker Craft? Never! Dealing with The Boat Shop is like dealing with a used car lot: their stock answer is "you purchased a used and as-is item." As for Smoker Craft, I was very disappointed they would pass my concerns on to a sales rep. They appeared far more interested in protecting their dealers than in working to satisfy a Smoker Craft customer.

In the end, neither The Boat Shop nor Smoker Craft acknowledged my boat's problems or helped me get the boat fixed. They missed the opportunity to learn from my boat's problems, failed to serve an existing customer, lost potential future sales to me, and may lose future sales to my friends and acquaintances. That's a lot to lose in a tough economy!

Lessons Learned

Purchasing a boat is a major commitment. Ask yourself, "If I were purchasing a new or used vehicle, would I test drive it before finalizing the deal?" Of course you would! This also applies to a boat. Why purchase a boat without taking it for test run?

Here's what I learned from my purchase at The Boat Shop:

1. I can't remember if the dealer asked me if I wanted to take the boat out for a test or not before the purchase; however, I can tell you now that I will never purchase a boat again—new or used—without first taking it for a test run.
2. I wish I had asked for the previous owner's contact information so I could have learned more about the boat prior to purchasing it.
3. I should have kept to myself the involvement of my attorney to locate the previous owner. Smoker Craft didn't need to know how I found the previous owner and that knowledge shut down our lines of communication.
4. Even thought I took the boat to a dealer not authorized by Smoker Craft and they found most of the problems, I should have contacted Smoker Craft originally to share my concerns over the dealer and get their recommendation about another authorized Smoker Craft dealer. It is possible I could have gotten this all fixed by a different authorized dealer. Even though there are still some legal grounds to pursue this matter with the original dealer, it would have be a lot easier and cleaner to take action had I first gone to Smoker Craft and an authorized dealer.

Since my 07/01/09 posting, there have been some developments with regard to the performance of my Smoker Craft and The Boat Shop of Spokane that are worth mentioning.

In August of 2009 we spent our anniversary on Williams Lake. That weekend we took the boat on a very quiet Sunday morning for a spin around the lake to look at all the homes along the shore. In this area there are some sand bars that were somewhat marked, so I was very careful and only did about 2+ miles an hour in this area. We finally came to the last house on the lake and I decided to turn the boat out toward deeper water when suddenly it felt as if the back end of the boat was going to fall off. The rattling and clunking that came from the back end was unbelievable on that quiet morning.

At first I thought I might have tangled the prop in a cable or chain, but as I turned the boat off and looked over the top of the motor, I realized that I hit a portion of a sand bar because I could see a cloud of dirty water rising to the surface. It was definitely a good sign, but I knew I wouldn't know for sure until I lifted the motor. Once it was up I could see that I barely hit the sand bar because there was some roughness on the very tip of each prop blade. I'm glad I was only doing a couple miles an hour that morning.

I describe this adventure because it put me on the path of finally figuring out the performance of this boat. A couple of weeks later (09/14/09) I took the boat out of the water and into Precision Propeller where they dressed the blade edges and put a propriety cup on the prop blades to help with performance. The tech person asked why I had installed a hydrofoil on the outboard motor. I explained that the dealer had done that, and after hearing my story, he simply said that the hydrofoil may help in some situations but, in reality, it's only a large band-aid. He recommended that it be removed and that a set of Smart Tabs SX (trim tabs) be installed.

It was like I had come full circle with this boat. My friend who had tested the boat after the hydrofoil was installed made the same comment: he believed that trim tabs were needed. In fact, he went so far as to do some research on the subject and forwarded it on to me in 2008.

Unfortunately, it took hitting the sand bar to get me back to the subject of trim tabs; and yes, with the modified prop and Smart Tabs there was a big difference in the overall performance of the boat.

I could almost live with the boat's performance; however, I noticed that the speed was lower than the speed I was getting when we first installed the prop with the correct pitch in May 2009. There was a difference of 28 – 31 to 23 – 25 miles per hour. I couldn't quite explain why there would be a slight difference in speed. Then this year (2011) I decided to look into doing a repower (putting on a bigger outboard motor). While doing the research and talking to a couple of outboard Honda dealers who are familiar with the Smoker Craft hull, I discovered that the reason there was a drop in speed was because I was running the boat on water at a higher altitude.

Most of the testing we've done was at the higher altitude where I live, except when the new prop was installed in May 2009 and was tested on the Columbia River. In that same time frame, the boat was also tested on the Snake River. Testing on these rivers yielded higher speeds and performance because they are closer to sea level, i.e., they are both at a lower altitude. Williams Lake is approximately 1,800 feet above sea level, so there’s a sizable elevation difference between Williams Lake and these two rivers.

I've been told that the Honda BF50A with three carburetors runs much better at lower altitudes than at higher altitudes, such as where I live. Because of the type of boat I have and where I generally operate the boat, the BF50A is just underpowered for this boat. It's that simple. There was no need to have extra weight on the back of the boat, so we sold the Honda kicker outboard trolling motor. I believe we have now done everything we can to achieve the maximum performance of this boat with this motor.

The only thing we can now do is do a repower; and because outboards have changed so much in the last 10 years with the much lighter fuel-injected motors, it now gives me an opportunity to put on a bigger motor, something that was not available when I first purchased the boat.

We are looking into the Honda BF60AKLRT (60 hp, 239 lb) four-stroke with the patented BLAST system and also the Yamaha F70LA (70 hp, 257 lb) four-stroke. Both outboards are completely redesigned from the bottom up. My Honda BF50A weighs in at 203 lb, so the weight difference will be 36 to 54 more pounds on the transom depending on the outboard chosen.

I would like to hear from anyone who has experience with either the Honda BF60 or the Yamaha F70LA. Please send me an email with your comments; it could help us reach a final decision on which outboard to choose.

As for The Boat Shop of Spokane (who originally set up and sold us the boat), I have bumped into quite a few individuals who have done business with this dealership and no one has had anything positive to say about them. While researching the repower of my boat, I learned that as of the beginning of 2011, The Boat Shop of Spokane is no longer a Smoker Craft dealer. Hmmm, so I wonder what happened? Did they lose the dealership or did they give it up? What do you think?

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