craigdritchie

I generally shop online - never had a bad experience.

The issue isn't whether or not the van can tow the boat. The question is, can you tow it without exposing yourself to unexpected risk? By the time you factor in the weight of the boat, the trailer, the outboard, a couple of batteries, other boat gear and maybe half a tank of boat gas, you're going to be very close to hitting that 2,000 pound maximum towing weight - if not over it. Go fish on a rainy day and that carpeted deck will suck up a lot of water, adding even more weight. If the weight of the trailer is approaching the maximum, then you need to look at your vehicle's GVWR, the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. That's the maximum weight the vehicle can accommodate in total, including all passengers, gas in the van, all your cargo plus the weight of the towed boat. If you were to have any kind of accident and be found to be over your GVWR, your insurance is void. Since Chrysler will rate the van to tow 3,800 pounds with a tow package, you should be okay. But make certain you get the tow package from Chrysler, as it may be required to attain a higher GVWR. Just food for thought :-)

That really is magnificent, Bernie. Thanks for sharing those photos! Gorgeous rig!

That's a really good question. For me, it would come down to making a list of "must have" and "nice to have" features, then picking the model that came closest. Between Starcraft, Smokercraft and Sylvan, the specific brand on the back of the boat wouldn't be a factor at all. I consider them to be basically one and the same. If I were to look at all manufacturers, then I would demand the boat have a solid warranty, and I would want to know I can get get service in the years to come (meaning I would want them to have a few dealers nearby, and not just one). Based on the features I personally would want in an aluminum boat, and on the dealers located near my home, that leaves me to choose from about a half-dozen manufacturers: Starcraft/Smokercraft/Sylvan; Princecraft; Crestliner; Alumacraft; Lund; G3; and Legend.

Nah - a couple of hundred people work in that plant, and a lot of them are younger guys learning from the old pros. But they put in their time and learn the trade before they get elevated to the critical positions.

You can go that route, but it won't work nearly as well. Marine grade plywood has the sealant impregnated right through each layer in the wood. Stain/seal on regular plywood will only form a protective layer on the outside, so when that layer gets damaged (drop a pair of pliers on the deck, for instance, and put a tiny dent in it) the water will get in. As always, you get what you pay for.

Both pike and muskie are much more fragile than one would think. Nowadays, I don't even take them out of the water.

Thanks, everyone, for the comments. It was interesting to take the tour, and I'm glad I can share it. A different building in the same complex builds welded aluminum boats, which in the States are sold under the Starweld brand (Starweld being an offshoot of Starcraft). The construction process is basically the same, except the panels are welded together rather than riveted. Start by assembling the shell .... Insert the pre-assembled I-beam framework and weld into place .... Add the transom and interior components ..... And it starts to look like a boat! They also weld all the jonboats. These boats get beat up hard, so they have to be extremely tough. The basic shell is stamped out of a single piece of very thick gauge aluminum ...... Then it's folded and welded shut to form the hull. They jonboats are all made by the same gentleman, who has been building jonboats there for 17 years. The other guys still refer to him as the "new guy." Many of the production staff have been there for 30 or 35 years, so the level of experience and knowledge is right off the charts. I met one man who was about to celebrate his 40th year working there. That's one guy who has forgotten more about boats than most of us will ever know. Another younger guy I met was also new - his father and grandfather both worked at the plant too, making him the third consecutive generation there from that family. Really interesting to see all this stuff, and more interesting is the fact they let me go anywhere and take all the pictures I want. Most companies are very sensitive about that sort of thing, but the folks at Starcraft / Smokercraft / Sylvan are extremely proud of what they do, and it really shows. It's inspiring to see a company have that kind of kind of pride in its workmanship, especially in today's corporate world where the end customer is often just a number, and something that doesn't matter nearly as much as overall profits do.

No fooling - talk about having the toughest job in the plant!!

Slayer - I don't know if they still have the correct 1991 graphics kits available any more, given they're now 21 years old, but if so you should be able to just order them through any Sylvan dealer. If not, they can definitely order the current decal set for you. Not sure on cost.

I'm in rural Indiana this week, visiting with the Starcraft / Smokercraft / Sylvan factory and test driving some 2012 boats. At the moment, I'm hiding in my hotel as we ride out yet another wild electrical storm, and wait for the tornado warning to pass. It's been alternating between being beautiful outside and just plain ugly for four days straight. I just spent a half-hour uploading a bunch of photos and descriptions from yesterday's tour of the Smokercraft boat factory, only to have the power go out and lose the whole shebang (laptop kept on running on its battery, but I lost the internet connection). Rather than do all that work again, perhaps the mods will kindly allow me to ask you to just click here to see the pics. The plant tour was great - it's interesting to learn how much work on these boats is done by hand. Just about everyone here has a boat (or three), and a lot of the different features in the boats result from all that time spent on the water. It's nice to see boats designed that way, and not based on what some marketing study says. Hopefully, I will be able to drive some of the 2012 fishing boats later today. Rain rain go away ......

Don't know about the cheap yellow rope, but fraying the braided white stuff by scraping a knife against it works like magic - their teeth stick to it like velcro. I have no idea if this is legal or not .... just saying I've seen it first-hand, and your biggest challenge is getting them off the rope.

Sorry for your loss, and my honest condolences. In my family, we don't mourn the loss - we celebrate the life. Your pictures suggest you have a lot of happy memories. May they only grow fonder with time. - Craig

The Acadia has a pretty good recall history, all things considered. There are a few things listed in Transport Canada's database, but nothing really significant.

Perhaps, but I still see a lot of Starcraft Islanders out on the lakes. Harbercraft makes a very nice alumium boat that is widely used on the west coast for fishing charters. Same for Weldcraft - I recently test-drove a couple of their Cuddy King models, and they're very nice boats. I just posted a boat test I did on a 24-foot Weldcraft on my blog, for what it's worth. I drove a 24-footer and a 28. Both were awesome, even when we headed out into the open ocean and 15-foot swells.

At least, it's the wettest on record for the Golden Horseshoe area, as reported by today's Hamilton Spectator. Today's paper notes that since January 1, the area around Hamilton has received 381 mm of precipitation in total, exceeding the previous record of 363 mm set in 1996. Click here to read more about it. edit - fixed a typo

Problem solved.

I've spent a lot of time fishing up that way and always found the pike to be as dumb as a bag of hammers, regardless of size. Any brand of spinnerbait will work. So will buzzbaits, and weedless spoons. And Slug-Gos. And Mister Twisters. And just about anything else you want to throw at them. They're not exactly picky. Having said that, it's worth paying extra to buy spinnerbaits (and buzzbaits) made out of titanium wire instead of regular wire. They don't catch any more fish, but the titanium wire is springier, so it stands up better to hard-core chewing.

I never had to bother with live bait any time I fished in that neck of the woods. Walleye and pike are both pretty easy to catch. That's why you go to a place like that to begin with. For walleye, all you need are 1/4-ounce and 1/8-ounce jigs. If you bring plastic bodies (grubs, twisters, shad bodies or whatever) you better bring a bunch of them. Better yet, bring some bucktails - they stand up to a lot more chewing, and the fish seem to like them as much as anything else. You'll also catch pike on jigs, but you might want to bring along some weedless spoons (big Johnson Silver Minnows are good), some spinnerbaits and a few buzzbaits. That's honestly about all you need. Bug spray is a given, and perhaps a bug suit would be a good idea this year, with all the rain we've had.

I would venture a guess that single males traveling alone represent the vast majority of people crossing the border every single day.

Fair price really depends what else is out there at the time. Somewhere from $2,000 to $2,500 is probably fair based on your description. This is definitely the right time of year to move it.

Basically every drop of water out that way has pike, walleye and whitefish. Hard to go wrong.

Those F650 pickups have been around for a while. They're popular with guys who pull really massive boats and RVs (go to a Poker Run, with all the big 40-foot cigarette boats, and you'll see dozens of these things). Ford doesn't sell the F650 with a pickup box - you buy it as a chassis cab and have an aftermarket guy install a box from an F350. There are several companies that do these conversions. Chev makes something similar called a Top Kick (or Kodiak) ... basically a small dump truck that guys will order as a chassis cab and put a pickup box on. Definitely makes a statement.

I travel to the States frequently on business, mostly by air, but also by car, and have never had an issue. Only thing I can suggest is that either your name or your vehicle match to another person or vehicle that the US Customs guys have on a watch list. It's the only way to explain it. One of my new co-workers had an issue at the Toronto airport last year when he arrived to travel on business and found himself on the no-fly list! It turns out some other guy with the same name, same age and same ethnic background is on Homeland Security's no-fly list, so my colleague had to spend two hours answering questions in a little room before they concluded he wasn't the dude they were looking for. Of course he missed his flight, which was a major pain, and he went through the exact same ordeal on the return trip. He has since got a NEXUS card and had no further problems.

Those really are beautiful shots, Mike. Thanks for sharing them. That last brookie is now my desktop wallpaper!