Help with new rig

[gsh9]

Hi all
in the market for a new rig as the family has out grown the old tinny. Got my heart set on a extreme side console from gs marine nt. mainly used for fishing/skiing in the dams and in and around hervey bay. There is 6 (2adults, 4 kids) of us any thoughts?
thanks in advance scotty

[Buddy Mania]

I looked seriously at GS Marine's Xtreme and baulked because of a few reasons. I'm not saying you should avoid them, just that these are the reasons I looked elsewhere:

Some of the Xtreme hulls, including the size I was looking at, are welded together in China in GS Marine's Chinese production plant. I don't doubt for a second that your Chinese welder is every bit as capable as his Australian counterpart, but I'd rather keep an Aussie welder in work than a Chinese welder.

The boats are put together without stringers. Ribs are welded east-west straight to the hull with no north-south. I'm no marine engineer and I don't know if the way these boats are put together is a problem or not. I just thought it was a little too different for me.

The nearest GS Marine dealer to me is 4 or 5 hours away. Despite the fact that I was to be dealing direct with Darwin, ordering from Darwin, negotiating a custom package through Darwin, paying for freight and insurance myself to have the boat delivered to my front door without even being seen by the nearest dealer, I was still going to have to put the payment through the nearest dealer to cut them in on the deal. I have a problem with that on principle. GS Marine wouldn't shift on that - which is good for the dealers out there and shows a level of integrity etc - but I wasn't willing to provide a grand of hard-earned to some who was doing absolutely nothing for me at all.

.02
Buddy

[Why Not]

Buddy sorry to see you moved away from a G.S. Their website has a good display of how the hull is formed up and welded. I'm no marine architect but I'm happy with the strength of the boat I've got (5.50m extreme).

I was aware of the overseas connection, but it is still a local company with a good product. I bought my boat direct as I live in Darwin.

I'm more than happy with the standard of build and it holds up to the NT conditions very well. Not too many boats can deliver what G.S supplies as standard. So if you want to compare apples and oranges then your task in deciding what you want will become difficult.

Why Not

[Buddy Mania]

I agree that they certainly provide a thorough package. The website was good too which is certainly an area where many other manufacturers can improve. A lot of people do the leg work on the Internet, and the majority of manufacturers' websites are poo.

I should make it clear that the reason I decided against a GS Marine boat was the combined effect of the 3 issues I listed previously. On its own, any one of those reasons may not have been enough ... although the last one did annoy me a lot.

GS Marine was always one option in a choice of three for me. It was the middle one in terms of quality and price. The cheaper option is also now out of the race.

[Why Not]

One positive which a lot of people don't see is a lot of guides here in the NT use a G.S marine product. Google up some of the guides here in the NT and you will more often than not see a G.S product under them. Also have a look at the numerous Barra fishing comp photos here in the NT and again you will see a lot of the same product.

They also team them up with Suzuki 4 strokes although some people do put ETECs etc on the back.

Why Not