Savage bowrider opinions

[hogesTS]

Hi all,
Well the mrs and I are thinking hard about getting a boat, as we will both be up on Thursday Island for the next 18months. We have been looking at bowriders as they will give us a good compromise when i want to fish with mates and she wants to relax with her friends, and like the look of the Savage SL540 osprey 5.4m (http://www.savageboats.com.au/savweb.nsf/pages/sl540ospreybowrider) package with 115 Mercury optimax. Has anyone had any experience with these?

We're not sure whether to buy new or used, either way we will have to get finance so we would rather the peace of mind of buying new, especially being up on TI.

Others we have considered are the stacer easyrider 549, Quintrex freedomsport 540, Allycraft 540 bowrider, Polycraft 530 frontrunner, and Trailcraft 540 Cross sport. Is there any particular model out of these that stands out above the rest? We are planning to go round to the dealers on the Sunshine Coast on the school holidays to have a look at some in person and hopefully have a few test drives to see which one suits us best. Are there any other bowriders in the 5.1 - 5.4m category we should look at? We are thinking aluminium would be the way to go, as we will more then likely be beaching it when camping and navigating pretty shallow water at times, so dont want to worry about damaging fibreglass, and the lighter weight will help with launching and retireiving.

Sorry for all the questions, this will be our first boat so we have a lot :P

Cheers
Jeff

[Jekyll]

It's certainly a nice looking rig.

Last Sunday I took the kids down to Victoria Point ramp around low tide for a spot of crab-chasing (8 year old kids love that stuff), and a guy pulled up on the ramp with what looked like a brand new Savage 540 bowrider.

The next five minutes will live in my memory for a long, long time.

He backs down the ramp with the engine lowered and just drops the thing off the trailer, so that about the front 3 feet was still high and dry on the ramp. Loads up the wife and kids, jumps in the boat, starts the engine (big Honda 4 banger), and calmly slips the thing into reverse .... all the while the front 3 feet of the boat is still on the bloody ramp.

Revs go up... huge swirl of mud around the rear of the boat, and what sounded suspiciously like a 4 bladed prop going bang, bang, bang on the ramp. Of course, the boat's still going nowhere so I walk over to give him a hand. I push the thing out into about a foot of water ... he floors it in reverse and roars away from the ramp, slips it into forward and just plants the throttle.

Only problem was, its approaching low tide and he's headed out on the wrong side of the navigation mark. 100 metres later there's a loud crunching sound coming from the slightly submerged sandbar and one 540 Savage, driver, wife and two kids sitting there wondering where their boating trip went all wrong.

Some people just shouldn't be allowed to buy boats.

[hogesTS]

LOL well hopefully if we get that model our first trip will go a bit smoother then that! I have had a bit of experience with my dad owning a 15ft haines for a few years and also going out with mates up at TI, so hopefully i have the hang of it. Mind you i have never reversed with a trailer... ::) Mind you if the savage stood up to that kind of treatment it cant be too bad then :P
oh and there are the 15ft salties to contend with at the TI boat ramp... :o

[Blackened]

G'day Jekyll.
Ooh thats another classic. Why is the only question i have for people like that. Should publish a book of ramp horrors.
Dave

[Ron173]

Jeckyll,

That has to be about the worst horror story I've ever heard.

Maybe we should start a thread to see if anyone can equal or beat it.... now that would be interesting.

Ron