I would go the senator, have a look closely at the front hull design, senator pontoons sit alot higher at the bow giving it alot better ride in short steep chop and rough water using the vee to break the wave rather than the pontoon, stabis sit alot lower and tend to pound alot more in the bow, just my opinion, check em out youll see what i mean..

I've only had small pontoon boats, I've owned the 509W stabi and had a kiwicraft b4 that,  never been in a senator but they look more like a kiwicraft which was a sweet hull and rode really well, quite a deep v seemed more like a senator....correct me if im wrong?, stabi was ok at rest but road like a brick in any chop, been told a lot of the stabis are like that, talking to other owners. all I can say is try them in crap weather,  my personal choice would be a kiwi or senator or even the osprey look quite nice.

phinalea wrote: pontoon boats go osprey every time check out their web site www.osprey.co.nz i have one and wouldnt really consider any thing else

Naki wrote: sea walker. I have a Senator 620.   What tugboats says is correct.  Senators have a bigger & higher bow and therefore seem to handle the rough a little better.

*cough*bull*****cough*

sea walker wrote:     bushpig  u mast have stabi

Nope I have a Surtees. But I did own a Stabi.

Naki is a one eyed nutter from Taranaki, dont listen to him. His toes a webbed

Do you really need a pontoon boat? There's plenty of none pontoon tinnies and glass hardtops doing what you want it to. There's a big range of 6.5 metre boats - trail a few and you might be surprised.

I bought new stabi 1850 in 2020 sold 2 months ago du to back breaking and loud noise from hull..I have bought the new rh580 senator and my life has changed..it is so smooth in chop no noise I am blown away by how smooth and quiet it is...my mistake was not taking stabi out for sea trail and went ahead with purchase based on public perseption..I won't go back to stabi even based on resale ..can go to work with no more sore legs or sore back and that groggy head headache from the bashing..owning both stabi and senator there is a huge comparison along a few sectors in savings and heartaches.

I've had a 490 and 530 Stabi and a 620 Senator HT. The 490 was a great little boat but with two men and half a dog it was full. The 530 was OK but thumped and was wet. The 620 Senator was a decent boat but still thumped in any sort of a decent head sea. I've now got a FC 535CC and the stabis and the senator just don't compare. If I was looking for a bigger hard top, I wouldn't go past an FC.