I expected a quick weld up job under warranty after taking the boat to my local Stabicraft dealer. As it turns out the hull was only 3MM thick. Not 4MM. This was a real piss off. 

Stabicraft have quietly updated there website last April as it was a 4mm hull that I thought I was buying. Little did I know the boat had been built way earlier.

There will probably be quite a few of these earlier models floating around with there owners blissfully un-aware there boat has a major design flaw.

They refused to replace the hull, or refund money. Instead The boat is to be de-rigged. Floor and 4mm hull plates to be trucked up from down south and welded in by local engineering firm at Silverdale. New U-Dek to be reapplied and boat re-rigged.

This was the best of two options to fix my boat. The other option was to leave 3mm hull in place and re-weld a new 4mm hull skin over top.

Thats right. A finished thickness of 7mm on a 4.5m boat powered with a 50 hp engine. 

Would certainly trigger a few questions when it comes time to sell.

Im just putting this out there to alert any owners.... or potential buyers to check the thickness of the hull plate. If its 3mm It has potential to fail.... otherwise they would not of upgraded to 4mm. Why the hell they designed it in the first place is mind boggling. These boats are touted as a hardcore Southern ocean adventure machine. Mine failed in the Hauraki Gulf with my son on board.

Also while I'm in winge mode check your trailer coupling if its a DMW trailer.  My coupling could be pulled on and off the tow bar with bugger all effort. The pin that holds the leaver down had the roll pin inserted incorrectly resulting in the pin sliding open while towing and the trailer potentially uncoupling on a bump - Which is exactly what happened to me last summer on the Thames Coast Road.

Thankfully the safety chain kept the boat connected- But my Tailgate and Hardlid on truck were completely destroyed by trailer drawbar when I breaked.

Naturally everyone involved in the manufacturing of trailer did exactly nothing after talking the big game- and Im still out of pocket over $600 for the cost of excess from my insurance company. Plus a new coupling and trailer plug and wiring.

Sincerely hope none of this happens to other owners.... But I suspect it will.

When I did talk about Legal action they basically said bring it on.

Its a $46k boat. Thats currently unusable. The cost of a lawyer and the fact I would probably be without a boat for 6 months while I get into a bun fight put me right off.

I had no real option but to get boat re-skinned.

Contact consumer affairs.  Your boat was clearly NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE. Under the consumer guarantee act. .

To best of my knowledge the law states they must, repair to your required standard, replace hull ,.or give full refund.  It is for you to choose which option,not theirs to choose.

Also you saw the hull was 4mil alloy on website. To receive 3mm is false advertising . That is also an offence.

Personally i would call consumer affairs for advice Keep all written or recorded  documents . Secondly contact local citizens advice bureau. The always have a lawyer you can run this past,free of charge i think..

Your lives were potentially at risk as result of this hull failure. Not acceptable.

Further you were only going to tiri. Not as if you were rounding cape horn. Why would even a 3mm fail.  Was there a fault in that batch of alloy. Or had a cheaper brand been used.to cut costs as we entered the recession/slowdown. Who knows.

Did trailer come with boat. That didnt seem up to scratch either.

I have had a frewza F14 fisher 4.4 metre pontoon boat since 2012. The hull is 3 mil. Have had zero issues with the hull ,or boat.  the 3 mil has done well with me. Why not on your boat.

Good luck. Push on until this is settled on your terms.

You say:

As and aside there was a duty of disclosure for Stabicraft to inform you that the boat they sold you was not as currently advertised.

No help to the OP, but I'm feeling lucky that my FC Boat has been faultless in the last 2.5 years of ownership.

Been in touch with your insurance company??They will have the correct advice. CGA seems best option $50 to lodge claim from memory
https://stabicraft.com/the-boats/1450-frontier/#specification-section%20" rel="nofollow -

They Have also have been Fantastic to deal with..... as none of this is there fault. They are just helping me out as they are my nearest dealer.

The hull components are being fabricated down in Invercargill and trucked up all at Stabicrafts cost.

A local engineering firm in Silverdale will take care of the re-welding process. One of the guys there used to build 1450s when they had a factory in Silverdale. And apparently this job can be done and the boat will still look factory. 

Thats the part Im slightly sceptical about.

You'd think the cost of all this re-fabrication work would of been un-economical for Stabicraft..... The U-Dek alone is a couple of thousand.

But they dug in wouldn't budge- I had to  bend over and take what they were offering..... or yes get lawyered up... at my cost and fight them.

For a new hull? It wasn't worth the fight. 

Funnily enough they sent me photos of another 1450 that has this process done to settle my scepticism about their ability to fix the boat to an exact standard of a new boat. It looked ok... but I could tell straight away they had chopped it to bits. The welds looked way heavier than factory.

If Stabicraft had simply replaced the hull under warranty as its simply not fit for purpose I would of accepted it and moved on and none of this would be written. Because of all this sh-t I thought bugger them! I want  to warn other owners there are potential issues with this boat.

This thing filled with water 20km out to sea with my son on board. 

It pissed my right off that rather even acknowledge the event they went straight into weasel mode and offered me a total ****ter of a idea and weld a 4mm skin over top of my broken 3mm! Has anyone ever herd of this being done? I was totally blown away.

Corrosion between plates, extra weight, destroying re-sale value  were the main reasons "Option 1" was not taken.

Ask me how I know.

But I agree - Stabi's rsponse sucks.

Alan

Stabicraft have terrible customer service and back up.

A company that's happy to put customers at risk for the sake of profit is not one that I'd be happy doing business with.

After a couple of years, the anchor winch motor blew up, due to water in it. Cost $1700 to get fixed. 

I made a warranty claim through the agent Fish City.  They wrote to FiGlass. No reply. Later they wrote to them again. No reply. 

Its a very bad stain on FiGlass. I presume that is their policy, to just ignore warranty claims.

Fish City replaced the pipe with one without a kink - I like their service, pity they have gone out of business (at least I understand its going to be only online).  

Just to be fair - I think the FiGlass Firestar) is very good, would recommend it - but hope you wont have a warranty claim. 

Now wonder why so many companies ride duck shot of claims because kiwis to weak to make a stand.Oh its going to cost me money.

Whats the boat worth after repairs??And if seling would say thats it had a bottom?

Like others have said, post it on facebook, get their piss poor response out into the public and don't stop. It worked for me.

Also, small claims limit will be below the value of your boat. Good luck,.

Absolutely! Fishing knowledge on line

I don't have a Stabicraft but I did buy a new alloy pontoon boat close to 3 years ago from Profile Boats. There was one issue where the road cover wore through in one spot over a cleat after a long trip from Whangaparaoa to Lake Tarawera return.  I emailed them, sent the cover down to Napier and they sorted it out very quickly and returned it.

I did have a look at most of the alloy trailer boats on the market around 4 years ago when I was making my purchase decision and TBH Stabicraft build quality was beaten by several others.

Since then I've had my Profile 585H alongside (literally) a Stabicraft 1850 Supercab and I'm still happy with my decision.  (I was helping a guy out. Water had got into his fuel via the tank breather so I barged him back to the ramp in Tutukaka). 

A big issue with your pride and joy, and a major investment in terms of family assets would be similar to victims of bank frauds and people let down by developers going into liquidation etc,

Having to battle for answers and action takes a real toll on you mentally. Good on you for not giving up. I know from personal experience that these types of things can wear you down if you don't have support around you and a stoic attitude.

Stabicraft have made a big effort to market that model - sponsored boats with various high profile YouTubers etc. Including in Australia. It'd be interesting to know those guys' true experiences, but of course we'll never get to hear them.

They are currently doing a big push with a well known upper South Island fisho, even linking with an Aussie YouTuber around the Sounds for a big promo vid.

But apparently not willing to go the extra mile for a paying customer.

All the best for a positive outcome.

I totally get that a full civil court case would be prohibitive, financially - but there is a potential option of the Disputes Tribunal/Small Claims Court, which deals with quite large disputes (up to $30,000 as I understand it). While legal representation would be best, you can represent yourself with a methodical presentation of the evidence.

They legally cannot force you to accept a repair, as the patched up hull is not a clean new 4mm plate hull,  that you had paid for . End of story , you will win in Disputes tribunal . $50 to file  and more than likely Stabicraft will fold and send your new hull. They can take away your old hull and patch it up , whatever and try and sell it , it shouldn't be your problem. Good Luck

I will be examining the finished article very closely. If Stabicraft in any way are going to try to force me to accept a product that has clearly been bastardised  the gloves will  most defiantly be coming off.  They are backing themselves 100% that the re-engineered boat will be as good as the one I gave them  to fix so I have at least have to give them the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance to rectify the situation.

With spring here and some big work-ups happing out there and the crays in close- Im obviously quite keen just to get my boat back and but this whole bloody sh-t fight behind me.

Well said 

I just joined up to say I have a 2022 1450 Frontier which has been excellent. After reading the original post and seeing the hull was 3mm instead of 4mm I swore my boat was advertised with 4mm hull thickness and 3mm tube thickness only to find new reviews saying Stabicraft had recently upgraded the hulls from 3mm to 4mm.

I remembered being given a Stabicraft magazine when we ordered our 1450 in July 2022 as it had a feature on the new model and lo and behold it advertises the hull thickness as 4mm and tube thickness as 3mm (Page 65).

The magazine was published in June 2020 and can be found via this link: https://issuu.com/stabimag/docs/stabi_issue_3_web

If you don't feel comfortable clicking links on posts from 4 minute old members you can quickly google 'Stabicraft magazine 03' and find it from there.

Having said all that I am in Australia but I expect the models would be identical between Aus and NZ.

When I asked for my money back said dealer went into "Don't lose the fuc-ing sale mode" and offered me what was on his yard which was my stricken boat. It was a higher spec model. Full paint etc I accepted. The rest is History.

Any hoe. Moving along. My boat has been fully cut to bits, New floor, bearers and 4MM hull plates re-welded back it.

Its currently back at Gulf land getting re-rigged and new U-dek flooring installed. I haven't yet seen boat. But from what the dealer is telling me the fabrication work is top notch. Will hopefully be able to pic her up this weekend and see for myself.

Once again. Cheers for the support fellas. I know some of you were hoping for a bloodbath, But Stabi have promised to make things right.... I have to give em a chance before the knives come out.,... In saying that, I haven't seen boat in person yet.

I had to wait for a decent weather window and was basically forced to take a Monday off work last week and chase  snapper out wide to make sure everything was hunky dory.

Firstly... The repair job. Looks amazing. Aside from the new shiny looking hull plates you would never know that the boat had been cut to bits. I have tried to upload pics but I just cant seem to be able to transfer them.... which is weird because I have done it plenty of times. To be fair... there really isn't much to look at, the quality of the welds are totally first class. I really had had to look really hard to see if I could see any difference to the original boat. To someone who didn't know what just happened you would never know

The paint around the cantilevered seat had been re-done and pretty much all the U-Dek had been replaced with new stuff.

I was bloody happy with the result. All I can to is commend Stabicraft on sorting the situation.

As above I was itching to get her back in the water to compare to previous hull. It certainly felt way way more solid. I traded down from a late model Surtees 610 Gamefisher on this thing and my first impression when I first took it out (No sea trial) was it felt like the whole boat was very flexy. There was a lot of juddering and reverberation at speed in the chop around the entire boat but especially the floor. As this was my first ever pontoon boat I just put this down to being normal pontoon behaviour.

The new 4mm hull version feels rock solid. It rides better and simply feels way more planted. 

The conditions we took it out in were pretty average indeed. Leaving Omaha it was out into a 2m swell in Jelico channel with wind chop on top. For a small open boat it simply just cruised through it. Happy Days.

Interesting to note... These boats have scuppers to allow water to drain underway. They can be  shut off from the inside with bungs supplied but I left them open... as this is what we normally do as most of the time the boat is used for diving and spearfishing.

But I noticed fishing a lot more water coming in... I guess this is to the extra weight of hull settling hull further into water at least.

Also lost about a kt of speed. But this is to be checked again under calm conditions.... There was no way I could take it to max speed in those conditions but it usually cruises at 22ks at 4600 rpm. It seemed to be doing 21kts at same revs on way back home in much calmer conditions. The chilly bin was weighing a bit though. Great work ups out there.

Finally would just like to say Thankyou to the guys at Gufland Marine.

They didn't sell me the boat, but they took it in and organised everything that need doing without any issues at all. None of this cost me a single cent. The Invoice that was being sent to Stabicraft though would be a different matter entirely.

All in all a fantastic result to what was a  slightly concerning situation especially this close to summer.

How viable would that be for those with kiwisaver investing a boat market today,not saying anything wrong with stabi or any other company but doesnt seem to be the time to invest in pleasure companies.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/533540/simplicity-secures-stake-in-boat-company-stabicraft-marine" rel="nofollow - https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/533540/simplicity-secures-stake-in-boat-company-stabicraft-marine

The boats will shortly undergo a minor rebranding and will be renamed "Stubbicraft". 

Seriously i would contact Paula Penfold to get a news article done on it.  Son on board 20km out to sea and boat craps out from pisspoor manufacturing and the company literally couldnt care less.