Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Aluminum Boats- Riveted or Welded?

It sounds like a 1/4 inch welded hull with a big V8 might be overkill for your use.

I would give the Hewescraft river runner a good look. Check out some of the samples on this page.
https://www.smartmarineguide.com/boats-for-sale/hewescraft-river-runner

Agreed.

And maybe especially so until I reacquaint with skills I haven't used in decades...

Great point flintlocke!!!

Save it be for the recent increased use of composites in aircraft, we have all trusted our lives at 30,000 feet for years and years to riveted aluminum skins over aluminum or steel (welded) frames subjected to heavy loads and "G's", extreme temperatures, turbulence, and weather! I know that air is thin and requires "lift" to keep from falling from the sky BUT some of that water is awful deep and cold too! As flintocke pointed out, not too many "all welded" planes (if any?) out there.

A few loose rivets are not going to sink you very quick BUT I could see where a failed or separated seam could be a liitle more dicey.
Give the aluminum and rivets some love... the wood stocked, CM blued pre-64 M70 of the boat world!!!

Why on earth didn’t you buy that Ranger 180 center counsel I sent you the link for? That’ll fish any water you want to run up N and also work for you down in the gulf when it’s time.

As to the starcraft boats on the Great Lakes, it may have been so at one time. And I remember seeing quite a few Starcraft boats around in the 1960sand 1970s.
My experience is limited to Michigan and Superior, but I wanna say that probably 80% of the aluminum I see on the water there comes from Lund. Maybe another 15% from Crestliner, and occasionally an Alumacraft or Lowe.

My dad had a Starcraft back in the late 60s. Great boat for us then. Rarely see one anywhere today.

My most recent craigslist search covered 300 miles from y home and I think there was one ad for a Starcraft...

I called him as soon as I saw the link. It was sold and on it's way out his driveway when I called.

Edit; The guy answered the phone,"This is Gary, the boat is sold".
Guess he got a lot of calls.

Keep it real....

Just depends on what you are doing with it, riveted boats typically smaller, lighter and powered w/ob.... nothing wrong with them for most anything. We use to call them "green" boats... cuz they usally were...several companies making that style boat in a welded hull, still light and affordable, Alweld comes to mind. The trend today is welded and has becomes common place. But plenty of good ole riveted boats around. Starcraft made some pretty big deep v riveted boats, they maybe still do. Bigger boats w IB jets are almost exclusively welded

Hewescraft is the largest selling welded aluminum boat in Alaska, where the conditions (bays, ocean, rivers, lakes) can get pretty rough and you have to depend on the equipment.

The only reason some people buy riveted is to save money, which is a legitimate choice, but not for quality/dependability, and having good resale value in future years, which welded boats provide.

Finally. Someone gets it. Tip of the hat sir...

I have had both have 2 welded boats right now. The rivets eventually get loose and leak. Cheaply made welded boats do crack at the weld too. If you want a forever boat buy one that is what you want from a quality builder. For me that was welded.

Had 2 Starcrafts back in the 60’s through 80’s. They were great boats and very popular in northern NYS. Don’t see many these days. Lund seems to be the aluminum boat of choice now.

I have a Sylvan 16' run-a-bout and it's riveted. I bought it in 1989 and to this day there is no leak of any kind.

I've owned two Alumacraft and two Sylvans…….all riveted and not a complaint with any of them.

More water outside the boat than inside I say. Whatever that means.

I'd never own a riveted boat. They can be very well built, but each below the water rivet is a possible point of failure. Based on my observations rivets are more likely to fail than welds.

I am not selling boats of any particular assembly method and what I say here prolly does not apply to sport boats at all. But in the world of Alaska work boats, welded aluminum has had serious and unending problems. A company that I worked for commissioned an aluminum shallow draft boat, the Koyuk. Imagine a 38' foot landing craft, twin Cat D336TA power, light enough to be lifted by a single 50 ton crane on and off the mother barge,capable of negotiating rivers, bays, beach landings and open ocean. It did the job for years, no disastrous failures, but at EVERY opportunity it was lifted onto the barge for structural welding repairs. It wasn't a bad design, it just had too many stresses constantly working on it, keel coolers with 180 deg water circulating immediately adjacent to 40 deg ocean and hull skin. Structural seams cracking right and left. The same design was used with steel, built in Morgan City La., I think a fleet of 5 boats, and in 8 years, I don't ever remember any kind of structural repair, and I would have known. The really heavy stuff required to put Prudhoe Bay in production was all delivered by the steel boats.
The welded aluminum sport boats are great safe boats and I would own one if I could afford it, but, it ain't the only game in town. Starcraft especially designed the Islander series for safety in rough water, a huge deep vee bow for a gentle entry, tapering back to a nearly flat stern for the ability to get up on step instantly when you need to ride a big swell in over a bar entrance. I wouldn't have taken my kids and wife over the bar if there was the slightest doubt.

Airplanes, and semi trailers are riveted.

As a welder, I’d say welded!

They aren't designed to float.

My 14' Crestliner is riveted. I've never been in a welded boat. To each his own, it seems cabin fever goes on forever.