b y   K e l l y   C o o k

This is my impression of a handful of 2005 bowriders around the 18' size as seen at local dealers.  Most of these boats in stock had a 3L motor and the standard motor box with jump seats.  Only the Larson happened to have “sport seating” (bench seat in the rear).  Turns out the smallest Reinell is their 185.  So I had to substitute that, which is a smidge bigger than the others.

Bow compartment depth figures

I often see families looking for deep seating.  So I measured the height from the seat cushion up to the gunnel for the bow seating.  Since most of these had the little jump seats in back I did not make a measurement there.  Again, the Reinell 185 had the benefit of being slightly bigger than the others:

Larson SEi 180 Ski Fish
    11"    (std. SEi Sport has different bow seats, expect slightly different figure.)

 

Maxum 1800 MX

    10-1/2”

 

Maxum 1800 SR3

    10-3/4”

 

Reinell 185

    12-1/2”

 

Tahoe Q4

    11-1/2”

 

 

Chine width figures

This was measured at the transom.  In some cases this is not the widest point, that may be found closer to the middle of the boat.  Big jump from around 2-3/4” up to over 5”!  I attribute this to the wide chine hulls trying to better accommodate a standard 3L motor:

Larson SEi 180 Ski Fish
    5-3/4"

 

Maxum 1800 MX

    5-1/4”

 

Maxum 1800 SR3

    3-1/2”

 

Reinell 185

    2-3/4”

 

Tahoe Q4

    2-3/4”

 

 

Just for fun awards ...

 

Most Convincing Hull Bottom Award – Reinell
    Runnerup – Maxum 1800 SR3

Most Handsome Instrument Panel Award – Larson
    Runnerups – both Maxums and Reinell

Tidy Construction Award – both Maxums
    Runnerups – Reinell and Tahoe

Take Me Home Award – Maxum 1800 SR3
    Runnerups – Larson SEi 180 Sport and Reinell 186 FNS  

 

Shopping notes 

The Larson Ski Fish model had different captain’s chair than the standard SEi Sport model.  These Ski Fish chairs had narrow backs, which I was not comfortable with.  Thus the “Take Me Home Runnerup” goes to the Sport version instead of the Ski Fish. 

I was glad my Maxum dealer had both the MX and the more expensive SR3, so I could check the differences.  I expected the MX to have shortcuts in appointments and/or workmanship.  But that was just not the case.  It was easy to see both boats were built to the same standard.  This makes the wide chime MX a real good choice for the standard 3L motor.  The SR3 does get the benefit of a transom “trunk”, nicer styling, slightly larger size, and a normal (better riding) width chine.  Both Maxums had the most comfortable captain’s chairs I tried.  Though I did not get to try these for the Larson Sport.

Looks to me like Reinell has been improving.  Workmanship seen on this boat was easily on par with Larson.  This 185 model had back-to-back chairs up front.  I much prefer the pedestal captain’s chairs such as seen on the Maxum and Tahoe.  Reinell does offer captain’s chairs on their 186 FNS.  Didn’t get to actually try that model.  But this is why I gave the “Take Me Home Runnerup” nod to the 186 FNS instead of the 185.

The Tahoe Q4 did not have any serious shortcomings that I could find.  There were little things to pick on, like the captain’s chairs were made lumpy by hard bolsters.  Certainly a decent boat, I just couldn’t find anything there to get excited about.

 

CAVEATS - It's important to note that this was strickly a tire-kicking exercise.  Dealer visits, without any on-the-water demos.  Which are important, as small boats are more likely to have handling quirks than the big ones.  ALSO important, no consideration was given to the customer satisfaction history for these builders.  Such as seen in the J.D. Power reports, etc.  Instead I just gave everybody the benefit of a doubt.

 

  Links to message board posts about these boats:

Larson
http://boards.trailerboats.com/cgi-bin/trailerboats/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=001663

Maxum
http://www.goboatingamerica.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=004222

Tahoe  
http://boards.trailerboats.com/cgi-bin/trailerboats/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=001685