Guys,
I am looking seriously at the Arima and would like to get some inputs from you.

Likes or dislikes, I love to know from your experience or heresay.

Thanks

Iron Head, My brother owned one and just sold it cuz of hard times.... It was a 98 Sea Ranger, 19 ft with a Mariner 135hp two stroke and a 9.9 Kicker, Wonderful boat....i fished in the Columbia with him and crabbed in Astoria. Very seaworthy and stable.

My .02

Louis F.

Only one dislike , They ride like a sled,. The bottom needs more degree in the back......Ross

I have owned the 16 foot Seachaser for 3 years, I guess the only do-over I would have is the 17 foot instead so I could get the skiptower top, more engine choices and an anchor locker. The 16 foot isn't quite enough boat for the weight of the new 4 strokes (I have the Suz DF70-30 knots tops), but the 'Rude ETEC 90 I think would be a fine combo on a 16 footer. The Seachaser doesn't have the cuddy, but it has a lot of fishing room for the length, as good as or better then a 20-21 ft WA. Until you get to the big ones, they aren't self bailing, if thats important to you. I like the license break at 16 foot, $13 a year. I like my Arima, and have met lots of guys who like theirs.

Fished from a 16' Sea Chaser a few times last year and loved it. For trolling those summer run silvers in the salt we had plenty of room to fish three rods off the stern.

Nice seaworthy boat, and very NW, like CDory.

Cool boats - made local, correct? All things being the same, that's a deal breaker for me.

JD

I stumbled across this website last week....might be of some help.

http://groups.msn.com/ArimaBoatOwnersGroup

I came within a few $K of buying a 17' Sea Chaser last year. They are great boats, as long as you understand that you will not be slicing through 3' seas like you might with a deep-V. The fit-n-finish is top-notch, and you get lots of fishing room in a 17' boat.

The 16' boat is CG-rated for only 4 people, which was a big turnoff for me. Obviously you can't fish 5 people in a 16' boat, but sometimes you might want to take the neighbors crabbing or just for a ride around the lake.

At 19', they start to get spendy, into the same ballpark as a Seaswirl Striper 1851, which will beat the Arima hands-down in ride quality at speed. The Striper is also much heavier, which is a Good Thing on the salt.

If you're looking more for a river boat, stick with aluminum.

I'll second the others comments on lack of hull degree on some Arima's. My Family has a 16' Sea Chaser and while I love the boat, I think My 16' aluminum Gregor handles rougher water better. They do come with two different degreed hulls, get the deeper one if possible.

I really like th bait trays you can get that span between the gunnels on the stern, and it's certainly nice to have a porta potty and small storage area in the hull.

Great boats, but you can take a pounding at cruising speed in a 2 foot chop.

I bought a 16' Sea Explorer afew months ago.On the first trip out in it I thought I was going to get beat to death cruising in a light chop.But on the second trip after filling the bow mount water tank and rearanging some of the weight.It handled like a compleatly differant boat.And the ride was much better in the chop.The Sea Explorer has a 6'V-berth,porta potti,and 14 gal fresh water system.

I picked up a 15' Sea Hunter a few years ago. My buddy has a 17'er and they're both really good boats. I've been out of Westport in both and they're great. As far as the pounding in rough water, mine does but his is much better. It's all in how you distribute the weight in mine and it's not too bad. If I buy another one I'll get a 17' or bigger just because they take the swells better. My wife likes it because they're supposed to be unsinkable. They'll float full of water.

They have a lot of room and a lot of storage space. I've been out of Westport on a nice day and fished kings 15 miles out from the jetty. They plane really well and therefore are pretty good on fuel efficiency. If you want a fairly decent, sea-worthy boat, you can't go too far wrong with an Arima. I even took it to buoy 10 last year although when it got rough I was wishing I had a little bigger boat. It's great for the Sound, springer fishing the columbia and Draino Lake. I'm a lot happier with it than I thought I'd be.

Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions.

I've owned an Arima SeaHunter (15') for four years now and overall I love it. Seems that most people that own Arima's love them. They are absolutely great for the Puget Sound. Extremely functional. Sure, they will beat you to death in choppy water, but the boats are extremely stable because of their hull design. Like everything, you have to take the bad with the good. And I think the good far outweighs the bad with Arimas.

If I were buying my next Arima, knowing what I know now:

I think the 17' is the ultimate size for the Arima design. Still small enough to easily handle alone, yet large enough to fish three comfortably. IMO the larger Arimas are nice but if you are looking for a larger boat that probably means you are looking to go in bigger water and if that is the case, you should probably go for a different hull design.

Skip tower with full curtains. You can stand under it and still be out of the elements. Best way to go. Take the curtains off in the summer. Great combination.

The largest horsepower rated for the boat. These boats do not plane easily and if you add a bunch of gear or people, the extra horsepower is needed. Sure you can get by with less horsepower, but you don't want to.

Just my $0.02. Enjoy the looking!

I have a 21ft Sea Ranger with a skip tower and we like it very much. Arima's are very simple boats and not designed to go fast, but they are very stable and require less horsepower (cheaper motor, less gas) to get going than most boats their size. Lots of room for their size. The downside is the ride in rough water. you have to throttle down a lot and trim tabs are often a very good idea to help get the nose down in the chop at low speeds. The boat will plane at less than 14 mph and that helps getting through waves. I would encourage you to contact Don at the factory in Auburn and have him show you the boats in the factory. They can customize the boat many different ways and he is a great help. You can look at many different sizes and features at once. Good resale value.

I also own a 15' Sea Hunter. It fits in the garage and is easily trailerable. The Arima is a modified V hull. The trade off to a deep V is that at speed it won't handle the chop as well you will need to slow it down. But while fishing, which is where most of my time is spent, it is very stable and doesn't roll like a deep V. Two heavy guys leaning over one side barely tilt it. A deep V will get you back from the fishing grounds faster but you'll enjoy fishing out of the Arima more.

I have a 17ft SeaRanger and will second what many have already said, it's not super fast, it will pound alittle in chop (trim tabs are a great addition), it planes at very low speeds, it is VERY stable to fish in, lots of room, a nice wide beam ( 8ft on mine), is easy to launch and retrieve by yourself.
The best addition to my boat was a set of smart tabs. They really keep the nose down, get it on plane in a heartbeat, and the weight of a four stroke is negated.
These boats are not super fancy but they are tough and very well built. If you are looking to fish the straight, sound or calm ocean you won't be disappointed.

The water taxi that flipped over on the east coast didn't sink. Also, most cabin boats will float for quite some time after being swamped.

The only real benefit of an unsinkable hull is that if you tie yourself to the boat while it is swamping, the Coast Guard will find your cold, dead body right away, and your wife can get your insurance money without having to prove your death.

It's not necessarily drowning that kills in saltwater. It's hypothermia, or drowning because hypothermia has numbed your muscles. In the unlikely event that the seas are very calm and your boat fills with water, I suppose you could stand on a high point and stay dry.

Thanks for all your inputs.
I been looking around at various makes of the 19'-22' and found that the Arimas are most feasible.
One more question for you guys.
Have you ever put a larger engine on the Arima than the manufacturer recommended size?

Thanks

I used a relatives 17' Arima. It was a nice boat until you had to run into a wind chop. I was pretty disappointed in the ride in those conditions. Maybe the longer ones ride better, but I would recommend test running in some rough water before you buy one.

Be aware that if you exceed the coast gaurd ratings for horse power that you will probably void any insurance you may have in an accident and you will have a hard time finding a reputable dealer that will put a motor on there that is bigger that CG specs.
If you are looking for more speed with a bigger motor on an Arima you should probably look at a different boat. These boats are great at 30 to 35mph max and 25 to 30 cruising. I don't think hanging more horses on it will give you a great deal better preformance and may make the boat unstable.

What BD said. I would run away from any dealer that is willing to put more HP on the boat than the CG recommends. I don't know if it is illegal, but it sure sounds like a bad idea.

If you want more speed, get a boat designed to go faster. The Arima will still pound in a chop regardless of how much HP you have, and in fact the heavier motor will pull the stern down more, exacerbating the bumpy ride. You can install oversize trim tabs, but then you are putting the extra HP into the tabs, not MPH. It is very difficult to overcome basic hull design points with add-ons.

Ditto what the other guys said... I would go with the maximum horsepower allowed just for getting out of the hole, but going over the recommended HP is just going to burn more fuel. I have never heard of an Arima doing 40mph, wrong boat for trying to do that. It seems designed cruising speed is 25mph and it is foolish to try to make a speedboat out of tugboat.