I am getting ready to buy a new driftboat and trying to decide whether to buy an Alumaweld or Willy....price is the same for the model I am looking at. I would be interested in hearing what experienced rowers think.

Thank you!

RM

I can't compare Willie to Alumaweld for you. I own my second Willie due to a few factors:

1) Almost every guide I've ever drifted with rowed one.
2) I like the flexibility of design, they'll basically build anything you want in the boat.
3) I was able to get a Willie built the way I wanted in 6 weeks. The wait for an Alumaweld was 4 months.
4) Resale value. When you look for a used Willie, you better be fast. I sold my last boat in less than one day. I don't think the same can be said for any other brand.

The only real plus I saw for Alumaweld was that there is a local dealer at Three Rivers Marine. That drive to Central Point for my Willie sucked!

What Kyle said above.Except I've rowed my uncle's alumaweld it row's fine but I like my willie for tracking better.The 8 hour drive one way suck's.How ever Mike Jackson was a pleasure to work with.Scott @ three rivers was great to work with this past May when I purchased my sled.There was no way I was gonna drive that far for my sled to find out some thing was not correct on it and waste a trip.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE


P.S. For the drift boat I'd make the drive again.
GO WILLIE

Be sure to check out hyde. By far the best boat of all that were listed. Ask anyone who owns one and they will tell you how sweet they row. Cost is the only down fall. But well worth it.
Nut

Lavro

I bought my 16' Alumaweld @ 3 rivers and did not have any wait. They have 8 or 10 in the lot right now that are very well rigged and basically ready to fish.

I thought about the decisions for many months, and what it boiled down to for me was buying from a local business which would stand behind the product. There are so many pros and cons to each model, that I honestly could not decide based on featuers or performance. Supporting my local sportfishing businesses was more important for me in the long run given that these two products are so closely matched.

SA

I have owned two Alumaweld and two Willie's so far. Honestly, I can't think of anything positive to offer you when it comes to Alumaweld. I think they are cheaply made in comparison.

I did have some issues with my last Willie's purchase. Some of the welds were sloppy and unfinished. Not a structural concern but pretty ugly anyways. I just don't want to drive all the way back down there for cosmetic concerns. If I had noticed I wouldn't have accepted the boat though. I would however purchase another one over an Alumaweld, mainly because I think they row better.

Good luck!

Simply the best say's it all.Put 2 guys up front with all the gear add a motor ,cooler and go row both I think you will end up with a Willie Boat plus they are great to deal with. Pete

Willies

Fish-Rite for me

RiverMan,

Have you considered looking at a fiberglass DB?
I purchased a new Lavro last year.
It's my very first DB and I've been very happy with it so far.
And I do use it a lot!
I've floated the entire Sky, upper Skagit, upper Sauk, and lower Hoh so far in my boat.
It's easy to row and can handle a lot of weight, slides over rocks in skinny water.
And they're tough boats!!
I don't know where you're located but the Lavro company is located in Monroe.
Here is the link to Lavro: http://www.lavroboats.com/
If you have broadband watch the video from the website and then give owner/boat builder Ron a call. He builds them himself one at a time so workmanship quality is second to none.

My reason for purchasing a Lavro.
I was going to purchase a Willie and went down to the Outdoorsmen show in Puyallup in Feb 2003.
There Willie boat Co. had a booth setup with two boats on display.
One was a 16 ft guide model that I wanted to purchase and they had it on special buy.
So I was checking the boat out throughly for about 15 mins or so and there was this sales rep standing at the booth just few feet away from the boat while I was scoping out the boat and there were no one else around at the time.
I figured the sales rep would be eager to approach me and explain everything to sell me a Willie.
Instead there was no greeting by the sales rep, infact he was too busy reading a magazine and didn't even bother to look at me.
So right there and then, I decided that I did not need to deal with that type of customer service and decided not going to purchase a Willie from Oregon.
So, I looked to Lavro and Ron treated me well.
To this day, he treats me well.
This is my honest experience.

Ill put in my word for willies, they are built great, id also put my word in for hyde boats they are great to for what ive seen, but by far go with a willie

I'll try to put this kindly, because I know there are a lot of Lavro owners out there. I'm not saying they're not a great boat, and I'm not saying Willie is any better. I'm simply going to state a fact. I spent about half a day with Ron at Lavro when I was building my wood boat a few years ago. Ron was very gracious to take me through the entire process of his design and manufacturing. The hull design of the Lavro is a bit antiquated and not as wide as most other boats out there. Width is critical and equates to ease of rowing, how high the boat sits in the water etc. Anyone who has rowed an older boat 48-50" width, then gets into a 54-60" wide boat can attest to this difference.

Hyde for me, spendy but worth it.... Buy as much storage as you can get. Get the UHMW bottom. the more adjustability you can get the better. It doesn't matter how I load my boat, I can move the boxes enough to balance it right. Get flat floors.

Brian

Thanks for providing the facts! Kyle.

I had a very similar experience to the one Summer-Run described at the Monroe Sportsmans show. I was ready to buy a boat and had it narrowed down to a Willie or a Clackacraft. I was ignored at the Willie booth and ended up buying a Clackacraft which I absolutely love.

WILLIE simply the best

I got everything I wanted in my boat and the price was right.The drive sucked but was well worth it. I have owned alumaweld and koffler db's too and my 17x60 willie rows way better by far.And like said in other posts the resale is great.

Willie or Alumaweld

Is this a trick Question

I have a 1987 model Alumaweld and a 2004 Willie,, which is better ??? The trailer on the Willies of course.... Anyone who knows drift boats can back that statement up...

Hyde boats.... pretty nice if you believe that fiberglass is worth that much money.... talk about profit margin... Clacka crap.... nuff said

Well my 2004 willie rides on a Koffler trailer I guess that makes it crap eh

B-Run:

You call a Clacka "crap"....

Can you tell me why (specifics, please). I am planning on buying one, and such a general description is not sufficient.

From what I saw at the factory, they build one heck of a good boat. Never heard anyone say anything bad......Till now.

WHY do you think they are crap?

Mike

I totally believe you may of had a poor sales experience. I exchanged several hetaed discussions by phone to get my boat ordered. But what is more important the product or the sales experience? The Willie guys do seem to have a chip on their shoulders. But so what??? You only have to deal with them once. When you are rowing the boat for the next ten years or more, it won't make any difference at all.

Just my .02- The boat is worth the work.

Good luck

My 82 fishrite is still working fine enough said!!!PEACE

Great information exchange here. I love it! I too looked at Clack, I just couldn't spend the money. There's something about banging aluminum off of rocks and knowing that you don't even need to care. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to finish. I drove myself crazy varnishing a wood boat, I was afraid I'd do the same trying to get scratches off of a glass boat. I got the new Willie, put on a coat of Shark Hyde and forgot about it.

By the way, I sent this thread to the guys at Willie (who I had an excellent experience with) and asked them to please take a look. It appears to me that there are customers walking away due to poor customer service, not boat quality. Hopefully they'll take heed.

Kyle Thats a good idea. A friend of ours was in the market for a new sled a couple yeasrs ago.Really liked our Predator.Gave him Willies # he called a couple times.Never got so much as a call back.Ended up buying another brand.
I understand that nobody is perfect.But it seems like Willie boats could beef things up in the customer service,sales, dept.

Just the boat Timber--Kofflers are the best.



As far as which boat? you will get lots of answers. Just get one, get in the water and you will adapt to rowing and the boat. SPending the big bucks doesnt make you a good rower--a boat will take you off the bank.

Thanks for all the replies guys, far more response than I ever expected. To be honest I own a 16' 1992 Alumaweld. The boat is fine but it seems overly built to me, thing is like rowing a tank. But, this is the only DB I have ever rowed. I would love to row a Lavro sometime.

I posted this question as we are looking to buy another DB for work....I make my living as a fisheries biologist and we are needing it for research.

We ordered a Willies several days ago. Thank you again to all of you.

RM

RM
Congratulations on the new Willie. They are wonderful boats and I think it will make an excellent work/fishing boat for you!!

Kyle
"I'll try to put this kindly, because I know there are a lot of Lavro owners out there". Don't fret, we're just as tough as our boats! Scars and all :p .

Back in town from fishing Mike so I can field your question now. Clacks are set up for fly fishing. If you asked which boat I would want on the south fork of the snake I would want a Hyde G4 with a low profile... but it would kill me to pay that much for one. A Clackacraft would not hold up to the day to day pounding that a steelhead boat takes. I like Aluminum boats because they can hack it. I have an old Alumaweld that has caught 500 steelhead. and is still on the rivers today ( I went through two trailers on that boat, and both were crap ) I have a new Willies and its a sweet boat with an excellent trailer. Had no problems with buying it either, they treated me well over there. Other boats I have been in that looked good to me were Thors, Diamondbacks and FishRites. I have been in a lot of glass boats and they just are not worth that kind of money... At the Hyde factory in Idaho Falls, they have a Clack cut in half to show the difference between it and a Hyde... seems to me they are both over priced. Bottom line is, get what makes you happy. I have never had a bad day in a drift boat regardless of the make. One of my freinds has a Clack, and several have Hydes and I enjoy them ( fly fishing ) For pulling plugs, my Willies is set up a lot better and is the current boat of choice. And for an extended river trip where you have to pack a lot of dry bags etc, its the only choice. A couple of things you " do not want " in your new boat if you are going to be fishing most often for steelhead / salmon. 1> The leaner in the front on a Hyde or Clack will be totally in your way all the time. 2> A fish box. Unless its really cold outside just put a 120 quart cooler behind the rowers seat and thats perfect. Why anyone would put a fish that they value in a sliding fish box under the seat is beyond me.

Fact is, the Willies is just getting cleaned out for yet another 5 days of fishing starting wednesday. The other boat that will be going with us this time is a FishRite. We will be floating from corn creek on the Salmon to Heller bar on the Snake. 137 river miles in 5 days... with a 300 mile shuttle

BRun,
Holy cow, why are you going so far in a 5 day trip? We did Corn Creek to the first takeout past the normal one at Vinegar (don't remember the name). It was about 100 miles in 5 days and we only went that far because the forest service wouldn't let us use the normal take out (at I think 79miles) because of fire danger. I wished we hadn't gone as far because it didn't leave much time to fish or relax in camp. Was a fantastic trip though, I want to go back! I'll never forget the drop on the left side of Salmon Falls. Have fun, be safe, take pictures and post a trip report when you get back.