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