Date purchased 13.04.19
Supplying Dealer: Ely Boat Chandlers
Model Purchased : T38ie2
Quality Acceptable? No. Boat rejected.
Returned to dealer for replacement ? Not yet
Returned to dealer for refund ? Not yet.
Reluctantly kept but unhappy? At present.
- T38 Asymmetrical Hull 1
- T38 Asymmetrical Hull 2
- T38 Asymmetrical Hull 3
Below is an excerpt of my rejection notice from 08.05.19 to EBC after receiving the dealers/Honda’s response to a request for replacement;
Good afternoon Richard,
Thank you for your prompt response and following email including Honda's response all highlighted in italics below.
“From what I’ve read and seen the first thing needed to be advised is that a flexible floor inflatable boat is not a speedboat and will not behave like one. The construction material and the nature of the surfaces it’s going to operate on (soft versus hard, so to speak) no way reflects the ability of a rigid V hull to resist the forces applied.
Your answers are already as good as I could give or elaborate on, and, having plenty of drive time in most of our boats with various engine combinations, there is little to suggest there is anything wrong.
Yes, the keel strake is not absolutely symmetrical, but this is a hand built product and there are sometimes small assembly tolerances that might catch the eye, but in no way affect performance.
Based on your observations and our experience I cannot see any immediate cause for concern or rejection.”
So the answer may not be perhaps what you were initially looking for, but that said is does offer reassurance that there isn’t a serious flaw in the Boat. I have seen similar slightly-off centre keel guards before and had similar conversations with Honda and customers. Rest assured that neither we (EBC) or Honda are trying to catch you out, purely relaying a technical opinion on the information provided.
Whilst I take on board your comments and observations regarding setting up height and trim I would however query recommending running fully trimmed in and the problem I described is more correctly termed ventilation and not cavitation. That aside I am not interested in discussing the finer points of motor/hull set up as I also have many years experience of boating in general and sibbing in particular. We have comprehensively adjusted and tested different trim settings and checked correct tube and floor pressures all to no avail.
Whist our current main boat is a RIB, we purchased the T38/Mariner 20 mainly as an easily transportable option in order to partake in organized SIB outings with other forum members. My last two previous sibs were a 3.5 Zodiac and Bombard Aerotec 3.8 and both powered with a Suzuki 20 efi motor. The alumin floor/inflatable keel Zodiac and high pressure air V floor Aerotec, once correctly set up, performed flawlessly as expected in varied water conditions and at much higher speeds than anything the T38 has yet encountered.
I am quite frankly amazed at Honda's totally irrelevant comment "a flexible floor inflatable boat is not a speedboat and will not behave like one." Nobody is expecting hard hull performance but this is a planing hull designed to operate at planing speeds, not displacement speed only. In fact Honda's own brochure describes the v-floor range to be: "Light and fast, these inflatables are packed with comfort and performance features. Their deep-V hull design significantly optimizes keel performance and ensures maximum stability at virtually any speed."
I am also somewhat dismayed at their apparent dismissal that there is nothing amiss with the hull.
Based on my experience and testing to date I am convinced the hull is not performing as it should in planing conditions, whether this is solely due to the asymmetry towards the bow is potentially a mute point and difficult to prove or disprove either way. I am however left with a boat that does not seem to perform as it should at planing speeds.
In light of this, I feel that I am compelled to reject this boat on the grounds of the two halves of the hull are poorly aligned at the keel line producing an asymmetrical hull towards the bow. This is clearly identified in the photographs previously submitted and also clearly in excess of any acceptable manufacturing tolerances.
Best Regards,
To cap it all, during this process, the dealer has gone into receivership, so this thread may be of great assistance if forced to pursue my rejection claim direct with Honda.
