I thought for giggles I would revive this old thread. If folks want to truly try out these boats head down to St. Croix and dive with Cane Bay Divers as they have a couple of them. When we first dove with them in 2003 we used this boat they are still using them today. I thought the hole in the floor was a great idea and it does work quite well for exiting the water. You can do a typical beached whale exit for the first person but after other can be helped in very easily.
One thing that I like to do when exiting the water is stay under the water until I am ready to exit. Then I head to the ladder. Bobbing on the surface is not my thing. So these boats are very much to my liking.
Hmmm, wonder if I got to dive with you????? I'm Cody, one of Cane Bay's instructors...
I absolutely love these boats. I have dived off many many boats and can tell you, these are the easiest small boat to dive off of, at least in warm, tropical waters...
Entries - three ways: 1) sit on the floor, feet in the hole in the bow, make sure your gear is on and ready to go, tuck and roll forward with an empty BCD... 2) backroll over the side (this doesn't work so hot if you have the bimini top though) 3) toss your gear in the water and don it there
Exits - two ways: 1) (first person back on boat): surface in the hole, inflate BCD, remove weight belt if needed, set on deck, remove BCD and allow to float in the hole, then you can either exit like you would a pool (the deck is only maybe 5" above the water line), or shamu style up onto the deck, then simply pull your gear up - then help your buddy with their gear, etc 2) clip your gear to the side of the boat, swim to the stern and climb up onto one of the pontoons (literally an inch out of the water and hand holds on both sides), over the transom, then pull your gear up... there is ZERO need for a ladder on one of these boats - I can even go over the side up by the bow without gear on...
Reliability - amazing... we literally use these every single day... I have had one of ours out in 8-10' seas and it handles great, only myself and another instructor that day though - wouldn't be too fun completely loaded down... With an Evinrude 75 horse motor, they'll clock 30 knots unloaded and I think probably the only thing in the water is the last foot or two of pontoon and the prop... We have more outboard engine issues than boat issues... When we are diving with our 36' Newton dive boat, many times, we will need to shuttle tanks and gear out from our beach... We have easily loaded 26 tanks, 10 or more gear bags, and more...
We did change a few things from how Patten originally sets them up - we move the console as far back as possible, then we built two seats for divers to sit on, with their backs to the side - we outfit them to hold 6 divers... just in front of the seats are 6 tank holders, 3 on either side...
Maintenance - we adapted their air filler to a 1st stage reg, and we just hook it up to a tank, top off the pontoons and we're good to go... that's literally it... there is no other boat maintenance performed, except to wash it with fresh water (not required even), and checking oil level in the engine... We can put a boat in the water with zero prep on most days... after the boat is out of the water, we run fresh water through the engine, spray the whole thing down and park it...
As far as bilge, you really need to see the boat to appreciate the bilge... we had one loaded completely wrong with gear and tanks (too much weight in the bow, completely overloaded) the other day to where anytime we would accelerate, some water would come in... we just lived with it as we didn't have to go far, but ended up getting 3-4" of water in the bottom... pull up to the big boat, tie off the bow, and by the time we had the stern tied off, all the water was gone... later on in the day, we shifted some of the tanks back about a foot or two, and no more problem... this was also on our underpowered 50hp boat so it couldn't even think about getting up on plane with that much weight in it...
So, weight in the bow you ask... yup... when you don't want to use it for diving, or need extra floor space, we have fiberglass boards that cover the front opening... one downside, the floor up front, when no boards are in place, and only the fabric zipper is holding it in, will not support a persons weight multiple times... we have had people stand on it, but it destroys the zippers... they are easy enough to replace though...
One last thing, in rough seas (up to 10'), I prefer these to our Newton - the Newton rocks and rolls, these "climb up the hill, then down the hill" They are also ideal for shallow water - they have about a 5-6" draft without the motor, with the motor, maybe a foot and a half...