# What makes a Yellowfin so awesome?



## goodwood (Mar 30, 2009)

Or so expensive? Particularly the bay boast. Been searching online why it costs so much but couldn't find anything solid. Maybe it's a stupid question and it's right in front of my face and I just don't know about it but just wondering (not hating).


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## g2outfitter (Jul 21, 2009)

Not a dumb question, wondered the same. They feel like a quality boat is my only quess. 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2


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## mgeistman (Jun 13, 2012)

I think it's kinda like Remington or mossberg, both make good guns, but Remington has a way better rep than mossberg. Or at least that's how I look at it.


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## yellowskeeter (Jul 18, 2008)

Have you seem one up close? I thought the same thing until I saw one up close and then saw what they put in it, the attention to detail, and the components are simply above all. Very similar when looking at a SCB, it's the little things that count, and also the ones that can add up. Just like high end boats there is a premium for the name as well, but those that know the name and appreciate it for what it stands for will pay. You can go buy a good road bike frame for lets say $1500 and then depending on what you put in to it as per components it will run you $2500 base or $15000 loaded. Out of all the boats I have seen and worked on, hands down they are on top of my list and if I had the coin I would not hesitate to buy and will say that I settled on a skeeter, but if i had the coin in hand the YF would be in my storage shed. Just as if the SCB style boats where what I wanted, I would go that way if I could afford it. It's all in the details. I will one day, have a 32-34' yellowfin, or at least a 24 bay.


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## mgeistman (Jun 13, 2012)

I understand that, but as far as glass goes, would you say they use better glass than skeeter does? Same as rem or mossberg, they both work fine, but the rem will look a whole lot better than the mossberg. I think your more paying for labor on makin it purtty more than the actual materials or design? Am I on the right track?


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## Jolly Roger (May 21, 2004)

same difference as a Bentley compared to a Chevy.


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## Trim-Happy (May 21, 2012)

they used the highest grade glass and resin / every other part in the boat. and if you want to see how a boat should be made go look at how yellowfin wires a boat and the screws all point the same way.


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## texasagg (Jun 24, 2011)

Here is a start....

http://www.sarasotalinex.com/marine-coatings/project-yellowfin-24-bayboat/

Clarification. Line X is an option but the link has good pics of the YF process for the hull.


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## CoastalOutfitters (Aug 20, 2004)

not YF in particular, but boats are built in several steps.

take the basic hull , build it , add whatever stylle stringers and bulkheads and you have a cost of X....................

next you are foaming in fuel tanks 

next you are adding a deck, this may be an all in one or sectional, which the higher grade boats are, to get back under the deck for repairs

next bolt on a center-console , or have it glassed as one of the sections of the topcap

the best boats have trunk lines or channels for rigging to the console, not just wires and such running over the stringers

livewells, bilge, storage all finish out inside and gelcoated, no sharp edges.

high end buss bars, tinned marine wire, proper terminal connections and clean wiring

bronze or ss thru hulls and good hose and ss clamps

high end hardware like gemlux and perko not marpac

all said, top quality material and fine craftsmanship

t-top will have a radio box, spreader lights , rod-holders and such std.


the odd thing is why a 24' and a 28' from the same co. is always so diff. in price, motors being equal.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Nov 4, 2011)

Fit and finish

http://www.fishingscout.com/anglers/SmackDaddy


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## TXPIRATE (Jan 28, 2009)

I would say because there is a market out there that want "the best." That doesn't mean they are the best but because not many people can afford them so they want them. I doubt that boat will do anything much better than a boat half the price. There are a lot of people out there that a price point like that isn't that high. If you have a 54 bertram and you use it just think of how much putting fuel in the boat costs. Makes a YF seem cheap...


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## KEMPOC (Aug 24, 2010)

Hard to explain. You really have to just "feel it". I fish out of a buddy's Yellowfin from time to time in Florida. I dont know how to explain it other than fit and finish. Makes my Pathfinder feel like a Kia.


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## skeeter77346 (Jan 13, 2006)

Here is a link that provides some insight. Text pasted below. Sorry, it is a bit long.
_
BTW, I have owned many boats over the last 30 years, (including 4 -22 ft bay boats previously) and got my first YF21 in early 2011. I am now running a YF24. For me its is the build quality, fit & finish, double Kevlar bottom, vinylester resin, the ride and handling. Off-scale superior service for anything you might need. Solid resale value - just look around for one.

Build pics for my 24: https://picasaweb.google.com/113164734304867459391/MatherneYF24300Yamaha


_
http://www.soundingsonline.com/news/coastwise/287869

In 1998, Wylie Nagler set out to build a fast top-of-the-line offshore fishing boat. Today, Nagler's Yellowfin Yachts builds some of the most well-respected open offshore fishing boats on the market.His first Yellowfin was a 31-footer, introduced in 2000. He has since added eight boats to a center console lineup from 23 to 42 feet. The Sarasota, Fla., company also builds a 17-foot skiff, a 21-foot hybrid (combination bay and flats boat), and a 24-foot bay boat (www.yellowfinyachts.com).

Nagler, 44, whose background includes offshore powerboat racing and tournament fishing, grew up in south Miami, fishing out of small skiffs and watching offshore races. His grandfather raced boats and was a yacht broker. He got a business degree and spent a short time building chain restaurants but soon turned to boats, his true passion. He got a job rigging for a small company.
He later started a flats-boat builder, Back Country Powerboats, which he sold to Champion Boats in 1998. Nagler and his wife, Robyn, have three young children and live in Sarasota.

Q: What is the mission of Yellowfin Yachts?
A: To build the best offshore fishing boat out there - a boat that when you get caught in a storm and it gets really rough it's going to get you home with no problem. That is what we do. *Our philosophy is to build the best boat and use the best materials - the best hardware, the best systems. If we find something in the market that is better than what we're using, we automatically put it in the boat and raise the price.* That is our philosophy. We don't care how much a cleat or a rod holder costs. If it's better than what we have, it goes in our boat and we adjust our price accordingly. We're striving to build the best boat, not as many boats as we can for as little money as we can.

Q: What are your top-selling models?
A: Our 36 and our 24 Bay. The 36 is not the first boat we designed, but it has definitely become the backbone of the company. In that size range there just isn't a boat out there that can run the way this boat does. It's a phenomenal running boat. Our bay boat is another staple to our line - we can't build them fast enough. We're nine months backlogged. We build one a week.

The 390 is Nagler's favorite Yellowfin model.Q: What is your personal favorite?
A: Probably the 39 we just came out with. It's everything the 36 is and more. The fuel economy is not going to be the same as the 36, but the ability to run in big seas fast is invaluable. We built it off our 42 platform but designed its layout and fishability like the 36's. It's an 11-1/2 foot beam, 70-plus-mph boat. It's a big boat, and it hauls butt. It's a lot of fun, and it just eats the ocean.

Q: How did you wind up building and designing boats?
A: I started my working career in the restaurant business, building restaurants for chains. I was up in North Carolina and didn't like the weather and didn't care for the area. I was into the offshore racing scene. I worked with race teams and moved back here to get back in the boating business. I worked for this guy rigging boats part time on the side. With my college background, I ended up taking over a portion of his company and building flats boats. He built some archaic stuff. With my design and ideas and fishing and racing background, I felt that I could make a better mousetrap, and I branched off and started Back Country Powerboats. I started that basically from scratch and introduced my first boat at the Miami Boat Show back in 1993. I built up the company and sold it to Champion, then I started Yellowfin.

Q: Did you form Yellowfin immediately after selling Back Country to Champion?
A: I stayed with Champion for a year, but the writing was on the wall. I was only 28 years old. You have to be able to make money building boats, and the go-fast market is definitely prone to peaks and valleys. The fishboat market is a little more stable. For the guys who fish, it's pleasure, but it's also habit-forming. The guys who are hard-core fishermen are always going to fish, and the guys with money who hard-core fish are always going to buy boats, regardless of what the economy is doing. It's their escape from the real world. A lot of go-fast guys were building fishing boats. They were taking their narrow-beamed hulls and sticking center consoles in them and calling them fishboats. They really didn't know how to design bait wells and the [deck] layouts weren't the greatest. But they were able to sell more boats that way. We said, Let's design a fishing boat first and take our racing background and knowledge and make it go fast.

Q: Was it difficult to design and build a fast boat that was also a stable, safe platform for fishing?
A: There's a misconception about beam. People think more beam creates more stability. Well, you can have a narrow-chine boat with real wide rubrail-to-rubrail numbers and a big beam, and it still might rock and not be stable. We design our boats with pretty wide chine-to-chine widths, compared to other boats out there in the same size range. That creates the stability at rest when you're fishing. We've been able to come up with a wide-chine boat that goes fast. In the old days, the narrower the boat, the faster it went was the premise. With reduced surface area, the boat is going to go faster. Well, you can go with wide chines, introduce air with steps, create a padded bottom boat and design elements into the bottom that will overcome the width of the boat to make it go faster. We were pretty successful at that right out of the box.

Q: Did your offshore racing experience influence your Yellowfin boats and how they are designed and built?
A: Yes. The information we learned on the racecourse has had a direct influence in the speed and performance of our boats. Running boats at over 100 mph in the ocean also teaches you about the structural integrity that is required to push a boat to its maximum potential.

Q: Do you hire naval architects or other outside help, or do you design everything in-house?
A: Everything is in-house. We have our own plug shop. Our design skills come from real-world experience. You can take a kid and send him to the Webb Institute [in New York] or another school, but if he doesn't have any real-world experience or practical experience on the water, then he could design the coolest thing and it may not perform well. The aesthetic lines of a boat - that's just the person's eye. Whether your boat is pretty or not is just how you style it. But knowing about getting the [center of gravity] right and balancing the boat when it's in the air coming off of a wave at speed is a different story. You have to know what you're doing.

The newest center console in the Yellowfiin fleet, the 390, can be powered with triple or quad outboards.Q: What are the materials and methods you use to build your boats?
A: *All of our boats are 100 percent vinylester resin, as compared to most companies that use a vinylester skin coat and back it up with a [general purpose] blend.* We learned from racing about the impacts and the loads and sandwich construction. &#8230; When you're building a fishboat, you're trying to build a boat that will have a 20-year lifespan, so you build them with more glass; a little more structural integrity is built into the boat. A fishboat going 60 mph in 4- to 6-footers is actually taking more load than a raceboat at 80 mph going in the same sea because the raceboat is taking short, quick impacts over the top of the waves. A fishboat is going ka-boom ka-boom; it's falling and hitting a lot harder.

Q: You build your smaller boats with resin infusion. Why are the boats more than 24 feet hand-laid?
A: We would love to infuse everything. When you get into the bigger boats, the problem with resin infusion is they haven't developed a resin that can really control the heat transfer in gelcoated boats. The overlapping fiberglass areas of larger boats will show signs of heat. If you're painting, you fair the overlapping areas and paint it. With a gelcoated boat, you're building up so many laminates and you have so many overlaps that when the resin gets sucked in there and starts to cure, the temperature increases dramatically. That creates cosmetic issues when it comes out of the mold - heat buildup basically, and the heat buildup will be in the chines and the strakes and wherever you overlap. If every part of your boat is coming out of the mold distorted because of the heat and you have to go refair it and paint it, that creates an extra expense. You don't have to touch a hand-laid boat that comes out of the mold. With smaller boats like bay boats, you don't have a ton of overlapping areas because it doesn't take the loads that an offshore boat does, so the heat issue and cosmetic issues are not issues.

Q: What are the benefits of building with resin infusion?

A: It's by far a better way to build a boat. It takes a lot of human error out of the build process. The biggest benefit of infusing, outside of the quality of product, is the human factor - it's so much better for your employees. They're not working in the resin all day, every day. You skin it out and everything is going in dry. And you're loading the resin into a bucket and turning on a switch, so you're basically working with a clipboard monitoring what you're doing. It takes less time. We can build an infused boat quicker than we can if we hand-lay it. The labor load changes. Let's say it takes five guys to build the hull in hand-laid sandwich construction. We can take those same five guys that day, have them skin the boat out and then break it down to three guys for the next two days and infuse the boat. And then we can take the other two guys and put them somewhere else. It's more efficient.

Q: Can you name some designers or builders you admire?
A: I admire Michael Peters and Steve French. Mike Peters, more than anybody, has influenced me in the short career that I have had here. His styling is second to none. His work is beautiful. He built raceboats. He was ahead of his era; he is the one who brought the catamaran into the world of offshore racing, for the most part. Cougar - the James Beard-Clive Curtis Cougar catamarans - was before him, but Peters refined it and really changed the game. Some of his big boats are absolutely beautiful. He has done some special projects that were just off the hook.

Q: Your boats are good-looking. How important is that aesthetic appeal?

A: You can build the fastest car, but if it's not pretty, then it's not going to sell. It has to capture the person's eye as he is walking by. He has to say, "Wow, that's cool. Let me go check it out." If it's shaped like a box or a framing carpenter designed it, you will sell some, but you're not going to capture the essence of what the design is all about. We try to blend our style and what we feel is appealing to the eye. I like Carolina flare. I like sweeping, flowing sheer lines. I am not a broken-sheer guy. &#8230; There are guys who love broken sheers and don't like sweeping sheers, and they're just not going to buy our boat. And that's OK.

Q: Are boaters looking for different characteristics and qualities than 10 years ago?
A: Most people are paying much more attention to fuel economy. Even the guys who the money doesn't matter to are paying attention to fuel. Ninety percent of our customers pay cash, so if you can come in and write a check for $200,000-plus on a boat, you're typically not worried about fuel. But they do ask the question: "What can I expect for fuel burn?" &#8230; From a fishability standpoint, not much has changed. Bait well design and technology has improved, and we have always been at the forefront of that.

Q: Do you have any advice for consumers looking to buy a fishing boat?
A: *There's always going to be an inherent difference between a production boat and a semicustom or custom boat. There is always going to be a quality difference. If money is not a factor, a guy is going to look at what fits his needs first. What am I using the boat for? This is what we tell the guys who come in here. If they say, "I am looking at this boat, this boat and this boat," we advise them to go and ride in each one of those boats. Try to pick a day when it's a little windy and choppy. &#8230; maybe the seas are 3 foot and the wind is 20 mph. Then you can make your decision from that. That type of comparison will quickly weed out the boats that are not up to snuff. When you really start breaking it down and looking at the systems and the way boats are designed and the way they're built and the way they ride and the fuel economy, the cream rises to the top. And when you get up there, you'll find only a small percentage of boats.*

This article originally appeared in the March 2012 issue.

_As a result, the order backlog for a YF 21 or 24 is about 40 weeks. I know Texas Sportfishing Yacht Sales has pre-paid YF for future build slots, so the wait time will be less with them. Call Jason Nolan or Chris Crocker. PM me for their cell #s._


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## ReelWork (May 21, 2004)

That's a nice read... Thanks!


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## whistlingdixie (Jul 28, 2008)

It all starts with the materials used. A lot of guys look at a Nautic star, blue wave, sea fox, etc etc and think well this boat cost 30k why does the same size boat cost twice that? There are a lot of different types of composites and if you want the best composite it will cost you money. Different grades of stainless steel, different grades of wire, attention to detail, resin, glass, etc etc. It is like building a back patio out of pine vs cedar.


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## Stuart (May 21, 2004)

How about Chittum Skiffs? 18 foot poling skiff, hull weight 400 pounds, 90 horse outboard, $70k plus. And I'd buy one in a heart beat if I had that kind of money to spend on a boat.


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## battleredtexan (May 6, 2012)

Young boats out of Florida do it for me.
Both the 20 and the 24.
No details overlooked.
Bring your money though.....
______


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## Stuart (May 21, 2004)

battleredtexan said:


> Young boats out of Florida do it for me.
> Both the 20 and the 24.
> No details overlooked.
> Bring your money though.....
> ______


My buddy bought a new 24 last fall, 300 Suzi and all the bells and whistles. It's a nice ride for sure.


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## Jolly Roger (May 21, 2004)

battleredtexan said:


> Young boats out of Florida do it for me.
> Both the 20 and the 24.
> No details overlooked.
> Bring your money though.....
> ...


love young's 24

when I get older and can not take offshore fishing any longer that will be the boat I have. I prefer it over a yellowfin.


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## battleredtexan (May 6, 2012)

Stuart said:


> My buddy bought a new 24 last fall, 300 Suzi and all the bells and whistles. It's a nice ride for sure.


You should post some pics if you can.
Young Boats are works of art (IMO) and you don't see them here very often.


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## sargentmajor (Sep 13, 2012)

All to catch a fish or is it just vanity? Ecclesiastes says it all.


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## Stuart (May 21, 2004)

battleredtexan said:


> You should post some pics if you can.
> Young Boats are works of art (IMO) and you don't see them here very often.


I don't think he'd mind. I might have some better ones at work.



















Coming in through Freeport jetties.


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## Jolly Roger (May 21, 2004)

sargentmajor said:


> All to catch a fish or is it just vanity? Ecclesiastes says it all.


 then you should have no pleasure boat at all.

Nothing like the words of the worker. Forgive me if I know of his views well. He is of my favorites and I repeat him often. Some of them I live by. But I have a couple of boats, and a big truck ,fast cars, fun stuff overall.... so can not say I follow him to the word.

One of the best
Ecclesiastes 11:4-5
"If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done"


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## skeeter77346 (Jan 13, 2006)

The Young family does make a quality product from everything I have heard and seen posted. Loyal customers, no doubt. Good for them.

The OP asked about YF.

So pick the ride you like. No problem. Lot's of choices out there.

Buuuttt, since you weighed in ... let's have some fun, OK?

Really? Bueller? Really?






Seriously, IMO, the Youngs do not have a lot of deck space and are not known for speed. I looked at them and passed on them when I got my YF21. Clunky looking decks and console layouts to me, but to each his own. AKA 'lead sled' as in S-L-O-W. Not to mention the hooked nose. But maybe you like that look.

Btw, Who does splatter coat in high end boats? So what's up with that Young console shot? I am truly confused by what impressed you guys. 

Had to mess with you guys - Have fun out there and be safe.


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## battleredtexan (May 6, 2012)

Yes, this is a Yellowfin thread and I didn't mean to hijack.
Your boat is stunning.

Yellowfin is probably the cream of the crop when it comes to fit, finish, and performance. (at least for v hulls)
Young is not far behind though and personally, I love their look.

I would love to be able to make a choice between them.......for now, I guess I'll have to "make do" with my Bluewave...... *sigh*


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## Slightly Dangerous (May 21, 2004)

I was considering a YF last year but a duck hunt made me change my mind. One of the guys on the hunt was a YF dealer in a major market. He also sells Contender and quite a few other brands. To make a long story short he said YF was a decent boat but nowhere near what they cost. He backed that up with some real horror stories. He knew I could buy a YF but he intentionally moved me away from them, and not to a more expensive boat.

Could have been the good whiskey but I've never known a dealer that would let good liquor get in the way of a sale. I still like the looks of them though. In the end I decided to stick with what I have and see if there is any reason to even have an offshore boat after NMFS gets through with us.


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## Trim-Happy (May 21, 2012)

every brand has horror stories no matter who it is. but when the best have it every one will be known.


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## skeeter77346 (Jan 13, 2006)

basscat114 said:


> every brand has horror stories no matter who it is. but when the best have it every one will be known.


Good point there basscat. My daughter has a sweet 3 series BMW that would randomly shut down. 3 shop trips later the entire fiber optic system that controlled motor functions was replaced. PITA. But BMW did fix it, finally.

Anything made by man will have a defect somewhere. Some are whoppers and others are small. How we deal with the inevitable screw up is key and differentiates us from 'the other guys'. We can look at our own businesses and know that is true.

AND, Slightly Dangerous we all know about that evil demon whiskey  ... 
Well, it always makes us smarter, right after we become invisible and bullet proof.

Slightly Dangerous is spot on the the NMFS debacle.

I know lots of boat 'dealers' (but not all dealers) who sadly do not know their a z z from third base about what they are selling. Talk to someone who has lots of seat time in whatever you are considering and who has been through the factory from start to finish. Test ride your short list when you get serious. Then make your call.

Battered Texan is a good sport - those BWs are great rides.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Nov 4, 2011)

Yellowfins are amazing, went on a trip to the Chandeleur Islands and then offshore on the same day and covered about 280 miles in one day on 76 gallons of gas. Lots of island hopping and hauling arse! Beautiful boats, amazing storage, all around awesome ride, felt like the same feeling you get in a high end sports car but getting to fish at the same time. Yeah they are not cheap but you get what you pay for right?

http://www.fishingscout.com/anglers/SmackDaddy


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## FishAfrica (Jan 23, 2010)

Yep the Yellowfin 24 is sweet, I also like the Contender 25 Bay-both way out of my price range!. How does Contenders fit and finish compare to the Yellowfin?


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## skeeter77346 (Jan 13, 2006)

FishAfrica said:


> Yep the Yellowfin 24 is sweet, I also like the Contender 25 Bay-both way out of my price range!. How does Contenders fit and finish compare to the Yellowfin?


Crawled all over one, before my dealer dropped Contender.

I like the running surface on the 25 Contender bay, but the rest left me flat. The fit and finish is decent, but not even close to YF if you did a side by side inspection. In fairness it was boat #1 from Contender, so maybe they have improved.


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## bigfishtx (Jul 17, 2007)

I remember about three years ago Ronnies Marine in Aransas Pass had one for sale, and they were really trying to get rid of it. 24' with a Yamaha 250. I looked at it and it was beautiful, I could have bought it for less than $40,000. I didn't bite on it because we enjoy the flats and it is def an open water boat.
Someone down in that area got a really great buy.


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## Mt. Houston Marine (Jun 15, 2011)

*Yellowfin wireing is un-freaking believable !!!!!*

*OMG !!!! Did I just say that...*

*Danny the Pathfinder salesman.*

*I don't mind complimenting quality any time.:cheers:*


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## koyhoward (Jan 8, 2007)

The wiring on a Yellowfin is really incredible. I have a Kenner Vision and the wiring scheme, or lack of one, is on a different planet. Looks like a monkey was turned loose with tie wraps under my console!


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## Poon Chaser (Aug 22, 2006)

I have fished out of 2 yellowfin 24 bay's and the fit and finish is obvious but for me.... its the ride. That boat sits level in the water and feels like your floating on cotton in most bay condidtions. well designed hull


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## fishn123 (Sep 16, 2008)

Top tier boats all share that well built feel, use of quality materials, etc. but its the whole package of customer service, options, and brand loyality that makes the sale.
I looked at the 24 Yellowfin long and hard, also Andros, Threadfin and others, but finally came back to the Young 24 myself, it just worked for me. You can't go wrong with any of this caliber of boats.


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## CoastalOutfitters (Aug 20, 2004)

another head scratcher

http://www.blackwoodboats.com/


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## Kyle 1974 (May 10, 2006)

I think I would need prozac if I was running a $100,000 bay boat in Baffin. Rocks don't care how much your boat costs.


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## Im Headed South (Jun 28, 2006)

Another one in that class, Contender 25 Bay. Check out the ride in the snoting conditions around the 3 min mark, pretty sure it'd hold it's on in your competition Kyle lol.






I've seen these new with Standard Equipment and a Offshore 300 Yamaha 4 Stroke for mid 60's which seem like a pretty good deal. Not crazy about the deck layout at all though but there's also not a 40 week back up like on the YF's either.


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## cgd (Aug 8, 2012)

What's the damage $ on the blackwood boat. That thing is bad ***.


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## goodwood (Mar 30, 2009)

I think Carolina flares look good too.

That kevlar construction might be similar to what Shearwater does and possibly part of the higher production cost.

So the Yellowfin isn't the fastest or shallowest but fishes and runs about the best?


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## skeeter77346 (Jan 13, 2006)

goodwood said:


> I think Carolina flares look good too.
> 
> That kevlar construction might be similar to what Shearwater does and possibly part of the higher production cost.
> 
> So the Yellowfin isn't the fastest or shallowest but fishes and runs about the best?


Goodwood, 'Best' if relative to what you do and how you like to fish. Some people like really high sides and bow rails - others do not. I tell people the key is to find a rig that does 90% of what YOU need it to do really well - that is within your budget, etc. The other 10% of the time you just need to pick your days, tides, etc.

But IMO, SW and YF are not comparable in any way - other than they float.

I owed 3 SWs (2006, 2007, 2011) previous to my 2 YFs (2011, 2013), so I can weigh in on this. 2 of my 3 SWs had serious problems that ranged from wiring and plumbing flaws (just a rigging nightmare) to multiple stress cracks running the length of the rod boxes and in nearly every hard 90 in the cockpit and the cockpit floor. SW factory service rounds to ZERO and I was talking to Bob A - the owner of SW. In fairness, I did like the look and the way they ran in most conditions - I had 3 right? each time thinking OK, OK, this 'new one' will be better. That is my personal experience as a former 3x SW owner. Maybe it was just my bad luck? I have several buddies who have had similar issues.

I looked around and got my first YF in 2011. Excellent 10/10 customer service, if and when you might need it. YF actually responds to emails and cell phone calls and texts very timely on any question that I may have had on electronics 'how tos' to dash layouts to Gemlux latch and hardware options. Hard to describe how good that service actually is - and I am a fairly picky customer.

Again, just my view and experience.


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## TroutNOut (Feb 9, 2010)

*Yf or sw*

Just dont rag on the 07 model....LOL. Ill jump in on this thread just for giggles. Shearwater customer service 0/10............... I repeat 0/10................... They did warranty my crack after weeks of effort. Ive been trying to buy some rubbers and Sleeves for my trailer rails for over a month. No freaking luck.... Did finally talk to a guy that said he would take care of it next day, that was a week ago. Anyway... Off the soapbox.... YF21 nice boat, nice wiring. rides good, sit down thing was kinda weird for me. Never been in the 24???????? Hmmmm. Todd help me out on that............................. SW nice rig but a notch under the YF for sure.:help:SCB very nice rig. I was at Erics shop a few years back and they are very nice built rigs. Different kind of boat than the YF but same kind of care taken when built..... But at the end of the day im not a guide or a Majek or Haynie owner so I dont really know if my opinion counts.....lol... But all being said you pay what you get for and I think the YF is a higher quality rig compared to other boats.


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## CoastalOutfitters (Aug 20, 2004)

cgd said:


> What's the damage $ on the blackwood boat. That thing is bad ***.


best I remember it was $75K+ rigged w a single motor


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## skeeter77346 (Jan 13, 2006)

TroutNOut said:


> Just dont rag on the 07 model....LOL. Ill jump in on this thread just for giggles. Shearwater customer service 0/10............... I repeat 0/10................... They did warranty my crack after weeks of effort. Ive been trying to buy some rubbers and Sleeves for my trailer rails for over a month. No freaking luck.... Did finally talk to a guy that said he would take care of it next day, that was a week ago. Anyway... Off the soapbox.... YF21 nice boat, nice wiring. rides good, sit down thing was kinda weird for me. Never been in the 24???????? Hmmmm. Todd help me out on that............................. SW nice rig but a notch under the YF for sure.:help:SCB very nice rig. I was at Erics shop a few years back and they are very nice built rigs. Different kind of boat than the YF but same kind of care taken when built..... But at the end of the day im not a guide or a Majek or Haynie owner so I dont really know if my opinion counts.....lol... But all being said you pay what you get for and I think the YF is a higher quality rig compared to other boats.


Brandon, The 2007 was the best of the 3 SWs by a very large margin. The other 2 were just a mess.

The sit down rigs are a love/hate deal for some. Sitting low vs standing and having better sight lines from the helm can be an issue. The guys with seat time in bass rigs have no problem. The 21 was a real hoot to run. The YF24 is 24 ft 10 inches, so 3ft 1 inch longer and 9 inches wider than the 21. Next time I head to Sabine I will ping you. I am in Grand Isle, LA now and have been getting out on some windy days chasing the reds and trout. Speckled trout fish tacos today ... 

If you are talking to Eric, he will definitely take care of you and knows his stuff, no doubt. Great guy, even prop testing with guys who are running brand X, Y, or Z.


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