Know anything about Raider Boats?

[DLM]

At the Sportsmans show the other day the Raider boat display caught my eye. Actually, every boat in the building caught my eye. I had not seen a Raider before and since it was close to closing time and a small crowd there was nobody in the booth to talk to. They look like a strong, no frills, no nonsense type of boat that is made in Coleville,WA.

Does anyone know anything or have experience with these boats? I thought I knew exactly what I wanted until I saw these.

 

[SuperD]

A dealer in my neighborhood was carrying them for a couple of years. They looked like a nice boat. I didn't look at the specs. Did you grab a brochure? What was wall and floor thickness? David, lots of boats look nice and lots of boats are built much stronger than what we'll ever put them through. The key is getting the right model regardless of the maker. One of the biggest mistake I've seen my friends make in buying a new boat over the last few years is buying a boat with too shallow of gunnel and taking the motor that is sitting on the boat when they see it. ALWAYS buy the next larger size motor and always get the deepest gunnels in the length you are targeting.

 

[kokanee-lou]

At the Sportsmans show the other day the Raider boat display caught my eye. Actually, every boat in the building caught my eye. I had not seen a Raider before and since it was close to closing time and a small crowd there was nobody in the booth to talk to. They look like a strong, no frills, no nonsense type of boat that is made in Coleville,WA.

Does anyone know anything or have experience with these boats? I thought I knew exactly what I wanted until I saw these.

A couple years ago I bought a small Hewes aluminum boat. While researching to date the boat, I found out it was a 1976 Hewescraft built in Colville, WA. I wonder if there is a connection?

 

[Fallriverguy]

I have a friend that has a 22' hard top that is used mostly in the ocean. He has never complained about and it seems to be a good boat.

 

[DLM]

A dealer in my neighborhood was carrying them for a couple of years. They looked like a nice boat. I didn't look at the specs. Did you grab a brochure? What was wall and floor thickness? David, lots of boats look nice and lots of boats are built much stronger than what we'll ever put them through. The key is getting the right model regardless of the maker. One of the biggest mistake I've seen my friends make in buying a new boat over the last few years is buying a boat with too shallow of gunnel and taking the motor that is sitting on the boat when they see it. ALWAYS buy the next larger size motor and always get the deepest gunnels in the length you are targeting.

Wall is .125 and bottom is .190.
Side depth is 30-31 on the models I would be interested in. I learned my lesson already on motor size, bigger is better in this case.

 

[DLM]

A couple years ago I bought a small Hewes aluminum boat. While researching to date the boat, I found out it was a 1976 Hewescraft built in Colville, WA. I wonder if there is a connection?

As I understand it the guy that started Raider used to be an engineer or something at Hewes. The boats are very similar with the Raider running a little less $$.

 

[SuperD]

Wall is .125 and bottom is .190.

Not bad but I'd classify as a medium duty boat. Does info on the hull say anything about reverse chines? For stability sake, you'll want a hull with a good reverse chine design.

 

[DLM]

Not bad but I'd classify as a medium duty boat. Does info on the hull say anything about reverse chines? For stability sake, you'll want a hull with a good reverse chine design.

The brochure does not address this nor do I see anything on their website. I do know from other sources that they run two strakes on each side.

I am still pretty firm on getting a Boulton, it's just the Raider caught my eye and I wanted to know more.