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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | I was wondering if anybody used or uses one of these boats. I am hoping to upgrade from my 1995 Sea Nymph BT 165 next year (pretty sure it's the roughest and wettest riding boat ever made in anything more than 1.5 footers). I don't have the money for a new boat, so I'm looking at the earlier versions in the early 2000's.
Curious to see what people thought of the boats with 60 hp tillers on them as far as speed, hole shot, cruising speed, rough water hadling, etc.
Would also like to know about the interior. Rod Locker layout, "cockpit" space, storage, and all that. One big concern is the cockpit space for tackle boxes, big net, cooler, etc. How does the open floor/cockpit space compair to say a 165 Alumacraft Navigator? I see the side tanks in the 1700 look pretty wide, how much does that cut into the open space on the floor? Is the rod locker located in one of the side tanks with the top entry, or is it built into the side of the boat?
It looks like these might be hard to come by. I have been looking around at boats for a while and have only ran across a couple of these. I will most likely end up with an Alumacraft Navigator or Crestliner Fish Hawk (both in 16 foot tiller models), but wanted to get some information on the 1700 esox models in case I happen to find one this coming spring.
I would appreciate anything you could tell me about these boats. Interested in pros and cons both. Thanks!
curleytail
Edited by curleytail 9/28/2007 10:55 AM
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| I owned a 2001 and loved it. Great ride, and fishability was awesome, you can put long rods in rod locker with ease. Storage under front deck is huge.
I plugged the large livewell and used it for hyper-dry storage. I used the short livewell for suckers, walleyes, pike, as a cooler etc.
For the size of the boat it fishes bigger than what it is. Will handle any nasty weather WI or most of MN will throw at you.
I did notice about a month ago over on the classifieds of walleyecentral that a guy in MN had a 99 or 2000 for sale for like $8,500. Looked like a clean boat. |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | Thanks for the reply curly. Sounds like these are nice boats, but they look few and far between on the for sale market. Looks like the one on Walleye central is gone already. I won't be able to look into boats until next spring anyway. Gotta try to save some money up over the fall and winter for a decent down payment.
Anybody else run one of these? Does anybody feel like the cockpit area (I don't know if you call it that on a tiller boat or not) is too small for everything a musky guy carries, or was there plenty of room to get around after a couple guys with tackle boxes and a cooler? I also do plenty of walleye fishing early in the year, but that doesn't usually fill the boat up too much with gear.
If anybody has sold one of these (preferably with a 60 hp 4 stroke), what have you sold it for?
curleytail |
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Posts: 5874
| Theedz has Mark's old boat, bought from WI Wade a couple years ago. I just fished with him last month, and the boat is really well laid out. Reminds me of my Rampages I had in the 90's. If you can find one, and it's in great shape, I'd snap it up. Otherwise, look into a later model 1700 Osprey tiller. |
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | Oh, I should have said something about the osprey models. From what I gather they have the same layout other than the rear deck. If that's the case I should be able to make a rear deck for one without too uch trouble. So I would be interested in the Osprey model too if I found one of them.
Just trying to gather some information for the future.
curleytail |
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Posts: 5874
| Yes, the Osprey's had a bit different layout. The newer boats are the same, with the Esox Deep V models coming with the rear deck extension. |
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| a buddy of mine is selling a nice tuffy tiller year 2000 in the classifieds on this site...check it out...great shape
http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/board/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=37...
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | Thanks for the heads up on that boat, but don't worry, I already found that one, lol. I can only get a boat up to 17 feet due to garage space. Also don't know if I will be able to afford quite that much this spring. I realize it's wishful thinking to hope a boat like this with a 4 stroke to be under $10,000, but you never know.
curleytail |
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Posts: 148
Location: Northwest Wi. | If you can wait Ill have a 2000- 1700GT Ospray / with a 50HP. 4-stroke Yamaha for sale at the begining of next month I got it new and really like it. I fish mainly for Muskies but also do the walleyes in spring. Im upgrading..Send me a PM. Under 10,000 Also has bowmount minnkota W/ Autopt.
Edited by pitch'n 10/2/2007 12:50 PM
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2000 era Tuffy deep v 1700T?