Petecraft Fast Fisher 17 Open/Sports

[shanook]

looks like ur mind is set kev...........

[camkev]

@ Shanook..No my mind is not set yet,i liked the marinello fisherman as well!!!The more i see the more it's difficult to choose.

@Skip...When we were doing 39 miles an hour it was with full trottle and about 5800 rpm,regaring the prop i think they were running a 17!!

[Perla 165]

kev inti dw.. li jogbok ixtrih man hehee....

[benri]

Kev I wish I could lend you mine for a sea trial but as shanook told you it's on the hard now. Unfortunately I cannot give you an unbiased opinion as I'm totally satisfied with the set-up I chose and I never tried out a petecraft. Also, mine is the fisherman 19 version with a suzuki 140 while you're looking at something smaller which could perform differently.
All I can tell you about the shape of the hull is that with my hull I can keep the boat on a good plain with 4-5 people as slow as 13 knots. When fishing, you're not going to use just high speeds (which the Marinello is very capable of) but also slow speeds. In fact I got a higher pitched prop to reduce revs and add torque. Don't forget to try the hull at slow trolling speeds too and if possible try to check that consumption too. What I can vouch for is the service that Tony and Daniel of Hi-tec give! To give you an example, when I bought my boat the trailer was back heavy and almost toppled to the rear if I was not careful. I told them about the fault and Hi-Tec agreed that the trailer needs to be modified with the axle shifted backwards. To do this, the welding needed to be cut and then re-welded. They told me to leave the boat on it and when I eventually launch again the year after, they would launch the boat for me and take the trailer for modifications. A year after that's exactly what they did, and guess what. The same day they took the trailer, to my great surprise Daniel phoned me in the afternoon and told me that it was ready. I called for it, and guess what?.... They didn't modify the trailer so as not to ruin the galvanising by welding, but they changed and gave me a whole new front part (as the trailer is split in two) to make the trailer longer! All this a year after I bought the boat! Not only that, when I hooked the trailer to my car, the wire for the lights was short as the trailer was now longer and to my astonishment, Daniel even gave me an extension to the wire free of charge!!!!
When spending this considerable amount of money, you want to keep your mind at rest that should anything crop up, you have someone reliable to turn to and with Tony's experience in boat building, rest assured that they will not import any crappy hulls!
I'd like other people with a marinello to give you their feedback too as I'm sure mine is not a one-off case!

[camkev]

Tks benri,i have to go and check the garage cause the boat is very wide 2.3 metres.I liked the boat very muc and the price is cheaper then the petercraft,but i didnt decide yet and i think it's going to be hard to choose.My first 3 choices are 1st petercraft,2nd marinello fishermen 17 and 3rd raniera voyager 17...but still have to go and see the kaptan boats and the northstar for sure...possibly more...and it's fun going to shops to see boats!!

[skip]

I had liked the Ranieri as a sports boat but didn't think it was suitable for fishing and if memory serves me well has a very low freeboard.

[Shaftbomb]

Camkev I don't know you personally but from what you are writing on the forum you seem to want a boat for fishing and a go around the islands with friends/family.  Like Skip wrote, a great majority of foreign built boats (without mentioning names) seem to be either built/designed for fishing or as a completely sport boat.  In my opinion Maltese built boats seem to combine sport fishing into one hull design and that's why sometimes in one ear you hear positive reviews on them and on the other hand you hear negative reviews.  Also keep in mind that if you buy a maltese boat you can see it being built step by step with more options for custom options and piece of mind.  Anyway, just my 1 euro cent view.....