I have a 2012 Alumacraft navigator. This spring it started to take in water. First thought it was a bad rivet. So I put boat on trailer and filled it with water. Then I crawled under it and found water streaming out of a paint bubble on the flat surface of the hull. No rivet problem. Upon further inspection found a number of paint bubble on the hull but only one was leaking. Dealer conferred with Alumacraft and they agreed to a temporary fix by applying silicon to the leaking bubble. Also on a number of other paint bubbles. In October my boat will be sent to Alumacraft for their inspection and determine how to fix it permanently. Alumacraft and the dealer both said they have never seen or heard of this problem. Has anyone else had this problem? Is it outrageous to expect them to present a deal for a new boat? The more I think about this the more I do not want a boat with a leak because of a material flaw. Thoughts???
Boats & Motors
leaking alumacraft
I’ve owned 11 Alumicraft boats throughout the years. V hulls and Jon Boats. No leakers! My brother in law still has his 50? Year old 14 footer, he loves it. My neighbor owned 2 TARGAS, both leaked! Bottom line is that All makes have occasional flaws, like automobiles and women. CARPIO
In my many years of boat ownership, I have found that when a problem arises the dealer can make a huge difference. The worst was a Lund/Honda dealer from Racine. After two years Honda sent me to Princeton. The Lund boat had problems too, but they were all dealer related.
The second worst one was a Alumacraft/Yamaha dealer from Lodi. I wound up taking that rig to a different dealer too.
All boats will normally have some issues over time, it’s the dealer support that really makes a difference in the end.
I had an 80s Alumacrap boat with multiple leaks in between the ribs. Local repair shop said it's from poor manufacturing process of leaving steel rivet posts from aluminum rivets laying in boat, then spraying foam flotation over them. Galvanic corrosion.....
My wish was that Alumacraft would create some sort of deal with me for another boat. Unfortunately they haven't expressed any interest in making this situation right. They have done quite the job of keeping me uninformed and in the dark. I have given crawlerharness's advise much thought as I certainly do not want to send this boat's problems on to another owner. No matter which direction I go I suffer the financial loss on my boat. So this weekend I will put the boat in the water to see if all is OK. After dealing with this situation for 18 months I am very frustrated with Alumacraft. I wish that the dealership would have been more aggressive with Alumacraft to get this customer's satisfaction.
Today I picked my Alumacraft up at the local dealer. The boat was sent back to the factory in mid August to fix a second leak. First leak was last season and they attributed it to mouse urine. So today I asked the service manager three questions. Where was the leak? What caused the leak? How was the leak fixed? He had no answers for those questions because Alumacraft gave him absolutely no feed back. I told him that is terrible customer service from Alumacraft. He apologized. I do not believe that mouse urine caused the leaks and I told the manager this again. I believe that this leaking problem has to do with an electrical malfunction. This morning I sent Alumacraft customer service department an email asking them the same three questions.
Long story short Alumacraft attributed my leaking boat to mouse urine. They had my boat from October 2018 to April 2019. They said it was fixed but refused to allow me to see the damage. I'm just not buying the urine corroding the double hull. Fast forward to this summer and my boat is still leaking again. All systems in my boat were working before Alumacraft had it for the winter. Now my bilge pump doesn't work, my speedometer, rpm gauge, gas gauge only work 50% of the time, my dash board lights don't work and my interior lights don't work. Tomorrow I will be taking it into my Alumacraft dealer for repairs. Once fixed I will sell my 2012 Navigator and will be fishing out of a different boat next season. It will NOT be a Alumacraft.
I have the same problem with a 2014 Trophy. The boat is now with Alumacraft. They are replacing the transom but no decision on the rest of the boat that has corrosion all along the water line and everything above deck. Traced to copper in the treated wood on the boat. Contact me if you have a similar problem. [email protected]
985-502-8088
Bob Hurst
The leaking Alumacraft story has come to an end. Things did not go as I wished but I should be getting my boat back shortly. Alumacraft agreed to fix the leaks with me being responsible for labor charges. I contacted my insurance company. An adjuster visited Alumacraft and within two weeks I had a check covering the labor costs and a little money left over. I asked Alumacraft if I could come to their plant to view the damages that the mice caused. That request was denied. The adjuster took a couple of picks that didn't really show much but he did feel they're definitely was mouse activity in the boat. I still have a problem believing all the corrosion/leaks were caused by mouse urine. I still don't understand why the whole transom needed to be replaced. With all, as they say, mouse activity why weren't any wires damaged? So I guess lesson learned. I have already bought more mouse traps, a couple of packages of moth balls and some electronic anti mouse plugin devices. Finally, being unable to personally view my boat, I'm just not confident about what really has happened.
