Anybody have experience with inflatable jet boat?
Wondering if anyone has real world experience with the solar and strihz jet boats? Looks like they take them some crazy places from the videos on YouTube. Looking for a boat that can run skinny and shallow water and get some places for Hunting and exploring
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I am also interested in this topic. One quick one for me. If you take the setup out fishing on a lake is it rough? My wife gets sick quite easily and wanted to see if this may be an option. Not worried about it on the River as it is much smoother than a lake for the most part.
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I ran one of the local rivers late last August and through to November when there was very little water in it and I was one of the only boats on it. I did see other boats but never 2 days in a row and one guy would have spent a few bucks replacing Teflon after following me for a ways… I sold my 380 in the fall after hitting/scraping bottom a few hundred times and the hull was still in excellent shape and it didn’t have the heavy-duty bottom on it. I have a new 420 Solar Expedition with all the extras for this year. |
No long term experience, but a guy gave me a much needed lift across higher river in a little zodiac with a 15 horse jet drive on it a number of years ago. Other than a quick stop at the scout hall to clear the intake, I was impressed. It beat swimming!
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Thanks for the information and help. Have you looked at the Strizh boats? Seem very similar to the solar but with a wood floor? https://m.youtube.com/c/StrizhBoats/videos Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
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Also wondering if you can trailer these boats? Also wondering what size would be needed to pack 2 guys and some gear? The maximum weight capacity looks impressive but wondering about the issue when you get into the 40hp four strokes the engines weigh a lot and become a 2 man job to move them around Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
I have a Saturn inflatable boat. If your interested in one of them. It’s been on many fly in moose hunts. Can haul a two hunters. A moose. And gear.
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Reviving this thread
I know Riverside Marine in St. Albert started carrying the Solar boats.
Anyone know a dealership in western Canada that carries the Strihz boats? I believe I found one in Terrace, just wondering is there is an Alberta dealer. Smitty |
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Problem with most inflatables is the seats are not very comfortable for long periods of use and depending on the type of flooring you have to watch what you hit and how hard, but that is true of pretty much any boat.. |
Years back we used Metlzer and Zodiacs with a 35 HP jet.
Worked great. I’d say however you couldn’t horse around like doing tricks or jumping sandbars like in an aluminum boat. It’s very stable for going straight and weaving through boulder gardens when motoring upstream. Less so going downstream when not on step. We also had fun one day when we hit rebar sticking up off bottom but not above water and sunk it by shore. Some people have problem setting it up and getting floor boards in and lifting a heavy jet onto the transom. Also we had pre inflated and set up on the roof of the truck canopy and tied down. Once had it fly off. Found they were relatively easy to repair so long as holes were not too big. |
There is a new cat in town
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High jacking this thread to throw out there selling a 2022 420 solar and 25 merc jet, will post in the official buy/sell section. but can send me message if interested.
Boat has been amazing for the skinny back country stuff. Boated upper reddeer and berland rivers in the fall with couple inches of water in some sections. Boated through clearwater lake in wells grey to the end of azure lake and then up the azure river for quite a bit doing backcountry camping, google map it if unfamiliar, these boats definitely have the capability. Can load/unload the boat in areas where its tough to launch as can hand bomb it on/off the trailer. On lakes I do agree when it gets choppy its a chore getting from point A to B, very bouncy ride as the boat floats on top of the water. Never felt scared in it though as you cannot sink these. Only reason selling is my family and 2 dogs outgrew the physical size of the boat, will probably ditch the river systems and get a 17ish ft boat to lake fish comfortably. As awesome as these inflatables are there are negatives with them, cant comfortably troll when lake fishing. and its tough to row on faster moving rivers. Unless you got a rowing frame and legit rowing set up. Tried rowing down the upper reddeer and was tough lol with the current oar setup. Rowing lower berland wasnt too bad though or something like athabasca or nsr is doeable for sure. Some of my best memories were being out with a couple of friends floating down through edmonton on the NSR, on safer water could easily hold 6 adults. Seating for 4 but if you dont care and sit on the tubes its fine. Being an inflatable these boats are designed to be able to inflate and deflate to store but that depends on your motor set up. If you want true portability would have to look at a 2-stroke motor in the 25-30 hp range to be able to take on/off the boat easily. With my current set up with a 4-stroke 25 merc, weighting in around 160 lbs and the motor being physically bulky in size its tough to take on/off the boat easily and move around. So i just leave it on the boat in my garage for the winters. A lighter motor would be nice for portability but then suffer from lack of power/speed. I think the ideal set up would be a 420 solar with 30hp 2 stroke jet. In the future if i were to do it again I would look at a 470 with a 50hp ish motor. Just to boat around quicker and physically have a bigger boat. It all depends on what you want to do. If youre running super skinny water, anything where you can have only a few inches of water in certain sections these boats cant be beat. In the cases of running skinny water having a smaller motor is ideal incase you hit a rock, (which you will) and its not a huge amount of weight being thrown out of the water. Going up stream is fine, its going downstream thats the issue, in particular fast sharp turns where you have to maintain speed and cant see the boulders that are under an inch of water in fast moving water. Vezdehood or other similar poly intakes help for sure, with a bungie cord strapped to the motor to bring it back into place so you dont loose your speed/steering. Sorry for the verbal diarrhea, can answer any other specific questions if youre interested, not on here everyday but can check dms every few days. Ive been eyeing these boats ever since the russians put up grainy videos of solar boats running skinny water 10 years ago. I love the boat and would keep it if i had the room at my house. But with other toys and trailer have room for 1 boat and gonna upsize to a lake boat to keep the family happy. But who knows in a couple of years i might be back to looking at an inflatable again. You know how boys are... my wife laughs at how much i swap out cars and toys, she says atleast you havent needed to swap me out yet :) |
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