Sea Shea RIBs?

[markpj23]

Wondering if anyone has experience with this brand of RIB. Seems to be very little in the way of reviews on-line and the Amazon page has zero reviews.
Local craigslist has ad for 12' unit less than 6k w/o engine.

I love a good bargain as well as anyone but this has some warning flags... anyone with an experience to share?

 

[Bmarler]

They look good on the website, hypalon tubes, choice of aluminum or fiberglass depending on model.
Are they a new company? Maybe a small manufacturer with low output and overhead?
I wonder what the delivery time is on new orders.

 

[BandB]

I wouldn't trust them at all based on the small amount of information I was able to quickly gather.

Go to their website, https://seasheaboats.com/index.htm, beautiful building lined by Rib's and Suzuki signs and really looks first class. Just doesn't appear to exist. Go to the address tied to the phone number and company name and you get Victory Towing and Recovery and then Eastern Auto Towing and Transport and some scary reviews. The fact is anyone can order the parts of ribs and put them together. Notice they say 90 days delivery. Perhaps the RIB is decent, I don't know, good luck getting warranty service though.

I would want to know far more about their operation and see it physically or have photos of it before going further. I did not find a physical address on their website, had to find it elsewhere. I always take that as a negative.

Too many dependable vendors.

 

[markpj23]

Took A Risk - So Far So Good!

After much deliberation and a visit to actually see one of these RIBs I took a chance and bought a 12ft RIB for the bargain price of $5500.

It's clearly a Chinese copy of a Highfield model. Decent looking aluminum welds, fairly well thought out design features and 1 week after purchase the tubes are still inflated These are actually 2020 model year units that went unsold, and the 'warranty' expired when I loaded it on my trailer.

It's a definite DIY project, kinda like a marine Ikea project w/o the instruction sheet. Has been pretty easy so far - I've rigged outboards & steering systems before. The hard part was actually finding an outboard motor for the thing. I called at least a dozen dealers looking for a 30hp remote control long shaft - nothing. Worst part is that they have NO idea when they will receive new inventory. Finally got lucky with a local dealer who got a 'surprise' Tohatsu delivery this week, and as a bonus it's white!

So worst case for me will be I end up swapping my new motor onto a different RIB if this one turns into a disaster. Doesn't seem to be a real risk for now anyway.

My all-in cost will be less than half of the quoted price for an equivalent Highfield. Wish me luck....


Wish I could figure out how to get these photos right side up....

 

[markpj23]

Rotated in a photo editor...

 

[markpj23]

Finally

After a few supply chain delays - no one had a white 30HP remote control outboard - we finally got our dink on the water.


So far I'm pleased with our 'bargain boat.' The tubes seem to be well made and we've had no issues. It was a pain running cables beneath the floor as the channels are apparently not contiguous - lots of snag points. The steering cable that came with the boat was about 4 inches too short to be useful, so we had to get a new one. The bimini top material is cheap crap but will be usable until it disintegrates. Cushions have started to show sun damage already, so new upholstery is in our future.


Very few things in boating end up costing less than expected. We're all in at $12k on a new hypalon dink. So far we have at the very least gotten our money's worth.

 

[HeadedToTexas]

Nice! What does it weigh as shown above?

SeaShea also makes a 360 model, but no weights are listed.

 

[markpj23]

Nice! What does it weigh as shown above?

I'm at just over 430 lbs fully rigged with a Tohatsu 30 long shaft.

FWIW I also looked at the 360 model but decided it was too small for me. For the reservations I had going in to this purchase - and there were a few lol - it turned out that the seller, John Shea, was a stand-up guy who helped resolve an issue with registration to my complete satisfaction.

 

[HeadedToTexas]

That's encouraging. Thanks 23.