Jet Boat advice

[old rigger]

Rodney Bahner was one of the worst boat builders I've ever seen. His early stuff, like the one your looking at, was ok, nothing special. The smartest thing he ever did was to splash the Rogers bottom as the platform for his brand. But his later hulls from '84 on, the ones he was trying to build while in hiding and trying to keep his ass from getting blown away, were total, 100%, without doubt, the biggest pieces of crap ever set afloat, if they would indeed float.
I had the unfortunate pleasure of of being incharge of doing the repairs of his 'boats' while I was GM Advantage back in the day. The owner of Advantage was Rodneys best friend and when Bahner couldn't be found to do any warranty work, or to finish rigging a boat, or to finish carpeting a boat, or to finish doing anything to to his boats other than to grab the money from the customer, we had to do it. We had to deal with the monumentally pissed off owners who wanted to know why their brand new boat had no bulkheads in it and why the flimsy decks were cracking all to hell, or why the engine almost looked like it was a used that had been painted to look new and why did it have old manifolds on it, or why was my boat ordered with a JG Berk has an old C pump in it. Fuking nightmare from hell.
I wouldn't ride in a Bahner much less buy a used one. But that's just me.

[Xerophobic]

Rodney Bahner was one of the worst boat builders I've ever seen. His early stuff, like the one your looking at, was ok, nothing special. The smartest thing he ever did was to splash the Rogers bottom as the platform for his brand. But his later hulls from '84 on, the ones he was trying to build while in hiding and trying to keep his ass from getting blown away, were total, 100%, without doubt, the biggest pieces of crap ever set afloat, if they would indeed float.
I had the unfortunate pleasure of of being incharge of doing the repairs of his 'boats' while I was GM Advantage back in the day. The owner of Advantage was Rodneys best friend and when Bahner couldn't be found to do any warranty work, or to finish rigging a boat, or to finish carpeting a boat, or to finish doing anything to to his boats other than to grab the money from the customer, we had to do it. We had to deal with the monumentally pissed off owners who wanted to know why their brand new boat had no bulkheads in it and why the flimsy decks were cracking all to hell, or why the engine almost looked like it was a used that had been painted to look new and why did it have old manifolds on it, or why was my boat ordered with a JG Berk has an old C pump in it. Fuking nightmare from hell.
I wouldn't ride in a Bahner much less buy a used one. But that's just me.
tell us how you really feel!
(I have nothing useful to add, just found this post funny lol)
Cheers

[RetroBoats]

Oldrigger sent you a PM....
Did Bahner lay-up the boats himself or did he have someone else do it ?? What type boats did he build ??

[QuickJet]

I had a '79 Bahner and I loved every minute of it. I had a melllow 454 with a stock pump and the thing still ran 83 mph. Pretty good for a heavy hull and an RV motor.

[jetboatperformance]

I had a '79 Bahner and I loved every minute of it. I had a melllow 454 with a stock pump and the thing still ran 83 mph. Pretty good for a heavy hull and an RV motor.
Mine ran strong (75+) no stress cracks, was in excellent shape when I got it (3rd owner) everything intact ,nice original interior,excellent handling and was one fine quality piece! No regrets Tom
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r...c/MVC-003S.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r...-R1-023-10.jpg

[76 Bonneville]

I've always been on the outside looking in, but I even heard stories of boats taken in on consignment sold and the cash disappearing. Others who lost their deposits. I didn't know about the light layups as old rigger pointed out, but that sounds par for the course. My nephew was looking at one and I told him because of the history of Bahner's bussiness practices and lack of ethics I would never own one and discouraged him from buying it. I'm not very high on the morality ladder but knowing the little that I do know I wouldn't buy it. There seems to be a lot of good deals starting to pop up and if you go with a quality name custom you'll get some return when it comes time to sell.