the only dissadvantage besides size (generally) that i see in my boat is that the wind blows that thing around like mad while fishing, and it makes you spend alot of time on the TM trying to keep proper boat position.

troy

I know one thing, my light "tin" Lund goes past the gas station a lot more than those with their 200 hp fiberglass monsters.  I don't go fast - but I go there economically.

Another thing - I beat the h*** out of my Lund, bump rocks, crash stumps, and just bang the dent out again.  Gel coat  isn't quite as forgiving and won't let you tread where aluminum boats are unafraid to go.  

And thirdly, if you hate wiping down your gelcoat, and polishing the shine every time you get out of the water - go with tin.  Some of us hate cleaning our boats (yes, some of us are pigs) - we just want to fish, not play Mr. Clean.

And lastly, our used tin boats tend to appeal to multi-species fishermen when we're ready to sell them.  My first flat bottom went to a duck hunter.  My Lund appeals to trout, salmon, and other slimmer species fishermen.  So they are easy to sell.  Fiberglass bass boats have to be sold to... bass fishermen only.

None of these are reasons to give up a fancy glass bassboat - I'm just highlighting some of the minor advantages to tin as I see it.

And years ago, (when I had time for one WBC tournament per year on vacation), I managed to put a couple of first place trophies on the wall - one at Banks, the other at Sprague.  No matter what you fish out of... the fisherman still has to catch em'.  

woah, did he say "slimers"?? ewwwww.......

Rev, I agree with everything you said wholeheartedly, those are a lot of the reasons I went with aluminum, as well as what I was going to tow it with.  Another reason was I was used to them, we always used 18 or 20 ft John's when I was growing up and they usually had jets on them due to low water rivers.

Oh not so fast there Sarge,

If you would have read the definition completely you would have noticed that "tin" (definition 2a) was a generic term for a container:  "such as a container of any metal".  Like a tin of tomatoes.  Defintion 1 is the correct defintion of the Element Tin.

"a soft faintly bluish-white lustrous low-melting crystalline metallic element that is malleable and ductile at ordinary temperatures and that is used especially in containers, as a protective coating, in tinfoil, and in soft solders and alloys — see element table"

See the Table of Elements  as Webster suggested above (which I have attached) and notice Tin "Sn" has a atomic number of 50 and Aluminum is "Al" with the atomic number of 13.  Tin is a totally different element than Aluminum.  And, It's not used to make boats!


Lastly, for my final rebuttal, I will insert a quote from tracker boats:  "If you could peel back the hull of a TRACKER® boat, you'd see why they're so brawny and long lasting. Marine-grade aluminum forms the hull, longitudinal stringer system, compartment lids and the all-aluminum transom."
If a Tracker makes a "tin" boat why do they use the term "Marine-grade aluminum"???    

Okay who smacked who?

Ray  (all in good fun)  

Pasting the Periodic Table, Ray... That is awesome!  Cracked me up.

I actually thought of your point after I posted... so, yes, technically speaking, if we are to use definition 2a properly, we'd have to refer to the boats as just "tin" or "tin of flotation material" or something like that. Tin boat is not gramatically correct. I admit.

Well played, well played.

Don't forget.... tin boats ARE containers - they contain anglers, rods and all their tackle......., they just don't usually have lids!!