General Info.

Inflatable vs. McKenzie Drift Boat.

This is a question a person would ask when looking to purchase a high quality fishing boat. This style of watercraft is designed to drift/float a river with no need for a motor. In my opinion there is really only one choice for the fisherman who has a limited budget but still desires high quality in a boat. I was at the boat and sportsman’s show two weekends ago in search of a high quality boat that was not going to cost me 10,000$ plus.

I have always known Zodiac to be a very reputable company with high quality at an affordable price. I went into their booth and took a look around. I was probably there for ten minutes and found nothing I was looking for. I never once saw a sales rep that could answer my questions and left their display area without any of their product information.

I was not really there to see the Zodiac display anyhow; I was there to see the people at Zebec. Now here is a company that puts the customer first. Here is an example, I walked into their display area and was immediately greeted by their sales rep and exchanged handshakes with him. I informed him why I was going to be using the boat and he provided me with some excellent information as to what boat would be geared towards my application.

He showed me three different boats and then described in detail what each boat was designed to do. He really went out of his way to be helpful to me, and to properly inform me of all their products that best suited me and my applications. He then provided me with a brochure with all their accessories and a card with his name and telephone number, website address and store location. To say the very least I was very impressed, so impressed in fact that I went to their office here in Calgary and picked out which boat I was going to purchase.

I chose to buy an inflatable for many different reasons I will now list off for you. Accessibility is the number one reason for choosing an inflatable; you do not need a boat launch for an inflatable whereas you do for a McKenzie Drift Boat. Inflatables can also access many parts of a river a drift boat cannot access. Then there is the cost factor between the two different styles of boats. I priced out the Zebec and the total cost including the boat which is 13 Feet constructed of high quality PVC, three bucket seats which mount on a aluminum rack system, two sleeved rowing oars, two aluminum mounted floor boards that also mount to the racking system so your client or buddy can stand up while he fishes, a patch kit that comes with patches, glue and a wrench in case of a minor accident; for a total price of 6000.00 $$ CDN which can all fold up and fit in the trunk of my car.

Than you look at the McKenzie Drift Boat, the boat alone is 10- 15,000 $$. You cannot pull a McKenzie Drift Boat with a car and expect a car to last very long; you need a truck to pull it properly. So the truck will run say 20,000- 60,000 if you buy used, or 60 if you buy brand new. Grand total for everything to go the McKenzie Drift Boat way is 35,000- 75,000 dollars. So for this fisherman there is really only one choice and that choice is the inflatable Zebec Bug for affordability and the versatility that I look for in a high quality fishing boat. View Zebec’s website here for all their high quality fishing and rafting boats.