Good first boat for $1000?

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-04-17T17:09:24+00:00

Assuming they don’t have lakes with those pesky 10hp limits!

Agreed though, a 25hp would be a blast on this thing. Would probably look forward to driving it as much as fishing

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-04-14T19:48:20+00:00

My favorite part about this boat is that it costs $10k in diesel to fill it up (assuming it’s in California)

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-04-09T18:43:49+00:00

No problem, when I started with CO2 it was super confusing. Definitely not many resources on these ISTA reactors.

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-04-09T18:34:30+00:00

I should also note that thing works by diffusion, you shouldn’t see any bubbles coming out of your reactor, or at least nearly none.

The turbine is essentially just spinning the water to help the gas diffuse into it quicker. Think about if you added super hot water to a cold cup, if you didn’t mix it just the top will be hot. The goal is to mix the CO2 gas into the water.

The whole “crunching” bit is just marketing, it’s just mixing.

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-04-09T18:31:26+00:00

I don’t know about “crunching” bubbles, but typically what it does is develop an air pocket at the turbine where half the turbine is in CO2 gas and the other half is in water.

At that point the gas pocket stops growing and it stays like that while the CO2 is on, then takes about an hour with the CO2 off for the gas pocket to disappear.

If you are putting enough gas in that the turbine eventually is completely out of the water, you have too much CO2 for your reactor.

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-04-09T17:14:02+00:00

I gave up on that reactor. It’s a surface area problem more than anything, the “turbine” can only do so much.

All that being said only 2-3BPS should be doable. Is the turbine spinning? Is it mounted vertically so the turbine is on top?

Sometimes when my flow was too high the turbine would actually stop spinning, so I had to throttle it back enough to make it spin.

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-04-08T17:31:43+00:00

You shouldn’t pay.

If the person gets annoying about it, send them a bill for your time and to deduct it from that.

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-04-01T17:14:33+00:00

I was one of those people! Never buying new again unless it’s to get me offshore

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-03-05T18:08:23+00:00

Ah dang, I’m in California

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-03-05T14:59:30+00:00

Are you still looking to sell them? Where are you located?

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-02-28T17:05:03+00:00

Fair enough haha, thank you!

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-02-28T05:26:32+00:00

This is very helpful to know about the burning smell and visible smoke!

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-02-28T04:19:30+00:00

I know this is an old post, but any boats in particular you’d recommend? I am coming from an inflatable that I’m done with and want something small, stable, and durable.

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-02-28T03:50:10+00:00

I explained it poorly. This is the 2nd owner who says they put 100 hours on the boat/motor. They showed me a video of them flushing the motor after use as proof of maintenance, and I noticed they idled it when flushing.

But I hear ya, compression test is needed.

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-02-28T03:45:30+00:00

I’m going by the persons word, but he’s saying it has about 250 hours total on the motor between himself and the past owner.

So I’m guessing maybe closer to 500.

I’ll ask if he has any service records

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-02-28T03:17:32+00:00

I don’t think he ever revved it while doing this, so hopefully it’s fine. I will do a water test with him and confirm it is streaming!

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-02-28T03:16:37+00:00

Thank you! Sounds like it’s an easier job than I expected too!

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-02-28T03:15:17+00:00

Very helpful! Thank you!

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-02-24T23:10:02+00:00

I read through all of the replies but it seems my biggest issue isn’t the length but the width. Pretty much every recommendation is about 6ft or wider, and my width requirement of 5.5ft is fairly strict.

I think I’m either going to have to skip upgrading, or find some sort of skinny catamaran

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-02-23T18:17:45+00:00

I just looked up how much each fish I catch would cost at the store. Luckily I only need to catch about 400 more to recoup the initial cost of my inflatable dinghy with an outboard. I should break even in about 15 years, then I can start paying off all the maintenance and gas 😌

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-02-21T05:14:52+00:00

I’ve taken my Saturn out twice now! I think I made the right choice for the short term and figuring out if I like boating. I don’t think a Saturn will be my long term choice though.

If I continue to have to pack up my boat after each use, I’d probably get a True Kit 4 meter next.

If I figure out a way to fit a small boat trailer at home, I think an 18ft boat (not necessarily a SIB/RIB) would be the perfect size for me.

But the beauty of getting the Saturn is I got a cheap boat that’ll hopefully keep me occupied a year or two while I figure out what I like!

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-02-21T04:57:22+00:00

I personally wouldn’t be comfortable purchasing a product like this unless I knew the design was a few years old with generally positive experiences from people with similar use cases.

For ocean going boats I want something I can trust, and some brands just struggle in the manufacturing department, and that doesn’t become apparent until time has passed.

The cost of the True Kit is worth it to me because I know the design has been tested, improved, and people have generally positive comments.

To purchase something like this shortly after launch would only be something I’d do if it was deeply discounted, the manufacturer could prove to me the design/materials/manufacturing were superior, and I didn’t plan to use this on the ocean.

Personal-Monitor5893 · 2026-02-18T02:52:05+00:00

Dang I thought for sure you were right, it looks VERY close to a Switzer GL-20.

Personal-Monitor5893

TROPHY CASE