Harris and Cypress Cay

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mpilot
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Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 11:56 am
Location: Lake Murray, SC

Harris and Cypress Cay

#1 Post by mpilot » Tue Feb 14, 2017 3:29 pm

So we went to the boat show this weekend to help a friend look for a boat and to talk to our dealer about a few lingering issues. I had heard through the grape vine that unless the dealer has a boat on order already that hasn't started build out you couldn't custom order a boat and my dealer confirmed this. I think this is the right move with some of the extended order time and quality issues they have been having. Hopefully this will turn things around for them. Unfortunately for those like me that will only custom order boats typically because some of the features I want aren't found in Stock boats, it may cost them some market share.

Our friend is working out the details on a Coach 27 foot tritoon with 250 Honda...I didn't really look at them when we ordered last year as the dealer had just opened for business. I have to say though they appear to be every bit in the top of the class in build quality and features with the Bennington, Manitou, Premier, Harris, etc boats.

captain28570
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Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2016 9:49 pm
Location: Baton Rouge LA

Re: Harris and Cypress Cay

#2 Post by captain28570 » Tue Feb 14, 2017 10:12 pm

Might want to be careful. I have been looking at Coach boats. The owner has his place about 20 mins from me. They had a terrible year last year and he doesn't have anything in stock. Everything has been sitting there for a while. The local dealers that know him all said he is closing his dealership in Prairieville LA. He was at the Biloxi boat show trying to sale Coach boats that were brought from an Alabama dealer.

I can get a nicer Mantiou for less than what he wants for the Coaches.


[quote="mpilot"]So we went to the boat show this weekend to help a friend look for a boat and to talk to our dealer about a few lingering issues. I had heard through the grape vine that unless the dealer has a boat on order already that hasn't started build out you couldn't custom order a boat and my dealer confirmed this. I think this is the right move with some of the extended order time and quality issues they have been having. Hopefully this will turn things around for them. Unfortunately for those like me that will only custom order boats typically because some of the features I want aren't found in Stock boats, it may cost them some market share.

Our friend is working out the details on a Coach 27 foot tritoon with 250 Honda...I didn't really look at them when we ordered last year as the dealer had just opened for business. I have to say though they appear to be every bit in the top of the class in build quality and features with the Bennington, Manitou, Premier, Harris, etc boats.[/quote]
2017 22 Manitou Aurora LE SHP Tritoon Evinrude G2 HO 150

ron nh
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Re: Harris and Cypress Cay

#3 Post by ron nh » Wed Feb 15, 2017 7:06 am

I'm guessing the problem they ran into Is that style counts when there are so many choices. I saw one up close and it was built very solid, But there was no reason to enter the market, even if you make a good boat, That looks 3 years old already.
2015 Qwest LS 818XRE Tri-toon w/mercury 115.

CajunCoach23
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Re: Harris and Cypress Cay

#4 Post by CajunCoach23 » Wed Mar 29, 2017 8:20 pm

Just noticed this thread and thought I'd chime in, regarding the Coach. WIfe and I bought a Coach 23 C tri-toon last July and absolutely love it. It comes loaded, standard, and the Honda 150 gets me over 35mph, easily. The other day, it was just me and about 15-20% fuel in tank, and got it up to 40mph.

Quality is great and ride is great. Sits a tad bit low in the rear, but haven't had over 3-4 people on it yet, so maybe with more people up front, the bow would come down a bit. Overall, not really a problem. I get lots of ooohs and aaahs from onlookers...great looking pontoon boat.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.

Also, in regards to the Coach owner closing his dealership, from my conversation with him last week, he is doing great and the Coach line is really catching on, nationwide. He is about to move across the street into an existing building with more garage space.
2016 Coach 23C
2016 Honda 150

captain28570
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Re: Harris and Cypress Cay

#5 Post by captain28570 » Thu Mar 30, 2017 11:13 pm

Well I live 15 mins from his place. He doesn't have anything on the lot. Even one of the guys who works there said last year was terrible. The only boats he did have were 2016 models that had been sitting outside since last year.

His place is for lease now. I don't think he is telling people the whole story.
2017 22 Manitou Aurora LE SHP Tritoon Evinrude G2 HO 150

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mpilot
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Re: Harris and Cypress Cay

#6 Post by mpilot » Tue Apr 11, 2017 2:20 pm

So I just got the boat back from the second round of warranty work once all of the parts were in and below are a few updates. The summary is I'm happy with the dealer but Brunswick Marine/Cypress Cay may have one of the worst quality control teams and customer service teams of any company, in any industry, I've ever worked with. I'm not impressed with them...very impressed with the quality of boat we bought for the money and it's just a few small things left to fix but we are going on nearly a year of having the boat and it takes forever to get parts in for the dealer to replace. I would recommend any of the Berkeley Outdoors locations, but I would go into purchasing a Harris or Cypress Cay again with some trepidation. I would also encourage everyone on here that's looking at one of those two brands to go over it with a fine toothed comb and not accept delivery until the boat is right. I have to believe they would have more of a sense of urgency to fix a boat they haven't sold yet vs one that is already bought and paid for.

Dealer did the service and had a great deal going of only $120 for the 100 hour service (we had around 120 hours on it). They also did some adjustments to the throttle to make it idle a little lower and also make sure it was opening the throttle all the way. They fixed some other minor things that are just little things you shake down over time (tightened bolts, light connections on gauges, etc).

The installed two new seat bases for two of the corner seats that were blemished the day we received delivery (May of 2016). The dealer did a great job on these and reinstalling all of the lighting and mechanicals that go along with it. Very pleased with this fix.

They installed new arm rests on the two captains chairs, but it didn't fix the fact they don't go forward into the proper position. It's a long story and hard to explain but basically the arm rest adjustment will go all the way back, but not forward any more than they are set at currently. When leaned back a little it puts your hands about mid chest level and in the upright position you hands rest around 15 degrees above perpendicular. The bar inside the seat was installed wrong and they have to now replace the entire seats as this is the only way to fix it. The dealer tried to tell them this, I tried to tell them this, but they went with the cheap fix first. When seats come in I will just take the old seats to the dealer and swap the brackets rather than paying to have it towed an hour each way just to swap seats (I don't have a trailer).

They installed a new front door because the previous was mounted too high and would fly open underway. It's the right height now but they made the door around 3/8 of an inch narrower at the top than the bottom so there is a bad gap on the door catch side. They will have to try again on this. The new door also had a dent but the dealer put it on despite the problems because it would at least fix the safety issue of having a door come open randomly, and so far it has. We were worried we would have to put a secondary latch on the door but it looks like we've avoided that for the time being.

They put a "spray deflector" under the middle toon at the stern to stop the excessive spray onto the back of the boat and into the cabin that was coming from the motor being too low (I'll explain more later in this post). It reduced the spray some but not much and now I cannot trim the motor at all while going into a turn. Running at cruising speed (4k rpm 24ish mph) you can only trim about 1/8 trim on the gauge and it starts to cavitate. Before you could trim all the way up and do a lock out turn and it wouldn't cavitate. The only solution to the cavitation is to drop the motor which will cause the same problem again. For reference the spray deflector is a V shaped piece of aluminum (think small vhull boat with no back on it) that pushes the water further down the engine. It actually created a bit of stern lift too and perhaps some more RPM's and a little more top end, but until I test with fully cleaned logs I won't know versus the baseline of when it was brand new. That should be sometime in the next two weeks.

So more on this motor height issue for those that aren't familiar with our situation, or are looking at Cypress Cay/Harris boats with the 150 motor. For every other motor they put on this tritoon setup they put a standard 20" long shaft motor on the motor pod. For whatever reason they put the 25 inch extra long shaft motor on all of this hull design with this powerplant. The transom is 18 inches in height so you can see where the problem lies. I'm still not 100% convinced they didn't build my boat wrong and they put the wrong motor pod on it, because it doesn't make any sense why you would have 5 inches of shaft difference on the same motor pod. It is mounted as high as it can go and the cavitation plate isn't even close to visible and it also sprays water back into the boat when underway at cruising speeds. This was their attempt at a band-aid fix, but it didn't even fix the spray problems and in my mind made the performance issues worse.

The dealer is checking the build out to ensure the right transom was in fact installed. If it was then I have presented them with three options to fix the problem and not put a band aid on it.
1) Have the motor pod modified to mount the engine at the proper running height by adding height.
2) Install a manual jack plate to raise the motor to the proper height. I'm willing to share the cost as long as they are willing to put it in writing that this won't void any warranty in any way.
3) Install the proper length shaft lower unit on my engine, or replace it with the proper length shaft engine and maintain my current extended warranties.

Again, overall happy with the dealer but less than satisfied with the manufacturer. At first I thought the dealer was dragging their feet but then I tried to deal with the customer service team and all they could say about some performance issues was that my boat was "in spec" over and over again. Also they weren't exactly quick to get parts shipped. I let the dealer handle it from there as I don't have time to run around with them. I guess this is why people would pay 15-20k more for a bennington or one of the other brands for a similar boat.

Bamaman
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Re: Harris and Cypress Cay

#7 Post by Bamaman » Sun Apr 16, 2017 11:55 am

Sounds as if your dealer's trying to do all he can do to get your boat "right" because that's his responsibility.

I've got the "least expensive" Bennington S model--24' with the Express Tube. I too always thought I should be able to see the top of the anticavitation plate when running a fast cruise, but it'll never happen on my boat. I consider myself very fortunate to have a dealer that's experienced at setting up my same hull/engine time and time again. But even they tried to slip a 14M prop on my boat instead of a Reliance 15 pitch prop that redlines perfectly. The 14 pitch was 4 mph low and 300 rpm's too high--hitting the rev limiter.

Pontoons and tritoons are really difficult animals to setup. Sometimes the engine's too high and the engine ventilates too easily. My old pontoon has a 20" motor off a bass boat, and I never got the engine/rpm's right. Put too many riders in the front, and the rear end can lift--causing ventilation too. You can change a prop to what seems the correct one, and that specific prop will lift the rear end--causing ventilation. Drop the engine just an inch and rpm's and speed might dramatically drop--plowing through the water. It's all just a careful balance that matters.

If I was in your shoes, I'd be looking for the adjustable motor mount to allow exact adjustments. With the right prop adjusted correctly, your ventilation problems should be behind you.
'12 Bennington 24' SSLX Yamaha 150

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mpilot
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Re: Harris and Cypress Cay

#8 Post by mpilot » Sun Apr 16, 2017 10:33 pm

Yeah we are still working with them. The hold up has been that it was a brand new boat when we ordered it last year and I don't feel I should foot the bill for an issue we have had since day 1. The dealer submitted my request to the manufacturer last week and we are waiting to hear back. I won't modify anything until I get it in writing it won't change or void the warranty and once they let me know what they are willing to cover as far as the jack plate. I've consulted with a few people and at this point I'm more than within my rights to make a lemon law claim and get my money back but I don't want to do that because I like 95% of my boat, we got a heck of a deal on it, I don't want to be without a boat, and I don't want to go through any ordering process again right now. The motor height isn't the only issue we are waiting to get fixed nearly 50 weeks after we took delivery. They were aware of all the issues remaining three days after delivery. It literally took longer to get the replacement door, that is dented and not square, than the 13 weeks it took to build the boat.

After this weekend's experience the defector plate is coming off. It severely changes the geometry of the boat. For one I can hear the exhaust coming through the prop trimmed all the way down starting around 3000 rpm. In moderate chop you can't use the trim to help keep the nose from digging until you hit around 20-22 mph. You can trim it until it cavitates below that and the angle of the boat basically doesn't change. Going over a larger boat wake at around 3300 rpm and trimmed 2 bumps above full down the motor cavitated. Lowering the motor isn't an option at this stage because it'd be better to just take the plate back off and seal the three holes.

It also made the boat ride rougher at higher speeds in chop and definitely didn't fix the spray issue, which is what it was designed to do by Brunswick marine. No kidding, they have a patent on it.

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mpilot
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Re: Harris and Cypress Cay

#9 Post by mpilot » Sun Apr 16, 2017 10:50 pm

To be clear none of the setup issues are on the dealer. They actually set the motor one hole higher which is the top position and its still too low. There is nothing they could do to overcome the fact that the manufacturer has chosen to put a motor that's 7 inches longer than the transom... There isn't even an option to order the boat with the shorter shaft. The back end of the boat and motor literally looks like you have a garden hose spraying it down while running above 4200 rpm because of the spray from the motor.

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Rick McC.
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Re: Harris and Cypress Cay

#10 Post by Rick McC. » Mon Apr 17, 2017 8:02 pm

That really sucks!

Hope they take care of you eventually...
Rick

Sights are for the unenlightened.

crookedlaker
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Re: Harris and Cypress Cay

#11 Post by crookedlaker » Tue Apr 18, 2017 5:29 am

I bought a 2014 and had one minor problem (minor damage to cowling, probably from the dealer) which was taken care of quickly. (they even came to my lake house and replaced i while i was at work). I have looked over the new 2017 pretty good at the dealers lot and it looks good, The owner is delivering it on the 2nd and hopefully it will be trouble free. I have been very happy with my boat and my dealer "Dry Dock Marine" . I will report after i get my new boat on the 2nd

MIke
2017 Harris Sunliner 200
Tri-toon P+ Package
2017 Mercury 150 4 stroke

2014 Harris Cruiser 200 Sold!!
2014 Mercury 90 four stroke (120 HP via Simon Motorsports) Sold!!

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