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Old 02-03-2017, 01:46 PM   #1
Chief
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Smile Panga Question

Hey Guys,



Need some advice on a boat.
I have a 21ft Deep vee boat already with 2 stroke twins that guzzle fuel, i get about 1mpg to be exact. Need to upgrade or change this as this really limits my days at sea.
I stumbled on 25' Panga, needs some work, engine, etc.. i know they are economical, but get beat up in heavy or 3-4' seas. If i were to purchase this, i would give it tabs, console, and some nice electronics with a new 140 4 stroke engine. My consumption would drop. However, replacing the engine on my 21 is almost the same cost as buying and kitting up the Panga. Should i stick with my 21 and replace its engine or go for the panga?
I dont do a lot of inshore stuff, mainly offshore (5-15 miles out) and love to do long trips along the coast (30-100 miles down one way) so my 21 kills me on fuel. I also don't get good deals on boats and engines around here. There are no online forums, dealers or anything that point you to the right direction of boats. I live in West Africa, so seas aren't always friendly, but the diving and fishing are great. Also taxes are crazy high and shipping costs aren't ideal either. So purchasing another boat for 15,000 for example would end up costing me 30,000 delivered. My friend bought a 28 Sea Fox in the US, payed a total of 90,000 when it arrived after everything. NUTS.

Any advice on this? Any help would be much appreciated.
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Old 02-03-2017, 05:42 PM   #2
Capt.Gene
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Thumbs up Re: Panga Question

I have been building a 27' Mexican panga hull since last May. I had it shipped by container ship to Port of Panama City, and I have just this week finished the rigging.
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Old 02-03-2017, 06:00 PM   #3
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Re: Panga Question

I used to work for a panga style boat builder and had a 23' demo boat that I ran at least once a week for a year. They are certainly a great versatile boat with a shallow draft yet very seaworthy hull. I am not sure what your general sea conditions are like but I will share my experience. Pangas have awesome fuel efficiency with low horsepower as a plus. Over here on the gulf coast of Florida we deal with short period wind chop very often and the panga style boat does not run well in that from my experience. I have seen pangas handle very large long period swells with easy but the flatter deadrise doesn't like two to three foot wind chop at all. We ended up getting wet and beat up a lot of the time. After running the panga for a year I ended up buying the heaviest 23' deep vee boat I could find. It is much better suited for short period wind chop in my opinion. I'm sure others have experiences they can share but in my opinion it all comes down to the conditions you run in.
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Old 02-03-2017, 06:13 PM   #4
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Re: Panga Question

I do not know what hulls you are comparing, but the Panga boats work well when light and simple. You do not need a 140 hp motor (My opinion) and you should run your hull loaded before you commit to trim tabs. You might not need them if not overloaded. Tabs may create problem mounting a transom mount transducer unless you do a shoot through or through hull.
You might like the long skinny hull's ride better than the shorter heavier wider 21' hull that uses much more fuel.
You might find that a lighter weight 90 horse motor is plenty on the hull.
That 140 is what I could have hung on my 27' x 7'2" hull.
I bought a DF200A that pushes my hull a totally unnecessary 50 mph. Way overkill. I believe these hulls are better suited to running 25 mph.
Before changing to proper prop size while doing break in hours, we ran 25 mph 4000 rpm burning 5 gallons per hour with full fuel, 3 fat guys and the motor bracket flooded because no body noticed the plug was missing.
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Old 02-03-2017, 06:24 PM   #5
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Re: Panga Question

[quote=jbsrq;2132218]I used to work for a panga style boat builder and had a 23' demo boat that I ran at least once a week for a year. They are certainly a great versatile boat with a shallow draft yet very seaworthy hull. I am not sure what your general sea conditions are like but I will share my experience. Pangas have awesome fuel efficiency with low horsepower as a plus. Over here on the gulf coast of Florida we deal with short period wind chop very often and the panga style boat does not run well in that from my experience. I have seen pangas handle very large long period swells with easy but the flatter deadrise doesn't like two to three foot wind chop at all. We ended up getting wet and beat up a lot of the time. After running the panga for a year I ended up buying the heaviest 23' deep vee boat I could find. It is much better suited for short period wind chop in my opinion. I'm sure others have experiences they can share but in my opinion it all comes down to the conditions you run in.[/QUOTE

Well said.
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Old 02-08-2017, 08:14 AM   #6
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Re: Panga Question

Hey Chief, see if you can find a used Seacraft 1980 or older. They have a variable deadrise hull that allows them to plain easily with minimum horsepower while still offering a great ride in the chop.
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Old 02-08-2017, 03:27 PM   #7
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Re: Panga Question

I ride many different pandas and some friends have some different boats, i myself have a RHIB and here are my two cents:

Pandas are fast, efficient, can get away with supersmall engines and are cheap.

What they are NOT = Dry, comfortable in chop and if overloaded on swells or bad weather i would even say not the safest.

So you could have your panga with a 90hp or 115hp 4 strokes doing 25mph and get 3.5 to 4.5 mpg and have 4 people with gear and fish max!

and on the other hand you could reposer your boat with same cash but get less than 2 mpg? i would calculate the curve of ROI given the avg miles you run per year just to understand when the panga paid itself. But don't know your weather and sea conditions.

Another idea, since you said africa, offshore, many miles. i have seen pandas with twin 60 and twin tanks. that would be an almost sure way to come back regardless of problems with an engine or with a gas tank. (make sure you put foam many parts of the inside of the panga to make it less sinkable
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