So lets talk about the construction of the boat. The RX180 features a .100 hull which for the average boater is sufficient. I would prefer to see a .125 hull on jet models given the shallow water applications but then you have to sacrifice in performance or up the horsepower rating to compensate. The welding and basic construction of the boat is good. SeaArk boats are very durable. The ride of the hull as one would expect with a tunnel hull jet boat isn’t the best. Anything over a slight chop and the boat will beat you to death compared to a hull with a V. I removed the rear seat/storage box to free up more floor space and realized that wasn’t the best idea as the flooring is unsupported back in that area as it doesn’t really extend up under the rear deck. This alone was a disappointment. Starting at the bow if you do alot of casting you will notice the gigantic trolling motor mount. It takes up alot of space and was very irritating until I finally cut over half of it off and redrilled it. The boat has a forward storage locker that can work for a couple life jackets, rope, etc but will not allow storage of anchors, which is badly needed in the boat. There is a second storage locker behind the front seat pedestal on the front deck. With its seal around the lid and design, I assumed this to be dry storage or at least close to it. I was dead wrong. Do not put anything in this compartment you don’t want wet. Infact if you want to keep anything on the boat dry you will need a dry bag or dry box. A light rain and this compartment will be soaked quickly. Leaving the boat uncovered in weather for a week at a time even my plano boxes inside the compartment had moisture inside them. The console sits about midway in the cockpit. It is a fiberglass console and offers a livewell infront molded into it with cushion for seating. I learned to hate this console for several reasons. The single largest is my bias toward tiller boats. The boat was too good of a deal to pass up and I told myself I could adapt to the center console. I was wrong and I’ll explain the characteristics of this shortly, as I’m focusing on the construction now. The console is a terribly awkward one in terms of height for me. I am six foot tall, and the console is at such a height that it is too tall to drive sitting and uncomfortable to drive while standing. It does feature a nice grab rail but the height of it can be annoying when casting off the rear deck or fishing from the cockpit. With a 60” bottom there is room to get around the console but you have to pay attention when doing so if you have gear in the boat. The console has a shelf under the console which I assumed was storage and I, like most, tossed my keys, wallet, carry gun, etc there when fishing. I learned the hard way that this was a horrible idea. It turns out that there is nothing in the back(toward the livewell) part of the shelf to keep your gear ON the shelf. While returning back from fishing on a very cold winter evening I reached for my keys to the truck to find them missing. As it turns out they had slid to the back and then fell down between the livewell and part of the console along with several other needed items. To retreive the keys required a prolonged struggle with a screwdriver and removing numerous screws that attach the console. Finally I was able to get them to the corner where I had a small gap and pry the panel enough to get them out. After this incident I contacted SeaArk via email explaining the issue thoroughly to which I never received a reply. This would be a deep irritation during nice weather but happening on an extremely cold winter day when help and extra keys are over an hour away is a massive design flaw that could be easily corrected. The next thing I disliked about the console was the fact it rattled terribly. At idle speed when engine trolling it was very bad. Anything you place on the console from drinks to phones will almost immediately vibrate and fall off while being very audible. When running down the water it shakes uncontrollably even after double checking all the hardware attaching it to the floor of the boat. It literally shook so hard in any slight chop on the water that it would cause the master power rocker switch to shut off killing the electronics and anything else you may have turned on. I've rode in quite a few flat bottom boats and skiffs and this is the worst I have probably witnessed. So moving beyond the console, the boat comes with a rear seat bench/storage option. This was useful for storing lifejackets, drift sock, etc but isnt deep enough to store many items and you have to be careful shutting the lid or else the seat bases could smash or break something, as they protrude through the bottom. Also once again anything in there *will* get wet and stay that way. For rear deck storage, there is none. Absolutely nothing, and this feels like alot of wasted space. The rear battery area has enough room for two batteries as it is. I had to cut a section of the lid to allow for my 24V setup. This is an 18ft boat and I doubt many people will only use 12V. Again this should have been done better. I did manage to cram in a 9 gallon fuel tank which is undersized unless you fish close to the launch, my starting battery, and 2 bank charger. If you needed a second 12V battery to run extra electronics or similar you don’t have that option or space. The flip up lid was a nice touch though, allowing extra floor space for standing and casting. The tunnel design on the boat functioned very well and the boat could run around 30-32mph with two people powered by Yamaha’s awesome F90/65 Jet Drive. The hull also wasn’t very load sensitive as many jets are. It seemed almost anywhere a load was placed in the boat, once on plane, it would still move at a good pace with hardly any noticable change. The only thing effected was time to plane. Once on plane the boat could run roughly 8” of water with ease and for those familiar with jet handling, handled and cornered nicely. For all the design issues it did perform very well on plane.
For flooring, the boat has diamond plate cockpit flooring made from .125 aluminum and the interior has the Gatorhide coating. This coating is similar to many truck bedliners and does a good job of protecting the floor. However it is sprayed in a tan color and the boats color is sprayed overtop. The paint chips off very easily and was difficult to touch up with the factory paint and make it look good. Once dirty it is also extremely difficult to clean, even with dawn dish detergent and a good scrub brush. The paint my boat came sprayed in was a bone white. I found the finish to be rather dull and was difficult to clean. After setting outside in the weather uncovered as the boat was on the water quite abit I found alot of mildew stains around the transom that I was unable to clean with a good scrub pad and several types of soap and cleaner. Also any stains from skipjack blood/guts, if not washed off quickly seem to be permanent.
Now looking more specifically at this boat as a jet boat one intends to run skinny water with, there are also concerns at rest or drifting. As you can see in the picture the boat squats extremely bad in the stern. If keeping this boat longterm floatation pods would be an absolute must. But alone even they wouldn’t likely be enough to level the boat out. The next step would be distributing weight better, but by design the boat doesn’t really allow many options. I would have much preferred the console against the front deck. There is no room up front to relocate the trolling batteries either and an inquiry with the factory said adding additional storage up front to allow for this would void the warranty. There is the option to place them under the console and reroute the wiring but it would eliminate any foot room under there one might have and would be a tight fit by the time you add a charger. There is an option of a bow mounted fuel tank that doubles as a deck extension but then you lose cockpit space,especially with the length of the console/livewell. Although a factory option from SeaArk, I would imagine installing float pods yourself would also void the warranty, so basically you have a boat that runs great and super shallow on plane but drafts so much at rest you have to be careful where you come off plane and get back on plane. Many shallow shoals I could have easily drifted over in my old Lowe jet would have resulted in getting stuck on the bottom in the SeaArk. I engine troll and found the slow steering ratio made this nearly impossible with the big motor. Jets rely on the thrust for steering given the lack of skeg to serve as a rudder, however I found engine trolling to be amazing with my tiller jet drive. Especially with the extremely slow speeds I could maintain using the reverse gate the tiller shined. However with the console I found it almost impossible to do so effectively, especially with any wind.
I know this may sound harsh, and some of it probably should. If you are looking at a boat strictly to catfish and striper fish from this is still a good boat. I fish for many species using a wide variety of tactics and it just falls short for me. If the boat had a forward console, pods, and some better options for balancing the weight out this rig would move up quite a few notches in my book. I have no doubt these boats will last their owners a long time and take a beating but no boat is perfect. No boat can do it all. In the end it is up to you to decide if one of these boats will match your needs. This is simply from my perspective from spending a good deal of time in this model of boat and hopefully can give those considering one some things to consider before making a purchase.
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