Peter T.
5/5
In an attempt to be fair and inform anyone who is looking to buy a Stanely I'll give a detailed and honest review of my 19 foot Islander DC. I'll say up front though that I absolutely love the boat however there are some extremely minor things (not even flaws) that I'll mention near the end.
To begin I have cottage on an island in Georgian Bay (which is in Ontario Canada for the geographically challenged) that is pretty close to Parry Sound. Naturally there are a lot of Stanleys around. I've always admired them because I think that welded aluminum boats looked nice and are nearly indestructible which makes sense. Especially if you're familiar with the difficulties of navigating Georgian Bay's rockey shores and shoal filled waters.
In 2020 my family purchased a 19 foot Islander DC with a 150hp Yamaha outboard engine. Initially I thought this might be slightly under powered because our other main boat was an 18 foot fiberglass boat with a 185hp inboard outboard Merccruiser engine. However the welded aluminum hull is so incredibly light that 150hp is more than enough.
To give you real word figures a skilful operator can easily cruise in this boat at 40+mph at about 4500rpm-4700rpm with the engine trimmed high. Faster if you want to really push it. This speed is confirmed by the gauges, Garmin chat plotter and Navionics app. Doing this you'll get a fuel efficiency of roughly 4.5mpg. This sounds low if you're used to figures from cars but if you know about boats it is actually really good. This is also on a calm day with a pretty empty boat so will vary widly in different conditions with different operators.
As for the configuration of the boat it is very comfortable and holds a lot of gear and people. Bow riders are great fun and allow you spread out or store gear out of the way with the cover on. The cushions are enough padding to make sitting on the metal quite comfortable. They are easily removed and stored should you want to. We do this when we store the boat for the winter. The captains chairs are again quite comfortable and adjustable. I'm 6'4" and fit very easily and so do much smaller family members. They also swivel around if you are just hanging out in the boat and want to talk to other people.
The engine and hull design gets out of the hole quickly and planes nicely. It takes waves easily and is solid in heavier weather. Any towing sports (water skiing, wake boarding and tubing) are easily handled. I've also towed a much heavier boat I came across when their engine died and had no problem.
There are some small details that are really nice as well. Obviously being easy to clean is great especially if you're fishing. The drivers windshield wiper is rugged and effective. The drivers window is apparently polarized which I've never seen on any other boat but makes so much sense! So clever on a bright sunny day. You can easily tell if you're also wearing polarized glasses.
As I said above there are a few minor things about the boat that I will mention. The biggest of these has to do with how light the boat is. If you are trying to dock the boat in high winds it does get blown around pretty easily. If you are used to docking a heavier fiberglass this will take some adjustment. If you're trolling tight around some shoals being blown around can be frightening. The only other thing about the boat that is a slight knock against it are the snap fasteners. The tolerances of the cover and snap fasteners are tight which is great for keeping the boat dry but you need to undo them carefully or they will break. I think this applies to all snap fasteners to a certain extent but I did buy a kit to repair them because broken ones bug me.
All in all it's a really great boat. It's fast, comfortable and holds a lot. It is also efficient and incredibly durable. Well taken care of the hull will last a lifetime. If your looking for a well priced pleasure craft look no further because a Stanley is as good as it gets.
