My 44' Striker was the one featured in ad about Buddy DaSilva, a Bermudan sportfish captain whose boat was caught in a very severe storm (I believe the one that sank the Marine Electric, a collier, off Assateague Island, VA)- the Striker survived astonishing conditions and got them home to Bermuda alive. So- the good and bad points, as I see them:
1) they are damp, cold noisy boats, because they are made of aluminum. Modern aluminum boats are better insulated, and exhibit this vice less, but the Striker is not a modern boat. The 44s are old boats.
2) there was no Striker yard as such. The boats were built on contract by various yards in Chile, Norway, and Sweden, I think. Mine was built by Fjellstrand in Norway- it was quite sturdy, with fairly heavy shell plating and good weldments. I don't know how consistent the construction is from yard to yard. I think for the most part they were well-done, but they are old boats now.
3) Unlike FRP boats, which accumulate blisters from outside, Strikers (and all aluminum boats) are prone to pitting electrolysis damage from anything that falls into the bilge- copper shavings, wire whiskers from the wiring construction, coins ferrous metal particles from the engine (INCLUDING RUST FLAKES)- all these lie on the inside shell plating and slowly eat a hole there. We had the engines out of mine for rebuilds, and cleaned up and painted the engine room. The boat had 6mm plating under the engines, and there were pits as deep as 2-3mm from ferrous particles that had fallen off the engines, which were 6-71s. You would think the propensity of Detroits to weep oil would prevent this, but no. These holes would ultimately end up going through the plating and create leaks which would have to be welded.
4) any repair involves welding. Period. Do you weld? Great- you'll get practice. You don't? Make friends with a welder. Better yet- find a nice lady who works in a shipyard and can TIG-weld aluminum. Marry her. Buy her a new welding rig as a wedding present. You'll need it.
5) Strikers are rather light boats- aluminum weighs quite a lot less for its strength than FRP or wood or steel. Combined with the rather wide beam and shallow draft, this leads to some interesting roll characteristics. Kind of snappy, as I recall. They are extremely stable- much of the weight is carried near the waterline or even lower, so they have a low metacentric height, if that's the right word. DaSilva's boat is reported to have rolled seventy degrees from neutral, and come back up rightside up. Not many boats will do that. The question is, how often do you need to?
6) Mine was slow- 19kts tops with majored engines and a clean bottom- but modern high-speed diesels would make a big difference. I had J&T GMs which were rated 310hp. This is due to the length to beam ratio and the fact that the planing areas are not particularly modern in design. It is difficult to make a Striker go fast, but the light weight does make it possible. They are not particularly cheap to run at low speeds, though, because the beamy hull makes a lot of drag.
7) It is hard to find a yard that will work on an aluminum boat. If your friend is dead set on one, fine- a Striker is a good aluminum boat, as they go. He needs to remember that the danger of damage to the metal structure from stray currents is always present- basically the water is trying to dissolve the boat- and that the main structure is not chemically inert like an FRP boat. Having a CAPAC meter helps, and any metal boat should have one, but owning a metal boat, especially an aluminum one, requires that you gain knowledge and expertise that most of us don't have, just to keep your investment up and so that it will survive. Maybe that's true of all pleasure craft, but it is true of an aluminum boat in spades, and of Strikers in particular.
There are some really beautiful aluminum boats- one of the couples in our club has an old CC Roamer that is just to die for. It has had very good care and belonged to loving and knowledgeable owners, and the boat is just beautiful. If he decides to buy a Striker, he should find the equivalent of that boat. They built about seventy or eighty 44 SF models. I think they are kind of angular an unlovely boats, but at least he should find the best-maintained one he can.
Personally, having had both a Hatteras and a Striker, I feel there is no comparison. I would not accept a Striker of any size or condition as a gift- or would only as long as it took to sell it and buy a Hatteras of comparable size and layout. Hatteras has built perhaps 7500 hulls by now- they supervised their own construction, they are an actual manufacturer who knew what they were doing, invented much of the technology we see today, had first-class naval architects, and enjoyed relative stability in the business. Striker, on the other hand, was not really a boatbuilder in the same sense- it was a company on paper that contracted their designs out to boatbuilding yards, had the boats shipped here, and finished them out in the USA. There was a great deal of variability in this process and all of it has an impact on the quality and longevity and safety of the boats. Frankly, I'd stay away from another one, but if he's determined to do it, I'd get a marine surveyor who REALLY knows metal boats, and pay for a very serious survey of any boat he was thinking about buying. Including getting the hull audiogauged to make sure the shell plating wasn't pitted or holed where you can't see it.
If he buys one, buy your friend a good offshore raft. I recommend a Winslow. My judgment is that he is more likely to need it than average.
