Lund Rebels

[DLD24]

I recently bought a truck so now I'm looking for a boat...I have kinda been shopping around a little and I like the layouts of the rebels...I'm looking for a 16fter with steering console and at least a 35hp on it...I'm looking to spend 3k or so that puts me in the late 80s early 90s rebels...For those of you that have owned these what did you think of them or if anyone knows any other boats with similar layouts I'd like to hear about them also...Also are Mariner motors reliable?? Thanks for any help with my first boat purchase...

[delcecchi]

A Mariner is a Mercury painted gray.

[Down Deep]

I owned an early 90s Rebel for 5 years. My take on the Rebel is that it was a good fishing boat. Light enough to move around easily and big enough to be comfortable for a day of fishing. I believe they are rated for a 50HP with console steering and I would go with the larger HP. I've never owned a Mariner, but they are a cousin of the Mercury. One of my fishing buddies had one and got long term performance with no problems.

[Cicada]

I have a Rebel, early '90's. Like the boat for the most part. Do not like the livewell on the side. The outside wall is the side of the boat which is dark gray. Gets hot in the livewell and kills fish unless you run the pump all the time. I have a tiller to maximize space in the boat and for better control while fishing. No convenient place to store long things like transom light and paddle so they are always in the way or on the floor. I'd still give mine an 8.5 out of 10.

[RebelSS]

Have a '96 Rebel with Console with a Johnson 2 stroke. Nice, light, dependable boat. Gets back into those shallow spots, rides well. A little too light for choppy water, ya bob around like a cork. Could use better rod storage. I added the goodies like push/tap side interior lights for night fishing, fish finder,trolling motor with co-pilot, vertical rod racks, four rod holders, slides on the seats, and it'll do most things well. Trailers easy, and because of the light weight, ya can run all day on 6 gals of gas easy. Works very well for me, as I'm not out there every week. A nice little boat.

[herm]

A Rebel similar to RebelSS's was the first (and so far only) boat I bought brand new. Mine had a 40 Yamaha/2-strike. As others have said, it's nice boat for its size. (I upgraded because of bigger family and desire to fish bigger waters.)

Honestly, at that $3,000 range, my first priority would be the quality/condition of the motor. There are plenty of similar boats to the Rebel that will serve same purpose. But none of them work good if the motor is a problem.

[BobT]

Bought a 1993 Rebel 16 tiller with 40hp Evinrude that I used until 2007. I was very happy with it. I'm not sure how the console models are with regard to the room occupied by the console but aside from that, it is a good boat. I never had trouble with keeping fish alive in the livewell as mentioned earlier and I didn't run the aerator continuously either. If this is a concern you can buy adjustable aerator timers to add automatic control. That's what I did for the boat I have now and that works real nice.

[Rivernut]

I could not word it any better than Cicada. My biggest issue is next to no storage. I have a '91 Rebel special. It is a tiller model. Very comfortable, and light. All in all I'm very pleased.

[Pat K]

A Mariner is a Mercury painted gray.

A dealer I bought 2 boats from with Mariners told me it was just a way for Mercury to get around agreements they had with dealers about how close another Mercury dealer could be located to them. If another dealer wanted to carry Merc and were to close to the other dealer, they would sell Mariners.

Exact same motors.

[Down Deep]

I did a quick search and found out that some of the Mariners are made by Yamaha. Some larger 4 stroke Mariners, although made by the Mercury Corp. have different specifications than its comparable Mercury model.

I pulled the following off of a Mercury forum.

Mercury and mariner are the same company, both owned by the bruswick corp. Mariner was originally an australian licenced company that re-badged overseas engines and sold them locally under the 'mariner' brand name, mostly US made mercurys and a few Johnsons... some time ago Brunswick/Mercury bought the mariner name and took over operations. They have been sold side by side in australia ever since and obviously mercury has become more prolific with the acceptance of american brand names. The current concept is that 'Mariner' is the fishermans brand, as you will see from the mariner branded advertising in magazines such as "Bluewater"... Mercury is seen as the Liesure craft brand and is marketed as such, they are identical products just badged differently.

The differences you speak of regarding the 90hp four stroke are more a matter of timing rather than spec.

The previous model 90hp four stroke Mercury/mariner was a Yamaha produced engine block, which mercury assembled and sold as their own. This was the current model up until the release of the 'verado' based inline four cylinder at the Sydney boat show last year. The reason for the difference in specs is that Mercury/Mariner company (tellwater) are still selling the remainder of the yamaha based engines as "mariner" and are promoting the new mercury designed and produced 'verado' 4 cyl under their premier "mercury brand. Eventually the new model four stroker will be badged as a mariner...same engines different stickers basically

[delcecchi]

I did a quick search and found out that some of the Mariners are made by Yamaha. Some larger 4 stroke Mariners, although made by the Mercury Corp. have different specifications than its comparable Mercury model.

I pulled the following off of a Mercury forum.

Mercury and mariner are the same company, both owned by the bruswick corp. Mariner was originally an australian licenced company that re-badged overseas engines and sold them locally under the 'mariner' brand name, mostly US made mercurys and a few Johnsons... some time ago Brunswick/Mercury bought the mariner name and took over operations. They have been sold side by side in australia ever since and obviously mercury has become more prolific with the acceptance of american brand names. The current concept is that 'Mariner' is the fishermans brand, as you will see from the mariner branded advertising in magazines such as "Bluewater"... Mercury is seen as the Liesure craft brand and is marketed as such, they are identical products just badged differently.

The differences you speak of regarding the 90hp four stroke are more a matter of timing rather than spec.

The previous model 90hp four stroke Mercury/mariner was a Yamaha produced engine block, which mercury assembled and sold as their own. This was the current model up until the release of the 'verado' based inline four cylinder at the Sydney boat show last year. The reason for the difference in specs is that Mercury/Mariner company (tellwater) are still selling the remainder of the yamaha based engines as "mariner" and are promoting the new mercury designed and produced 'verado' 4 cyl under their premier "mercury brand. Eventually the new model four stroker will be badged as a mariner...same engines different stickers basically

There was a deal with Yamaha back in the day, and perhaps again where merc bought power heads from Yamaha and put them together with Merc Lower units.

If I remember right the Yamaha power heads were in the lower HP levels. It should be pretty easy to tell where the power head came from by looking at the specifications. For example my buddy has a Mariner 45 which is a 4 cylinder 2 stroke. Pretty clearly a Merc painted gray. Other motors might be different.