Malibu 4.4

A paddlers boat
14'6
27'
Low volume and wet like a ski.
Silky fast.



  Big fan of Malibu boats. It's odd not having one on the racks and if it wasn't for limited space, we would still have a Mini-X.
 Still, there are some issues with this boat that I need to disclose.
 
I got miles of adventure out of the Malibu 4.4. It is a pleasure to paddle and I enjoyed fishing from it but limited weight capacity is a factor. Rated at 250 but performance will start to decline around 200.



 I sold it to a friend who put on 10X the milage that I had and while he had it he made some "improvements".
The molded foot pegs are very narrow and not comfortable.
Here is the mod.

Functional but definitely not comfortable on bare feet.

The M 4.4 is notorious for cracking around the seat well scupper.
These cracks widen with the weight of the paddler and let water in rapidly.



The aft tip was worn completely through, also letting in water rapidly.

There was a 1.5" long thin gap where the plastic had separated.


I went to work and removed the plastic grate only to find....


Cut some scrap plexi for a foundation and then it was time to get my noodle on.



 I had planned to cover the pool noodle foot brace with vinyl dip but it never got checked off the list.

I did not have any Malibu plastic to weld with but I had some Neimier era OK plastic and some 2nd gen WS shavings that I planned on using to seal up the aft tip and then reinforce the damaged plastic.
The Malibu plastic had a much lower melting threshold than the other plastics and this project became very challenging. I was able to repair the hole and then shape and build up the tip with the WS plastic.



The seat scupper project was even worse. I was very hesitant to really bring the heat down around the scupper with the low melting threshold of the boat vs the scrap materials. So, I just lightly sealed up the surface.

I doubt the welds held very long.
Anyway, I sent the boat off for more adventures and eventually circumstances brought it back into my possession. I found that some type of goop was used to try and reseal the seat scupper cracks. That won't work and IT NEEDS TO BE RE-WELDED.


Aesthetically the Malibu logo ruined the very nice lines of the boat, so someone tried to rattle can it.
A sanding project that never got checked off.


Otherwise, I think its a pretty solid slice of plastic.





Seat and R handed paddle go with the boat.


With a leaky, but repairable, scupper crack and even with the seat and paddle, I can only ask $180 as is.
This boat is fun.

Can of worms there, but what a sleek looking ride!  I'd love to jam out to the salmon grounds on a boat like that some day.

Good luck with it, T.   

It should be a fairly easy fix as long as you can use Malibu plastic for the work.
This boat is no longer in production. They still offer a shorter version but I believe the 4.4 was replaced with a fishing boat with similar lines.
The Express

Now I really need to stop looking at the Express.

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