Like Greg's, our seats failed after about a year and in the same manner. The support bars pushed up through the plastic. We had a local carpenter make some wooden seats that work very well and we sure like sitting on white painted wood a lot better than black plastic after it's been in the sun awhile.

If you do get a new one, I would suggest making a sun cover for the foam flotation that is just under the rail. After a year or two in the sun, it starts to crumble. Also, the oars that came with our PB failed after about a year (the blade of one broke and the fittings on both rusted badly). Also, you have to sit inboard on the seats, not outboard on the tubes (though that's one reason it is drier). Other than that, we love our 12' PB. Faster with the same hp, drier, more volume for stuff and much faster to set up than our inflatable.

One concern of ours before actually using it was getting into it from the water when snorkeling. It turned out that it is at least as easy as the inflatable (though there is a technique to it).