saltwater boat

jeep9mm

New Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Charlotte, Wilmington
Hey...anyone here know a thing or two about boats?
I am looking to buy one and am going to look at two or three tomorrow. I am looking for a used powerboat with enough power to ski...since I am in wilmington there is no doubt that all boats around here have seen saltwater..anyway any tips on what I should look for in a used boat? good signs? bad signs?


also, if you are selling one let me know..


Rod
 
make sure you check the engine (inboard or outboard) for ANY signs of corrosion, oxydation whatever. check all the electrical stuff for corrosion as well. thats basically all i would look out for, and make sure to test drive it first. My pops and I ALWAYS run our outboard boat with fresh water through the hose (with the little adapter thingy) after we take it out of the water at our beach house. we also spray all the electrical connections down with CRC-90 and wash it so that the saltwater will do as little harm as possible. Make sure you get something you feel good about... fixing an engine while rocking back and forth isnt fun
 
look at the hull make sure theres no cracking or spiderwebbing showing weakness in the hull also look at the deck of the boat for the same thing
 
Check lower unit fluid for water ,should be nice & clear , check compression on each cylinder should be within 10 pounds of each other ,check steering cables & throttle cables,check for rot in transom.
 
Also check the exhaust, if one of the exhaust boots gets cracked on the outside and saltwater gets in it can cause more problems if not caught.

What kind of boat are you looking for? I have a 1990 Chris Craft 198 forsale.
 
cool. I am looking at a pleasure power boat strong enough to ski...been looking at a boston whaler rage jet boat and a bayliner 16ft outboard...looking to pay from 4000-7000 or so.

So this is a weird question but imagine if i say with a car anything under 20K miles its brand new, 20-40K still no problems but aging starts, 40-70k some things start to go wrong, some expensive, some cheap. 70K -100k expect to have some work done soon. and 100K plus i wouldnt buy.
Can someone do something similar with boat hours? how much is too much? how much is okay? etc


Thanks!
 
Rob if you want me to go with you when you check these boats out let me know. I know what to look for and where to look. Remember I work for a dealer :D I'll be honest though the way things are going your really going to want to look towards a 4 stroke if you can find one. Gas is $4.xx to $5.xx a gallon on the waterway and 2 strokes love to drink gas. And depending on which one you buy some of the oil is as high as almost $40.00 a gallon Just remember most of the time when buying a used boat the 2 best days are the day you buy it and the day you sell it :flipoff2: Just let me know and I'll make some time and check over anything you'd like.
 
I use to be a service manager here at a local dealership. Give me the specs on the boats your looking at and i can give you what to look for. The whaler rage, depending on year has some engine issues, expecially if its old enough to have the OMC power... Either way I can help ya out.

Not to mention a jet is not usually a good sky choice. usually the skier will jerk a jet boat all over the place... but it can be done.
 
Give us a price range and we will be able to help you out a lot more...

More hours on a used boat is not always a bad thing, a lot of problems with boats can be attributed to not being used and sitting rather than being run. I would stay away from bayliner, especially since it will be a saltwater boat, bayliners are cheap bottom of the line boats and dont normally have the hardware that is capable of holding up to saltwater use.
 
Boarded said:
Give us a price range and we will be able to help you out a lot more...
More hours on a used boat is not always a bad thing, a lot of problems with boat s can be attributed to not being used and sitting rather than being run. I would stay away from bayliner, especially since it will be a saltwater boat, bayliners are cheap bottom of the line boats and dont normally have the hardware that is capable of holding up to saltwater use.
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AMEN
 
how do we feel about a 1994 Glastron with a Merccruiser 3.0? Guy is a wakeboarder and has had a lot of work done in it recently including new floor, new outdrive, new steering. Boat is a little rough but not bad at all...it is the kind of boat I am looking for. It has one dent that has been fixed and the paint is a little rough over where the dent used to be. Guy seems nice and obviously is in love with this boat but just got himself a new one...he is asking 3800 with a trailer that is falling apart so anyway id buy another trailer... good deal?
 
What Size?


If the trailer was good and didnt have a half assed repair job thats just a touch high, but with those two elements it seems a little steep to me. A glastron is a Fresh Water boat.... Corrosion and other things that salt water does to boats will occur quicker. Its not a top of the line boat, and for 3800 it should be in really good shape..

The merc 3.0 has always been a good engine. Fuel efficent easy to repair, fairly cheap to repair depending on what goes wrong. Is it fresh water cooled? Find out when the riser was last pulled and gasket checked... Is this a freshwater boat or is it down in wilmington?? If the boat is in wilmingto and he says its never touched salt water run.. People tend to think they can get one over on you sometimes..

The replaced drive and stuff tends to worry me... A halfassed hull repair and a replaced drive may point to a wrecked/storm damaged boat.

Mercruiser packages are pretty decent, but if there has been any trama to the transom bracket, gimbal housing, trim rams. etc from a impact things could get costly and expensive


Also in 1994 the most popular Galstron Ski boat was the 18' 7" flavor..... This boat usually came with the 4.3 Mercruiser... So is the motor orig? And if it is then its the base model boat which may be a little underpowered... Underpowered boats tend to burn more fuel then the boats that have the highest hp the boat is rated for.
 
thanks! I appreciate that info and I dont think I will be getting that particular boat because with the added cost of a new trailer its not really worth it. I've been reading about the cons of jet boats but is this a good deal...the pictures make it look flawless but it is a 1994 and its kinda pricy...
http://boats.com/listing/boat_details.jsp?entityid=102545121&searchtype=buy&searchid=1&back=%2Flisting%2Fcache%2Flisting_search_results.jsp%3Fbdi%3Dtrue%26payingBrandsOnly%3Dtrue%26wuom%3D126%26fromPrice%3D5000%26ps%3D20%26ps%3D20%26psdistance%3D100%26so%3D2%26pszipcode%3D28403%26toPrice%3D10000%26searchtype%3Dbuy%26uom%3D126%26duom%3D126%26sm%3D3%26toYear%3D2007%26currencyid%3D100%26luom%3D126%26sfm%3Dfalse%26slim%3Dquick%26searchPage%3D%252Flisting%252Fcache%252Fquick_search.jsp%26n%3D6%253A-5%253A74212%253A98584%253A115&showDL=false&showMD=false

Also...what are the laws about boat insurance? How much should i expect to pay?
 
Not a bad looking boat man.. I have not ever seen that brand... If your going jet a Merc Jet is the way to go. its actually a 90hp outboard block hooked up to a jet drive. I should be in Little River the end of the week to make a final inspection on my future purchase :) If its going to be a while til u get down there or if your going to be down there around the same time i am, I will be happy to take a look at it for you.. the boat i am looking to get is right down the road from where that one is located... just mine takes up a little more water :)

My future toy:

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/list...&slim=broker&&hosturl=lombardi&&ywo=lombardi&
 
I honesty dont remember what insurance was on my little boat. I would venture to say less the 500 a year.. but idk..
 
WOW Congratulations man! That is a sweet boat...I would love to take you up on inspecting the boat i am interested in since you are going to be down there anyway. I can drive down from wilmington and meet you there and get your advice on that lil one...let me know when this week ur gonna be down here..

Rod
 
Alright, it should be sometime the end of this week, if i can get everything up here taken care of this week. I have a few projects in need of finishing up, I went to little river for a week a couple of of weeks ago and still playing catch up! lol.. I love it down there, actually that boat will become a live aboard for about 75% of the time, i have found a way to expand my company down that way :driver:
 
Yeah the diesel flavor of those boats is very hard to find... but on the other hand, I can run that boat at 16knots at 3700 rpm, and get 15 gallons per hour with the genset running, that aint too bad.
 
jeep9mm said:
Also...what are the laws about boat insurance? How much should i expect to pay?
Click to expand...

As far as I know you dont have to have any,but I wouldnt be on the water without it. Liability only on my 17ft was around $100 and year Full coverage on my 22ft is just under $300 a year.
 
Check your insurance carefully. Boat insurance is just that. It covers the boat and only the boat depending on the insuree while others offer boat insurance and it covers both the boat AND the motors. Just had an incident at work where a guys boat sank but his motors were not covered b/c they were not listed on his policy
 
My boat policy is ~$270 for $300K of coverage on an '88 Fourwinns 21'. Since I moved up here from Texas I am sad to say that it hasn't been out, but once I take care of a minor issue with the outdrive things should be good to go. Never be afraid of saltwater use, but do be afraid of abuse.
 
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