Re: Bowrider suggestions for new boaters /
I was in your shoes last July. I did as much reading on here as I could. It appears you are doing the same. The thing that stuck out in my head is that it's not so much the make of the boat that is important but how it has been maintained. I'm talking used here.
For me, the wife and I thought we wanted to be boat people but there was no way to be sure until we bought. So I wasn't down with dropping money on a new boat. I kept looking at ads from used dealers, craigslist, etc for many months. Be very wary of the stuff on Craigslist if you don't know what you are looking at in a boat. I did a lot of home work before I started really looking.
I came across a 93 17' Starcraft that had just been repowered with a Mariner 115 outboard. The boat came from Indiana(fresh water) and had been garaged all it's life. Both the exterior and interior looked like a year or two old. The owner needed money to fix his truck so he was letting it go for $3,500.00. I found very little info out there about fiberglass Starcrafts of that era so I just looked at it's overall condition. I made sure the transom and floors were solid. I didn't find anything that alarmed me. But the most expensive thing on boats is the power train so that's where I really spent time looking things over. The boat was also designed as a fish and ski so it had a built in live well. This was a plus because these are the exact things I wanted to do with a boat. I knew I didn't intend on taking it miles and miles out into the Gulf of Mexico so the 17' size didn't bother me. The boat had an outboard on it which was also a selling point for me.......I had researched and talked to a lot of folks about OB vs IO and the consensus was that OB's are normally more reliable and much less costly to maintain.
The only thing I didn't do was take it for a sea trial before buying. I know that is a big no no and I don't recommend doing what I did. But I am mechanically inclined and a good friend of mine was a boat mechanic for many years so I wasn't worried about things mechanically. Again I'm suggesting to do the exact opposite of what I did here. I did hear it run on the muffs and verified it would go into both forward and reverese without issue.
Well, there was very little I had to do to the boat. A new bilge pump, rectifier, and oil tank because of the sensor. I did everything myself so this didn't cost much to do.
At the price I got mine we just couldn't pass it up. I figured if we found that we hated boating I didn't loose much in the purchase and I believe I could get most of my money if not all back out of it.
I expect to get hounded for saying I didn't go on a sea trial. And rightfully so. The folks here give the best information to minimize the possability of you getting hosed on a purchase.
Other factors to take into consideration are how mechanically inclined are you? That can be a big factor in how much this hobby costs you. Where do you plan to store it? Your side yard is much cheaper than a marina or having it sit baking in the sun in some dusty storage lot.
Our story, we love our boat and take it out every chance we get. I don't think the magic will wear off. Hopefully this one lasts long enough for the kids to get out of the house and we can afford payments on a new, step up in a boat.
