Re: Boat Purchase Question
If you are going to do any salt water cruising or possibly buying a salt water boat, it should have fresh water cooling, also known as closed cooling( it has a heat exchanger that circulates antifreeze through the engine and exhaust manifolds). If you are going to do more than the occaisional overnight, and especialy if you want any kind of privacy, you are most likely looking at around a 25 foot boat with an aft cabin. I had a boat a few years ago that would fit your requirement nicely, it was a 1995 Regal commodore 256, it was a great small cruiser, never had any problems, easy to trailer, powered by twin merc 3.0's with alpha 1 gen II drives. You might also look at a Sea Ray 250 or 270 Sundancer, or the Crownline. From what you wrote, you should be able to spot a bad or tired engine.The big difference from what you are used to is that boat engines have wet exhaust, there is water flowing through the exhaust maniflods and elbows/risers. This is one of the biggest problems with these setups, as the manifolds age and the water jackets wear out, if they are not replaced, they can cause water to get into the combustion chambers and cause serious problems (can you say rebuild time). For a typical single V-8 the PARTS price for new manifolds and elbows is just under $1000. The outdrive(s) and hull would be the main areas of concern for you. If the boat is trailered, and does not have bottom paint, it is a bit easier, but to check for any repairs and to make sure there are not any areas of delamination you really should have a hull survey done. At the very least you should get under the boat with a strong spot light and look for any wavy areas or for any circular patterns, also look for any areas of inconsistant finish or rough edges. As for the outdrive, remember that it is more of a mechanical piece and not cosmetic. If the paint isn't great or has been repainted, that, in and of itself does not mean anything, what you are looking at initially is that there are no cracks, voids or serious pits in the drive. The skeg (vertical fin at the bottom) should be straight and not have any chips out of it, the propellor should likewise not have dings or chips in the metal,worn off paint is fine. The next check on an outdrive is to drain a few drops of oil and make sure that it is not milky (water in oil) and not have any metal shavings (worn/broken gears). I could go on, but as you can tell there is a-lot to look at, and this is all before the sea trial! To sea trial a boat properly you need to know what it is supposed to behave like (max speed, maximum rpm's at wide open throttle, what is normal and abnormal vibration and noise, etc.). And we haven't even checked any of the other systems such as the vhf, freshwater system, ac and dc power systems, head or plumbing, etc. Some of the things you might miss will be minor if they don't work ( vhf radio...under $200.00). If you don't see a serious hull problem, that $20,000.00 boat might be worthless.
