JoLin
Vice Admiral
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2007
- Messages
- 5,146
1997 Four Winns 278 Vista
Twin Volvo FI 4.3's with SX drives. Owner and I have settled on an as-is, take it or leave it price of $15K. I'm bringing him a (mostly) refundable deposit on Thursday night.
Did the sea trial yesterday. Engines are clean, oil's good and they ran strong and cool throughout their rpm range. The boat popped on plane easily, and runs at 29-ish mph at 3600 rpm. That's in line with the specs in Four Winns' archives. Trim and tabs work fine. So far, the 'downs' are some fogged isinglass and a broken tilt wheel lock (it flops up and down). The port engine shift control is a little out of sync with the starboard, so I may need to add new cables to the 'punch list'. Can't get the GPS past the 'disclaimer' screen. The boat is really dirty.
I let my friend Bob put it through its paces. After a series of forward, reverse, full lock turns, on plane and off plane maneuvers, he gave me 'the nod'. Next step is the survey. We're arranging that asap.
A note to sellers... take some of the clutter out of your boat and give it a quick washdown, for heaven's sake. Like it or not, if 'The Admiral' doesn't like the boat, you won't sell it to that potential buyer. Linda now likes it as much as I do. BUT, it took some coaxing from me and a second visit before she could look past the dirt in the cockpit and all the junk in the cabin.
My .02
Twin Volvo FI 4.3's with SX drives. Owner and I have settled on an as-is, take it or leave it price of $15K. I'm bringing him a (mostly) refundable deposit on Thursday night.
Did the sea trial yesterday. Engines are clean, oil's good and they ran strong and cool throughout their rpm range. The boat popped on plane easily, and runs at 29-ish mph at 3600 rpm. That's in line with the specs in Four Winns' archives. Trim and tabs work fine. So far, the 'downs' are some fogged isinglass and a broken tilt wheel lock (it flops up and down). The port engine shift control is a little out of sync with the starboard, so I may need to add new cables to the 'punch list'. Can't get the GPS past the 'disclaimer' screen. The boat is really dirty.
I let my friend Bob put it through its paces. After a series of forward, reverse, full lock turns, on plane and off plane maneuvers, he gave me 'the nod'. Next step is the survey. We're arranging that asap.
A note to sellers... take some of the clutter out of your boat and give it a quick washdown, for heaven's sake. Like it or not, if 'The Admiral' doesn't like the boat, you won't sell it to that potential buyer. Linda now likes it as much as I do. BUT, it took some coaxing from me and a second visit before she could look past the dirt in the cockpit and all the junk in the cabin.
My .02
