Looking at a 236 Crestliner Sabre with a 2001 225 FICHT

[wishin i was fishin']

I like the boat. I like the trailer. I like the 9.9 kicker. For the $6000 the price is right. The big outboard makes me nervous about the purchase. I was originally looking at islanders and sabres with 4.3 chevys but I checked out this boat yesterday and I like it. The Evinrude fired right up when attatched to the water hose but he didnt let it run for very long(like a minute). It has just under 350 hours. Obviously I wont buy it until i take it for a spin at the local lake. I need you guys with your 'rude' experience to either turn me on or turn me away from this one.

thanks alot!
Brent

 

[bigrockets]

Re: Looking at a 236 Crestliner Sabre with a 2001 225 FICHT

Suggest you put "FICHT" into the forum search box and read every posting. The motor has an average of about 35 hours per year on it. The average outboard motor runs for 1500 hours before requiring significant maintenance. The average outboard motor use per year according to the marine manufacturers assoc. statistics is 200 hrs per year. Yours doesn't have a lot of hours for a 10 year old motor. Now you should research the FICHT motors to see if there have been any unusual failure modes, defects or design flaws. Remember on I/O powered boats the engines are simple but the drive line is more complex with big seals and boots that are prone to leaking and destroying transoms and stringers. As with everything else in boating it's a tradeoff. Some basic GOOGling will give you a lot of info to make your decision on.

 

[wilde1j]

Re: Looking at a 236 Crestliner Sabre with a 2001 225 FICHT

The 2000 and earlier V6 Fichts had such a poor reputation that I wouldn't consider any Ficht, period, even if the motor were valued at zero. But, it's your money.

 

[J Hartman]

Re: Looking at a 236 Crestliner Sabre with a 2001 225 FICHT

i'm an evinrude man, and i must say the ficht wasn't their best engine by any means. lots of problems out of those engines.

 

[jonesg]

Re: Looking at a 236 Crestliner Sabre with a 2001 225 FICHT

One thing ,the ficht has a near zero resale value .
They're also not exactly DIY freindly either for servicing.

 

[ChrisAG]

Re: Looking at a 236 Crestliner Sabre with a 2001 225 FICHT

One thing ,the ficht has a near zero resale value .
They're also not exactly DIY freindly either for servicing.

So other yr. 2000+ outboards ARE DIY friendly? Which ones?

The Ficht name is tarnished, but a Bombardier-made Ficht has zero resale value? I disagree. Try looking at the classifieds. Resale may be slightly less than a 4-stroke, but nowhere near zero. There is a used market for these engines, simply because the problem ones have mostly been weeded out over time, and what's left are engines that are comparable to the competition. The buyers that know this are willing to pay a fair price.

 

[Haffiman]

Re: Looking at a 236 Crestliner Sabre with a 2001 225 FICHT

The Ficht's certainly had their issues when the first came on the market, and it took quite some years to get it sorted out.
I would say it may be less risk of buying a working 2000 mod Ficht today than new in 2000. It has probably been upgraded and followed up the the latest available standards, but that may be checked easily.But it will not run for ever and future parts availability might be the biggest problems. Aftermarket parts are next to non existent and OEM comes at a price.
It may all be a question of price.

 

[wishin i was fishin']

Re: Looking at a 236 Crestliner Sabre with a 2001 225 FICHT

Thanks guys. I did enough searching that i'm not going to buy it. To many problems. I really like the sabre though.......