Re: looking for new 21to 25 foot bowrider help!
Re: looking for new 21to 25 foot bowrider help!
In my opinion you could get a very nice, large boat for alot less money if you would consider a used boat. Spend 25-30k on a good used boat and save the rest to play with. A much better investment in the long run.
I don't think truer words have ever been typed. The over 20 foot boats around here are the best bargains in the used market because the pool of buyers shrinks hugely when you can't store it in a standard garage. Add a cuddy on it and you can almost just take it off their hands. People buy them, underestimate how much they will actually use them, then sell them in a couple years with 30 or 40 hours on them, then take huge depreciation losses plus you get all of the gear they bought in the price which can amount to thousands of dollars of stuff. The bigger the boat, the better the bargain can be had. Here in MN when you look at the recreational boating season of at most 3 months, then subtract off kids activities, business trips, bad weather, graduations, family obligations, yard work and you really, really have to want to be a boat owner to get enough use out of it. That's exactly how I got my sig boat nearly new plus $2000 of gear thrown into the deal as the owner discovered being an owner didn't fit his time availability. I'm adamant about getting the absolute most out of everything in life for the absolute least amount of money then adding the difference to the net worth. Buying barely used is great for that plus boat designs move at a snails pace and so manufacturers keep the same designs for several year with few changes year to year. The more difficult issue is finding an owner in the above situation that isn't under water on financing and paid cash. Surpisingly people finance stuff more often than just write a check for it even if it is only a sub 30k boat.
When you get into the mid 20 foot class of boats, the manufacturers really start to compete at the margins unlike the under 20 footers where there is very obviously the Chevy, the Cadillac and the Lexus levels of boats. Where a small Sea Ray sport for the price is a disgrace the venerable Sea Ray name, a mid 20 foot Sea Ray is a very nice boat where you have to pick it apart to find its faults.
