Possible first boat - is this a good deal?

[Turbodawg]

OK, technically not my first boat. Had a 16' aluminum powerboat growing up, and sailboats more recently, but first boat in a long time.

I have an opportunity to pick up a 2005 Bayliner 195, 5.0L Merc w/ Alpha. Low hours on the engine (~300 hours), claims it is regularly maintained and winterized, bimini top...looks to be in good shape (going to see it in person soon).

They're asking $11,000, which is in line with the NADA, I believe.

Is this a good deal?
Anything I should be careful of, or check particularly well?

Thanks!

 

[jkust]

Re: Possible first boat - is this a good deal?

Where are you located? A 300 hour 2005 in my region is really high hours. My 2003 is at about 117 hours on the clock which is pretty common with our short season. When I bought my 03, 4 years ago with very few hours and still in the initial break in, I was eyeing a nice Four Winns with the almost non existant MPI 4.3 but had over 200 hours. He never sold it due to the high hours. My point is your idea of a good deal and mine are possibly worlds apart. Regardless of marine logic, there's no way I'm buying a 300 hour boat for NADA when I could get a 50 hour version in my Minnesota mentality.

 

[Turbodawg]

Re: Possible first boat - is this a good deal?

Where are you located? A 300 hour 2005 in my region is really high hours. My 2003 is at about 117 hours on the clock which is pretty common with our short season. When I bought my 03, 4 years ago with very few hours and still in the initial break in, I was eyeing a nice Four Winns with the almost non existant MPI 4.3 but had over 200 hours. He never sold it due to the high hours. My point is your idea of a good deal and mine are possibly worlds apart. Regardless of marine logic, there's no way I'm buying a 300 hour boat for NADA when I could get a 50 hour version in my Minnesota mentality.

Thanks, Jkust - Totally makes sense. I'm in NC - the boat is on the coast, so the boating season is at least 8 months/year, if not year-round. The 300 hours was a guess on his part (still don't understand why EVERY boat doesn't come with an hour meter!) He said they usually took it out for 5-6 hours at a time, so that averages out to it being used about 10x per year...probably more since I doubt it was running the entire time.