Re: Talk me out of... err, umm... or into this boat purchase...?
UPDATE: Went to see the boat. Walk up, take one look at it, and I am like (in my head), "Holy cr~p, this has the V -- if ya could call it that -- of a Ranger Bass boat and maybe a smidgen more free board (which is slightly more than none).... seems decent in size though... but darn, this blows".
I hold poker-faced as we walk, then Mike, the owner of the biz, says, "Ok, so that's the 21 which is more like a Checkmate you saw growing up, and here is the 24 BRX."
I must say, the 24'-er is whole different story. First thing I noticed was that she has good freeboard -- offshore ocean-running freeboard of a 27' beast? No. But good freeboard -- way better than a pic would show. I noticed the rubrail sits such that there is another 6-8 inches of freeboard that they eye doesn't see in the pics. The windshield is low relative to the top of the deck, but relative to the seating position, it is not.
It's an honest-to-goodness V-bottom boat. She was bigger than I pictured in my head.
The deck inside doesn't sit such that your knees are above the gunwales or too high up on them. You are definitely in the boat.
Incentives: The motors. Apparently, and this should be of no surprise because we all know O/B engines aren't dynoed to precisely the HP # stamped on the cowling AND there is more to an engine than H.P.... well, apparently, the 300 Optimax XS will mop the floors with the 300 Verado. The perforance numbers indicate a 50+ H.P. difference between them, and the XS does its business best at higher RPM. Ergo, Merc and Checkmate have incentives to make the Verado an interesting tease. After incentives, a 300 HP Verado is at least 5 grand cheaper that the 300 HP XS.
I will add more details, but I've done as much diligence as I can spare right now. After a look, the 24 BRX remains on the list. Oh, as for fit and finish, she is definitely finished and has the details to show it. Checkmates have always had a good build quality, and I know that before Baja infused them with some capital and resources they were trying to survive, so I am sure there are some Checkmates out there that suffered until very recently. I tried to find flaws with this rig, but they are only shortcomings versus heftier I/O's that are much more expensive. The bow is big. Seating up there is long and wide... the bullet nose makes it appear narrow.
Will add my pics in a few...
