What is Your List of Best 20'-24' Boats for Ocean Worth Putting Time and Money Into?

[bobdec]

From your list of boat adds, I'm guessing either Long Island Sound or further up towards Boston is what you mentioned as 'ocean' . I either case unless you plan on staying inside on rivers or bays I would think mid 20's close to shore on good days and larger on most days. Went through the thread unless I missed it, I could not find what your plans are for the boat. Do you plan on mooring it or towing it. Towing a larger boat around the tri-states roads is not always a pleasure, road restrictions, etc. Do you plan on Cruising, family recreational, fishing or all of the above. Lived around there years back and ran a 26' inboard cruiser, It was adequate on most days, felt very small on others. If was back up there it would be a minimum 25' offshore hull with outboard's, an I/O in salt just would be my last choice (personal opinion). I understand you want to start out small, but big water can make a small boat very uncomfortable even on good days.. Now if you plan on staying on inside water then it's a different story. EG: NY harbor and up the Hudson was a cakewalk in the 26 footer, even ran a 19 OB cutty on the Hudson for about 4 years w/o problems. There is a lot of commercial traffic up that way , ferries, tugs, day liners, barges, tankers, etc. (with BIG wakes).

 

[saumon]

Whaler are as close as you can find for "Boats for Ocean Worth Putting Time and Money Into"

http://maine.craigslist.org/bod/4606294486.html

http://maine.craigslist.org/bod/4593346134.html

http://hudsonvalley.craigslist.org/boa/4568169223.html

http://providence.craigslist.org/boa/4590914834.html

http://nmi.craigslist.org/boa/4550977734.html

 

[bigkahuna427]

I am in Southern Maine in South Portland. I live 2 miles from the public boat launch on Casco Bay. My use would be a little cruising and fishing. I would fish for blues, stripers, cod, haddock. I can get a recreational lobster license for 5 traps too. I could certainly trailer a smaller boat and have had experience with mooring a boat but this one I would probably keep at a slip. I have done some tuna fishing which is pretty expensive and I am trying to not let that bug bite me. To keep it simple I am thinking a 23 foot boat with a good amount of freeboard is pretty manageable. A trailer would be mostly for storage but I might drag it up to camp on a lake once in a while. I say I am trying to keep it simple but there is a 28 foot Bertram not far from me with new engines that needs interior work. I am resisting the urge to go see it. Of course that could be, WHAT HAVE I DONE!

 

[jc55]

Mmmm, Southern maine...restoring a retired downeast lobster boat with an old diesel...ahhh. And the use of Saumon's Whaler in the meantime. cough, cough...Well back to NE Ohio, dodging pontoon boats in my Steiger...:blue:

 

[bigkahuna427]

You guys have been really great and I do appreciate all the guidance. If you care to comment please do read through and any suggestions are very welcome..

I have found a boat and like it a lot for a bunch of reasons. It is a 25' Aquasport Express Fisherman 1985 (I think). The current owner (a truck mechanic) has had it for three years. He has removed the engine and replaced valve cover, oil pan gaskets, alternator, starter, some sending units, ignition coil, painted the engine, powder coated the oil pan and valve covers, checked the bearings and a bunch of other stuff. He has also had the outdrive off and replaced the shift boot. It is pretty clean under the engine cover and most of the wiring looks good. It has a GM 350CI engine that sounds really good and showing 165 hours on the meter. Being the mechanic that I am the 350 appeals to me as I know it like the back of my hand. It has a four blade prop. The outdrive looks to have been bottom painted black. He is a meticulous guy and has literally done everything I would have done with an older boat.

It does come with pretty much everything I need to get on the water. Included are Standard Horizon radio, a handheld radio that needs a battery, a Garmin 172C with the chip for my area, anchor, fenders, mooring ball, life jackets, flairs and gun (expired), a spare prop w wrench, and some extra parts. The trailer has just had disc brakes installed with a new hitch, master, brake lines, lights. The rest of the trailer looked pretty good except the fenders had some rust. The wheels I thought were going to be white wagon wheels (painted steel) but they are in fact galvanized wheels that someone had painted white. It has an electric winch and a battery box mounted on the tongue.

It has an aluminum gas tank which did not seem to have a lot of surface corrosion on the top. The cover that goes over that tank is wood and I am wondering if it replaces a screwed down fiberglass cover. That tank may be one of my first projects. It is a 90 gallon tank and sits under the center of the deck, I guess they rot from the bottom where they mount. At the very least I would pull that tank and look it over on the bottom. As I am sitting here writing this I am realizing the well the tank sits in would fill with rain water and should drain overboard as in the event of leaking you would not want fuel in your bilge.

I do have some concerns about a through hull mounted transducer for the depth gauge. Under the boat it mounts on a block that might be as much as 2" tall and 3" wide. Thought it was weird to have a block like that on a planing hull. That block mounts with 4 studs and nuts that can be seen in front of the engine, (see photos). It looks like the studs were not long enough so they drilled into the core of the boat to get the nuts on. Of course without sealing the core there could be water infiltration. It was submerged on the bottom of the bilge when I looked at the boat but is on my list of things to check.

​Another concern I had was on the inside of the transom were the gimble housing mounts to the transom the fiberglass appears to be cut away, (see photos). I do not know if this is normal or not. Your thoughts on that?

He did mention to me that it kind of grinds when going into gear. My initial thought was being the meticulous guy he is he might be trying to engage the outdrive slowly. However I have read that can be an outdrive problem. I assume based on age it is an Alpha 1 but I have no idea how to tell the difference. It would not be a deal killer for me if I can negotiate that into the price. I really do not have much of any experience with these outdrives so your thought here are welcome.

It is a 30 year old boat so it is not perfect but better than you would expect for a boat this age. It does not have a seat! I have found photos of these boats online and looks like it would have had a little bench seat in the cockpit. Others I have seen have a box that a post seat sits on. You cannot just mount the seat base to the floor because there is no room for it with the wooden cover that sits on top of the gas tank. It looks like the seat base for a post seat would sit half on the fiberglass floor and half on the wooden tank cover. Any suggestion here would be helpful....

http://s1012.photobucket.com/user/nwsmith427/slideshow/Mobile Uploads

 

[crb478]

Most of what has been done looks good to me, but picture 14 looks like the transom was cut out and replaced with a crude patch, that would concern me more than anything else on the boat.

 

[bigkahuna427]

I think I might be going up soon to look at the 1985 25' Aquasport Express Fisherman again. I will get a good look at that transom to see if it is solid. It certainly should have been gone over with fiberglass so maybe that is a future project. I was also concerned about picture 19. Mounted in the hull just forward of the front of the engine is a through hull mounted depth transducer with a block on the outside of the hull. It looked to me like the studs were not long enough and they drilled into the core. Between that though hull transducer mount and what see with the transom it makes me wonder if a prior owner had no respect for the core of the boat.

I would have done that mount differently but if the core was sealed around those holes with a fiberglass filler I guess that would be correctly? What would be the core for that boat? Is it a foam core or wood?