So I bought a boat

[BUTCH1]

You've been around the wrong boats...

Glastron is a well respected name here in FL and are considered a quality boat.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I bought a 1992, 17.5 foot bowrider when I was 22. I had that boat for about 5 years.... I paid $4300 for it....I gave it a new radio, a new battery, and listed it for sale @ $5000. After having numerous people interested, one guy said he'd buy it...we negotiated $4500. I could tell he was on the fence so I told him if he bought it that day, I'd drop the price to $4300.

I was on the water constantly in that boat...it served me well.

I've changed my style these days. I don't drive as fast, but don't need speed as much anymore. The marina is only 3 miles away from my dock.

 

[DaTT]

I bought a 1992, 17.5 foot bowrider when I was 22. I had that boat for about 5 years.... I paid $4300 for it....I gave it a new radio, a new battery, and listed it for sale @ $5000. After having numerous people interested, one guy said he'd buy it...we negotiated $4500. I could tell he was on the fence so I told him if he bought it that day, I'd drop the price to $4300.

I was on the water constantly in that boat...it served me well.

I've changed my style these days. I don't drive as fast, but don't need speed as much anymore. The marina is only 3 miles away from my dock.

Would love a pontoon boat. And as for speed, you can get pontoon boats with twin 300hp outboards now.

 

[halik]

Make sure you have a big wallet. Boats consume too much money and give little in return. Hard to find a picture of a boat advertisment in a magazine without two or three pretty girls. But in truth, when I have been to the lake, I've never seen any boat cruising around with two or three girls laying out on the deck. It's just a fantasy to sell boats.

DIY my friend. Anytime you pay people to do stuff for you, it consumes a lot of money...

 

[halik]

I bought a 1992, 17.5 foot bowrider when I was 22. I had that boat for about 5 years.... I paid $4300 for it....I gave it a new radio, a new battery, and listed it for sale @ $5000. After having numerous people interested, one guy said he'd buy it...we negotiated $4500. I could tell he was on the fence so I told him if he bought it that day, I'd drop the price to $4300.

I was on the water constantly in that boat...it served me well.

I've changed my style these days. I don't drive as fast, but don't need speed as much anymore. The marina is only 3 miles away from my dock.

Ha actually the guy I bought the boat from was selling to get a pontoon as well. Apparently bobbing around and crushing beers is more fun than cruising.

Took it out on the lake yesterday, tons of fun. Need to adjust the trim tab and center the steering, both are pretty off center.

 

[slag]

Also, if you boat where there is a good chance to clip a rock, even slightly, I would get rid of that stainless steel prop. They don't give when they hit something and fuck up your lower end.

I agree 100% with this.

 

[slag]

Make sure you have a big wallet. Boats consume too much money and give little in return. Hard to find a picture of a boat advertisment in a magazine without two or three pretty girls. But in truth, when I have been to the lake, I've never seen any boat cruising around with two or three girls laying out on the deck. It's just a fantasy to sell boats.

PFFT.. Boats are awesome.

 

[BUTCH1]

DIY my friend. Anytime you pay people to do stuff for you, it consumes a lot of money...

Yup, perform basic maintenance yourself, buy a Chilton's for your motor and learn all about it, also keep a cover on it when not in use, that alone goes a long way to keeping a boat in good condition..

 

[OlafSicky]

There are 2 happy days in a boat owners life the day the buys the boat and the day he sells it

Besides everybody knows you need to buy a sailboat if you want to get chicks.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Would love a pontoon boat. And as for speed, you can get pontoon boats with twin 300hp outboards now.

What I've wanted is a 3-pontoon boat. A few companies make them now that have a center pontoon slightly larger/lower than the other two. This allows it to ride on less surface area when it planes out and still provides stability.

Manitou has the name "Vtoon", but other companies make these too...

http://www.manitoupontoonboats.com/performance/vtoon

Check out the maneuverability videos.

 

[slag]

I just bought another boat. It's a 1998 Wellcraft 2000 eclipse ss. Big step up from our 89 regal medallion. I was looking for the past few weeks and was pretty sure I wanted a crownline 202, but I got the wellcraft at a fantastic price and it has the 5.7 liter volvo penta with penta sx outdrive on it. Should be a nice change from the mercruiser alpha one on my boat. I pick it up on Monday and can't wait to do the normal oil/outdrive fluid change, impeller change (on the engine this time, not in the outdrive), and inspect the bellows.

 

[exar333]

Make sure you have a big wallet. Boats consume too much money and give little in return. Hard to find a picture of a boat advertisment in a magazine without two or three pretty girls. But in truth, when I have been to the lake, I've never seen any boat cruising around with two or three girls laying out on the deck. It's just a fantasy to sell boats.

Seriously? You pretty much can't cruise on any lake of a decent size up here in MN without seeing this during the summer. Stay off the small ponds and relax on some bigger lakes. Find a nice sand bar, and you pretty much have to shake the ladies off with a stick. (no joke)

We do take summertime seriously up here in MN tho...

OP - enjoy the boat! With your DIY cred (I saw your old Audi thread) the boat will be no sweat! Had a good friend who completely re-did his boat and made his own leather seats even. Thing looks amazing now.

 

[halik]

I just bought another boat. It's a 1998 Wellcraft 2000 eclipse ss. Big step up from our 89 regal medallion. I was looking for the past few weeks and was pretty sure I wanted a crownline 202, but I got the wellcraft at a fantastic price and it has the 5.7 liter volvo penta with penta sx outdrive on it. Should be a nice change from the mercruiser alpha one on my boat. I pick it up on Monday and can't wait to do the normal oil/outdrive fluid change, impeller change (on the engine this time, not in the outdrive), and inspect the bellows.

What did that run you, out of curiosity?

 

[halik]

Seriously? You pretty much can't cruise on any lake of a decent size up here in MN without seeing this during the summer. Stay off the small ponds and relax on some bigger lakes. Find a nice sand bar, and you pretty much have to shake the ladies off with a stick. (no joke)

We do take summertime seriously up here in MN tho...

OP - enjoy the boat! With your DIY cred (I saw your old Audi thread) the boat will be no sweat! Had a good friend who completely re-did his boat and made his own leather seats even. Thing looks amazing now.

Heh DIY skills came in handy already,
we had the starter finally give up last weekend; explains the occasional rough starts. Fixed it with $80 part and half hour of my time.

 

[slag]

What did that run you, out of curiosity?

I paid $6500. I was looking at crownlines, glastrons, four winns, chaparral, caravelle, and cobalts. I was looking at 20-22 foot boats and most were in the 10k-16k range. I was lucky to find this one at an incredible price.

I'm going to sell our Regal here either in a few weeks or next spring. She's been a dependable boat but we've outgrown her.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Heh DIY skills came in handy already,
we had the starter finally give up last weekend; explains the occasional rough starts. Fixed it with $80 part and half hour of my time.

Outboards are a little fun to work on as long as the boat is out of the water. Remove the cover and you have plenty of room to work...some boats even have cup holders near the transom (like my pontoon) so you can put your beer down without worrying about spillage!

Of course, my luck is that I'm always working when it's in the water or on my lift, so I have to worry about dropping wrenches, bolts, etc in the lake!

I think they've really come a long way since so many are 4 stroke these days. I miss my old I/O OMC Cobra, but it was a pain to change the oil and do standard maintenance because it was so hard to get to.

 

[Zorba]

Make sure you have a big wallet. Boats consume too much money and give little in return. Hard to find a picture of a boat advertisment in a magazine without two or three pretty girls. But in truth, when I have been to the lake, I've never seen any boat cruising around with two or three girls laying out on the deck. It's just a fantasy to sell boats.

You've been around the wrong boats...

Glastron is a well respected name here in FL and are considered a quality boat.

I was responding about his no pretty girls on boats comments. I see pretty girls on boats all the time.

 

[SearchMaster]

I just bought another boat. It's a 1998 Wellcraft 2000 eclipse ss. Big step up from our 89 regal medallion. I was looking for the past few weeks and was pretty sure I wanted a crownline 202, but I got the wellcraft at a fantastic price and it has the 5.7 liter volvo penta with penta sx outdrive on it. Should be a nice change from the mercruiser alpha one on my boat. I pick it up on Monday and can't wait to do the normal oil/outdrive fluid change, impeller change (on the engine this time, not in the outdrive), and inspect the bellows.

Cool - I actually have a '98 Regal 2100LSR with the same drivetrain (5.7 Chevy/Volvo, SX outdrive). I need to get it into the shop though. The starter is underneath the engine and extremely difficult to get to without pulling the engine...I replaced it last year but may have overtorqued a bolt and it snapped. I didn't feel like messing with it again so we took it into the shop at the end of last year but when we put it back in the water a few months ago, they had screwed up a seal or something and water was coming in. Overall it's been a good boat but the starter location is maddening since it's a fairly common failure point.

 

[slag]

Cool - I actually have a '98 Regal 2100LSR with the same drivetrain (5.7 Chevy/Volvo, SX outdrive). I need to get it into the shop though. The starter is underneath the engine and extremely difficult to get to without pulling the engine...I replaced it last year but may have overtorqued a bolt and it snapped. I didn't feel like messing with it again so we took it into the shop at the end of last year but when we put it back in the water a few months ago, they had screwed up a seal or something and water was coming in. Overall it's been a good boat but the starter location is maddening since it's a fairly common failure point.

I was looking at a 1999 2100 LSR. Looked nice, but didn't care for the ladder position or the rear seat setup. It was pretty nice though for sure, very luxurious and the hull was amazingly cool. The one I looked at had a 5.0 EFI merc and alpha one outdrive. How is your SX outdrive? The Alpha one has a dog clutch that grinds briefly when going into gear. I heard the SX is pretty smooth as I think it has a cone clutch and is generally indestructible.

 

[SearchMaster]

I was looking at a 1999 2100 LSR. Looked nice, but didn't care for the ladder position or the rear seat setup. It was pretty nice though for sure, very luxurious and the hull was amazingly cool. The one I looked at had a 5.0 EFI merc and alpha one outdrive. How is your SX outdrive? The Alpha one has a dog clutch that grinds briefly when going into gear. I heard the SX is pretty smooth as I think it has a cone clutch and is generally indestructible.

No complaints on the SX. I've heard from boat people that the 5.7 is not a very reliable engine but other than the starter issue, we haven't had any issues with it. The biggest issue is just finding the time to get out on the water. My sons are big baseball players which consumes a lot of time in the summer and we've been watching our very young nephew a lot lately. Plus being on Lake Lanier, it's a crapshoot as to how low the water line is - it's been great last year and this year and that's been the busiest years for us. Nowadays when we get on the water, we just take the pontoon or ride jet skis around.

 

[olds]

 

[slag]

No complaints on the SX. I've heard from boat people that the 5.7 is not a very reliable engine but other than the starter issue, we haven't had any issues with it. The biggest issue is just finding the time to get out on the water. My sons are big baseball players which consumes a lot of time in the summer and we've been watching our very young nephew a lot lately. Plus being on Lake Lanier, it's a crapshoot as to how low the water line is - it's been great last year and this year and that's been the busiest years for us. Nowadays when we get on the water, we just take the pontoon or ride jet skis around.

It's a chevy 350 and mine is detuned. I have no doubt it will be ultra reliable, just like the 3.0 in our regal.

 

[RLGL]

Cool - I actually have a '98 Regal 2100LSR with the same drivetrain (5.7 Chevy/Volvo, SX outdrive). I need to get it into the shop though. The starter is underneath the engine and extremely difficult to get to without pulling the engine... they had screwed up a seal or something and water was coming in. Overall it's been a good boat but the starter location is maddening since it's a fairly common failure point.

1 You don't have to pull the engine to change the starter
2 Starters fail because they get wet
3 you probably have a tear in the u-joint bellows
4 don't blame the dealer for the water

 

[SearchMaster]

1 You don't have to pull the engine to change the starter
2 Starters fail because they get wet
3 you probably have a tear in the u-joint bellows
4 don't blame the dealer for the water

No you don't HAVE to pull the engine - I changed it without pulling the engine the year prior but must have mis-torqued a bolt causing the bolt to break. It IS impossible to get a broken bolt out without pulling the engine, or at least beyond my skill and patience level. Dunno why the original failed, it was 15 years old at the time. I'm not blaming the *dealer* for any water, but the boat didn't leak when I took it to the repair shop for servicing, and did leak when I got it back. *shrug*

It's a chevy 350 and mine is detuned. I have no doubt it will be ultra reliable, just like the 3.0 in our regal.

I know it's a Chevy (indicated that in a prior post), but was told that it was not a particularly stout engine. I hope yours treats you as well as ours has.

 

[halik]

Mini boat update:
took it out last night to see the fireworks by the navy pier. New starter is the bomb, fires up instantly. Also the hydrofoil I put on the thing make a quite a bit difference.

I can trim the boat up 3/4 up and get it to plane very very nicely, even on lake michigan.