quote:
Originally posted by bsteven43
Would you and perhaps others on the board be inclined to prefer a Tiara or Sabre or something of that quality that's a few years old versus something new of lesser quality like Sea Ray?
Uh...YEEEAHHH! Why do you think I own a 1980 Tollycraft? I certainly could have bought a 90's era boat or newer had I wanted to. You can't buy boats of this quality anymore. Why do you think Pascal owns an older Hatteras (I believe 70's?). My last boat was a 28 foot 1975 Slickcraft (Tiara). It was WAY more boat than any Searay I've ever been near. Huge box stringers. Probably more stoutly built with the coring, than even the Tolly. The kind of coring the Slick used was not to save weight or money, it was to quiet, insulate and add strength. They first layed down a solid fiberglass hull thicker than most you will find built today, then ADD another 1/2 inch of thickness in end grain (strong) balsa coring and an outer shell of glass (7/8" total). Talk about a tank. I could hit true 4 footers in that boat at 20+ knots and she would not shutter at all. Nobody does that anymore, not even current day Tiara (though they still product amazingly good boats I'd love to own).
As you go older, you have to deal with older boat issues, but often the quality increase more than makes up for it. Just be careful to avoid hidden problems. You also have to be willing to consider the true cost of the boat to be equal to: Purchase Price + X% renovation (+y% repower on occasion). Knowing how to purchase an older boat requires significant knowlege on how to evaluate condition.
I might add that while I agree that Mike was a bit short, and I have the problem sometimes as well, you need to have the responsibility to dig under the covers too. Example would be this, which by the way is pretty damn close to the type of questions I was asking people when I was looking for boats in the past: "I notice that the "Seablay" has a 14degree deadrise hard chined hull, while the "lobsterray" has a shallow keel, nearly flat at the transom round chined hull, while the topsides look somwhat similar. I don't understand how these differences I've discovered actually translate into how I should think about these boats differently?
Don't just look at the window dressing and count the number of cup holders. Dig deep and really find out the differences in boat designs. How are they constructed? What kind of hull forms are there?
There is a lot to all this stuff! If all you are evaluating is "looks", then maybe they are the "same" boat. I don't mean that to be rude, just an observation. My opinion on the merits of boat comparison criteria gets pretty deep and in my perfect world, everyone else should apply the same level of scrutiny. Okay, so maybe NOBODY should have to be quite as AR as I am, but you get my point anyway!
bp
prior to purchasing the Back Cove late last summer and we absolutely love it. The comments above are correct in that it is a totally different boat in design, style, appointments, etc from the Sea Ray but the Back Cove IS of much higher quality boat than the SR. I have about 35 years on the water with a 50 Ton License and the single screw does not concern me at all (look at similar size commercial fishing boats - the vast majority have one engine and they go out in a lot of snotty weather up here). BUT, I love both the bow AND stern thrusters. 