mid 1980's 2897 Mariner

ChefJunk

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At the suggestion of a customer of mine, I am going to look at a mid 80's 28' 2897 Mariner tomorrow. The person who owns the storage building says the old man who owns it wants it gone, he is done paying for storage. It sounds like it has been in the water a couple weeks a few years ago. The only thing I know so far is that he is asking $10,000 and it has mercs and not crusaders. Building owner/mechanic said it would take a good $700-1500 to get it ready to run (tune up, bottom paint, misc.). He has serviced the boat previously. Two very good customers use this guy as their mechanic as well and speak very highly of him.

Any suggestions as to areas to pay special attention to when I preview it tomorrow? I know, I would of course have a survey done before purchase.

Thanks,

Jim
 
Hey Jim..I t was great to meet you at he boat show! The mid 1980's 2897/2827 were a pretty straight foreward boat. The only issue I can think of might be the Walters Vee Drive units. Have the boat surveyed if you like the layout and such.

Kenny
 
Nice to meet you as well RAM. You really got me thinking about the limited ability for socializing on the tiny aft deck on the 3007. This one here seems too good to be true, but I will let you know what I find. Kind of wish it were the voyager, but for the price I could compromise!

Jim

Did you sell the Marquis at the show? I was going to buy it but the color just wasn't right :)
 
LOL - which Marquis did they have? Was it that glitzy 40??? Could someone please tell me why they built a boat in which you can't stand up at the helm without your head going halfway through the moonroof???

PS - I second Kenny's recommendation about the 2897 - its a wonderful boat, ahead of its time in beam and living accomodations in only 28 feet...
 
Hi Jim, I have an 89 28' Mariner we purchased last summer. I'd sugest you pay particular attention to high moisture readings in the stringers. Our 89 was good, but an 86 we considered and had surveyed was saturated. Having said that, we love our mariner. It's hard to imagine all that room in a 28 footer, and if yours is in decent shape, 10k is a steal. Best of luck.
 
Yes Pete...the 40SC...in burgundy (it was supposed to be bright silver). Quite an awesome boat. The reason you cannot stand, is tht the 2nd stateroom is below the helm. To give the sr enough headroom without taking away the exterior looks, you have little room to stand behind the wheel. Here's the thing...you don't use the wheel when docking. Being IPS, you use the joystick, which has been conveniently placed to the left of the wheel by quite a bit making it REALLY easy to stand next to the helm step and dock using the joystick. Standing there also puts you on centerline of the boat, so you actually have better visibility of the whole craft than if you were perched on one side or the other.

Yes Jim...we sold the Burgundy one so far, and have people coming this weekend to order one in Charcoal

And wait til you all see the Marquis 50SC TRIPLE IPS 600s, speeds over 45 MPH, 3 staterooms. And I have other news about Carver that I can't tell you about...yet. Let's just say Good Things happening in Mariner land
Kenny
 
That's great! Someday I will be able to afford one of those! Is the good news that Carver will build small boats again? In the 30' range! Something that I can afford? Just joking! Congrats on a good show. Maybe I will set up a time to come check out the santego you were telling me about.

Jim
 
Sounds good Jim...the stringers are dry now...some clean-up and reassembly still needed by us, but it's looking good

Smaller than they make now, but not into the low 30's...at this time. Also, JUST SPECULATION on my part, but it appears they may be re-entering a market they left in the early 2000's.
 
Thanks for the suspense, Kenny!!! Now I'm not going to be able to sleep at night.

Regarding the 40' Marquis:

"Standing there also puts you on centerline of the boat, so you actually have better visibility of the whole craft than if you were perched on one side or the other."

That sounds good - I didn't try that at the boat show. But what about underway? Would you still stand there for visibility? I guess I'm sensitive to this subject because for years everybody b!tched about boats with enclosed lower helm stations because they said you couldn't see a damn thing from down there, and now companies like Carver/Silverton/Tiara and others are essentially building boats with "only" lower helm stations!!! How did they suddenly become so appealing???

That's the main reason my dad and later on I liked the Mariner so much - not only was there only an upper helm, but it was a FULLY ENCLOSED upper helm on the old boats, with a big windshield and all that. IMHO it made the boat a much more appealing cruiser in bad weather than those with venturi windshields and isinglass front windows...
 
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