Is this a Good Boat ?

[simonmd]

Originally Posted by Tropicyachty

Do you realize this is a sailing forum? ..

Not a very nice way to welcome a new member. This is the CRUISERS and Sailing forum and as others have pointed out, this is the POWERBOAT SECTION.

Welcome to the forums Mark, as a large Flybridge POWERboat owner, I can only apologise for the above comment. Personaly, I've found this forum to be very usefull and welcoming to both sail and power.

[Erik C]

The Gulfstar 43 trawler is now listed at 41K, almost 30K down in a few weeks. Somebody means buisiness, maybe wait another week?

[Cielo e Mar]

Love my boat but it is a slow boat to China. Lots of room for two.
Price at 41,000 is very low. I bought mine 15 years ago.
Made some nice trips but with fuel now sky high it may become a summer/winter home.

[Cielo e Mar]

Originally Posted by mark1049

My wife and I are looking at boats in Florida. We have narrowed it down so far to a Sea Ray 38. I have read some of the forums and understand that this boat may not track properly but that it is possible to get used to. Also are the Caterpiller diesels good engines. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listi...g_id=77707&url=

This was probably a high priced boat originally. A good survey is a must. 3208's with low engine this boat was hardly used, but like I said earlier a survey is a must.

Not sure about tracking there probably is a Sea Ray club you should find out a lot by contacting 38 owners.



Good luck

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Tropicyachty

Do you realize this is a sailing forum? That said, Sea Rays are overpriced and not well built. Most of their hull is perhaps 1/4" thick.....Go get a Doral, Tiara etc.....Stay away from Bayliner, Meridian (Bayliner), Searays, Regals....etc..

I've always understood us to be somewhat agnostic about the sail/power question. (Except for jet skis, of course.) On the other hand, the question, "Is this a good boat," is always a loaded one on this forum. The more the boat in question has been designed to appeal to boaters on a budget, the more likely it is to get bashed.

It's kinda embarrassing, really, that so many of the otherwise-nice people on this forum end up engaging in boat snobbery.

So here's the 100% true answer to the OP's original question: if you can afford to spend twice as much on a boat as you'd spend for the Sea Ray, there's a fairly good chance that you'll end up with a better boat.

Duh.

Personally, I've been trying to find a way to convince the boat-bashers to migrate to other online forums where they'll be appreciated far more than here on CF. If anyone has a good idea about how to accomplish this, please send me a PM.

[Mav]

Originally Posted by Cielo e Mar

there probably is a Sea Ray club you should find out a lot by contacting 38 owners.

There is it is Club Sea Ray and it is where anyone contemplating a Sea Ray purchase should go to to find out about their intended Sea Ray purchase.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Bash

I've always understood us to be somewhat agnostic about the sail/power question. (Except for jet skis, of course.)

I even love jet skis (as long as I'm the one riding it), so I guess I'm even more agnostic than that.

To the OP:

An old power boat is like an old aircraft -- at any moment, the cost of this year's maintenance or the next regular replacement of some component can put you underwater, so to speak -- can cost more than the boat is worth. Particularly old planing or semi-displacement hull power boats, since the machinery represents a disproportionate part of the value of the whole boat (just like with an aircraft), and because their value is sagging overall with high fuel prices. This one is going on 30 years old. Lightly used or not, it's a risky proposition from a financial point of view.

On the other hand -- also like an old aircraft -- if it is cheap enough for you to just write off the acquisition cost, and if a thorough survey shows that you are likely to get the couple of years of use (or whatever you are planning to do with it) out of it without major expense, then it might be a risk worth taking.

Sea Rays of that vintage are supposed to be prone to hull problems -- see previous posts, and if you decide to pursue the deal, make sure the surveyor checks thoroughly.

As some others have pointed out, you might want to look at a displacement hull boat like a trawler. If your mission for the boat does not include racing around at high speed (throwing wake at sailboats), but rather, you want to cruise and explore new places and make some miles on passage, this could be a much better choice. Displacement hull power boats are much slower, but they need much less power and consume much less fuel, so they are more economical in two ways: (a) machinery is much smaller for the same size boat, thus less expensive to acquire and less expensive to maintain; and (b) fuel cost. These days trawlers have become more popular because of the fuel cost issue and are holding their value better than planing hull power boats. That means that if you buy an old trawler, you are less likely to end up with a boat you cannot sell when you are finished with her, than you would be with an old planing hull boat.

I'm not really the person to give you advice because I'm a sailor through and through. There are others around here with much more knowledge. But for whatever little it may be worth -- if I DID ever want a power boat, it would be a sturdy, seaworthy, displacement hull boat capable of making long passages, not a flashy, high speed planing hull boat. Such a boat may be actually cheaper to operate than a comparable sailboat, by the way. This is important, because operating costs keep a very large proportion of power boats at the dock. Why would you buy a boat which you wouldn't ever go to sea in? A large number -- perhaps a majority -- of planing hull power boats end up like this.

[Cielo e Mar]

Is the Cruisers forum only a sailboat forum?

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Cielo e Mar

Is the Cruisers forum only a sailboat forum?

No. Emphatically not. Please note that this post is in a sub-forum called "Powered Boats."

[Cielo e Mar]

Thank you, I'm still trying to figure out how to post etc! very nice site

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Cielo e Mar

Thank you, I'm still trying to figure out how to post etc! very nice site

You're very welcome. And welcome to Cruiser's Forum!

[dacust]

Originally Posted by Cielo e Mar

This was probably a high priced boat originally. A good survey is a must. 3208's with low engine this boat was hardly used, but like I said earlier a survey is a must.
...

Originally Posted by Dockhead

... since the machinery represents a disproportionate part of the value of the whole boat ...

So, I would recommend not only a good survey, but a separate engine survey. I did it on mine and am glad I did. I negotiated a $10k reduction in price to get some work done. And now I am confident that my 3208's are in great shape.

Originally Posted by Cielo e Mar

...
Not sure about tracking there probably is a Sea Ray club you should find out a lot by contacting 38 owners.
Good luck

The tracking problem at off-plane speeds is well known with mid-sized planing hull Sea Rays. I have it on mine (36' 1982). My friend has it on his (200? 25'). Everyone I have ever talked to has it on theirs. Has to do with hull design. They are designed to run on plane. At low speeds they wander around a bit.

On long trips, if you consciously do it, you can develop a style where you just let it wander unless it starts off on a a wrong direction. It will go off a few degrees one way, then back the other way, but the average is a straight line.

I once read an article where they did a study comparing seasoned captains to newbies. They had them run a straight course. The result was that their boats traveled the same distance. But the seasoned captains went further off-course and made fewer corrections. The newbies were micro-correcting. I applied that to how my boat acted and it was much more relaxing.

So, is it annoying? A little. But for the quality of the boat and the price, I have learned to live with it.

As an aside, at planing speeds, the friend I mentioned went across Lake Okeechobee through the narrow (50' wide?) channel. With no wind, he found it tracked so straight it once ran for several miles without him touching the wheel. (The Bravo III drive quite probably has something to do with it.) My boat behaved well while up on plane heading across the Gulf from Marathon. Straight as an arrow.

-dan

[Tallswede]

I have a 19' 4Winns that does the same thing. It wanders at displacement speeds and is very stable at planeing speeds. I often set the rpm at just above idle and cruise along side my sailboating friends leaving enough room for the wander. It goes straight---just not in a straight line. LOL

Kevin

[S/V Illusion]

Having seen and been on a few Searays at our marina, I can only tell you what the owners told me. In every case, they used the same acronym - FSR.
I can't say what the "F" refers to being a family forum but you can guess easily.

FSR - F... Sea Ray.

Not my opinion, theirs.

[zeehag]

the forum says cruisers AND sailing-- that means anything it wants to mean. folks cruise in power boats----hell i even used to own one or 3 at one point in my life--they were fun-- but NO jetskis.