Need a New boat - Opinions Needed!
 

Ok, I am in need of a boat. Although we hit winni a few times a year out boating is done on smaller less rough lakes. Any help is appreciated.

Looking for an open bow 23-24 feet, ish.
Hold 7 people minimim
2003 ish or newer.|
Decent Speed, 50MPH + with 1 person.
Good for just having fun, good for the kids ( porta potty a thought ), and being able to hook up the ski pole for the wakeboarders in the group.

I need to stay at $25-30k, or less. Because of this I am leaning toward a Rinker Captiva 232 or similar via Maxum or Stingray. Ideally we want a Cobalt or Azure, but it just isnt in the price range.

If it loses its new value fast because of the brand ( like stringray ), I dont mind that as long as I am getting a used boat at the depreciated value of a "few year old" boat.

Value aside, which boat is actually going to last with no major problems like hull cracks, etc.? I can deal with a carpet replacement after 5 years, etc. Quality is more importaint as we want to keep it for 6 + years. Trailer it a few times a year, etc.


thanks!
Jason

A friend of mine bought a new Rinker Captiva in 1993. Got rid of it last year and it held up very well. The only problem he had was , rotting of the wood behind the bowrider cushions. Part of this problem was the design of the cover which allowed water to run down the windshield and directly under the bow cover. It then ran down behind the cushions and soaked the unprotcted wood everytime it rained all summer. It was garaged all winter.
Overall a very good "Middle of the road" boat;).
Good ski boat as it would produce little to no wake when planing.

I'm new to the forum, but not to boating. Go with a used Mastercraft V-drive. Maristar series or their x-series and you won't go wrong.

JasonG,
We have a 2004 Rinker 232 Captiva and love it. It is our second Rinker (first was a '96 192 Captiva that we bought in '97 for $13,900 and sold in '03 for $10,500...in other words it held it's value pretty well). The 232 with a L.O.A. of 25'6" (including 2' swim platform) is a comfortable boat for the "big" lake. It is plenty deep and has great seating and storage. Performance with our fuel injected 5 liter (bravo III drive) is 53mph with two adults and a quarter tank of fuel (not bad considering the tank is on the large side for a boat this size...75 gallons). Rinker tends to offer more standard features than their competition. This adds value to the boating experience in my opinion.
Good luck in your search!

Regal 2600 - Great Boat for Winni Lake Chop
 

Everyone has their own opinion, here's mine;

If you plan on boating on the weekend you have to deal with boat chop. Add any wind and you have the makings of a rough ride unless you have a boat in size / design to minimize the impact.

I have been on Lake Winni for the past 6 years and have owned 5 boats; 16’ pontoon, 20’5” Searay Sundowner (cuddy), 23’ Campion Allante (cuddy), 26’2” Rinker Captiva and finally 2600 (27’2”) Regal (bowrider). Some call this the two foot disease (meaning always looking to go up in size by 2’).

For the most part, my reason for going up in size was to minimize the effect of the boat chop / wind chop i.e. get a better ride.

I bought the current boat I have in 2005 new. At the time I purchased it I had no intentions of getting another boat. A friend of mine bought one and suggested I take one out for a test cruise in that he suggested for a boat of this size, it really made a significant difference in the ‘ride’. I’m sorry I took his advice in that I’m now back to making bigger boat payments but overall very happy I made the move. The Fastrac Hull really does make a huge difference when combined with a boat of this size, 27’2” (including swim platform).

If you primary goal is a better riding bowrider, I would look for a used Regal 2600. The basic design has not changed since I believe 1999-2000. These are well made boats and if you find one with decent hours within your budget, you may want to check it out.

My $.02 worth. Good luck!

New bow rider
 

:D I too had no Intention of purchasing a new boat again, since I allready had owned two stingrays. A 19 ft. and a 22 ft. both are fast but ride horrible in rough water.

june of 05 a new boat line from bennington pontoon boats came on the market,Its called AZURE. I purchaced the AZ 200 Sport deck boat after a ten min. demo ride on the lake. This boat Is very fast and rides like a dream In heavy chop. It came with a volvo penta 5.0 L V-8.

You might want to look Into this boat line.


:D

JasonG, Post your question on www.boatingabc.com. There's scads of info and helpful people dealing solely with boating there. Plenty of Winnipesuakee boaters there as well.

I think you'd be better off with a well maintained, slightly older, high quality boat. It'll likely depreciate less and last longer in the end.

I would suggest the Rinker Captiva 232. I own a 2006 Rinker RX1 which is slightly smaller and we are quite happy with it. You may be able to find a brand new leftover around $30k'ish. Last summer Silver Sands had a leftover 232 with the RX package 9wakeboard tower, racks, etc) and it could have been had for low $30k's for a brand new boat with a warranty (no trailer). The RX package was a few thousand more than the standard boat. Sometimes it is worth spending that extra few thousand to get a new one and not buy anothers headaches.

Give Barry at Silver Sands a call and check on availability of leftovers...

First of all I second the Rinker 232, there were quite a few of them at my condo. They're not too fancy but they're bulletproof.

If you can stretch a little more, think about a 26 footer. It might save you in the long run, by skipping a step in the two foot disease. I owned a 2001 26 foot Searay bowrider, it was a great boat for the lake. I never felt unsafe. They stopped making that boat, but there are similar models, or Irwin still has mine for sale :)

I'd recommend a pump out toilet versus porta potty, much easier. In a 23-26 foot boat 50+ MPH starts to get you into a performance area. You might need to look at a Baja Islander.

Another Opinioin
 

Well there seem to be lots of good reviews for the Azure and the Rinkers here in this thread. Let me through a 3rd into the Mix. Four Winns, There boats are heavier then most resulting in a fairly nice ride, and when powered correctly they move right along. Winnisquam Marine usually has a good selection of used boats and I was on thier site just the other day and they have 3 or 4 boats in the 23' to 24' range. There boats are always priced well and after buying a boat from them last year, I can tell you they are not afraid to stand behind there boats. They fixed a few things for me, even after the warranty period was up, with out arguement.

Jason -- Let me hit on a couple of things you mentioned -- First of all, from the sounds of it (your price range) You will be looking at a second hand boat.

With that in mind there are many many choices to be had and I think you can throw Crownline back into the mix (look at the 208LS). In any event, interoir layout will be a very personal selection yet probably the most significat -- make sure you (and the wife) like the seating arrangements, are they funtional for the activities you want to do with the boat etc. The next most important(in my mind) is to look at the boats QUALITY - regardless of Mfg. Look at things such as the stiching on the vinyl seats (will they hold up) On bow-riders look at the windshield support on the walk-thru area. Is it a solid metal chrome piece or what I call the "wind up" tensioners (the latter is useless after a few seasons). Other simple, and perhaps trivial items are look at cupholders and other accesories -- are they "Cheezy" plastic or durable. Remember the pounding a boat takes on Winni -- even though you will be other places too.

Finally -- I am surprised that no one mentioned Bryant boats -- This is another line you might want to explore. Their interiors and layouts seem to be very similar to Crownline.

With regard to getting your 50+ MPH -- don't cheat yourself on engine HP. The top end speed will be highly dependant on the final size/weight boat you select but from my own personal experiance you can reference the foloowing two boats I've had in the recent past 20ft Crownline (202BR) with a 250HP carburated V-8 Alpha One drive, Stainless Prop -- Top end was around 55-58 (GPS tracked -not the boater friendly speedometer). Our current Crownline 24ft - (230LS) has a 350 Mag, 330HP, Bravo 3 (twin Stainless) and we topout around 55 (GPS). Point being is that a big boat (22-24ft) takes a lot of HP to get going!! That is probably one of the best reasons some people have traded in their boat -- it was under powered for what they expected.

One last tid bit is that the Azure that you looked at might seem surprisingly close to the Crownlines (hull design)-- that's because they are!! A few years back,some of the key design engineers from Crown departed and set up shop as Azure.

see ray
 

No one has mentioned Sea Ray's yet. I have to admit that after being very happy with my Four Winns and Larson..... my new Sea Ray wins in all arena's now.

I absolutely love it.

I'm down with the sea ray too ! You might want to look at a used 240 Sundeck. It's got a little head for the wife and kiddies. I bought a 2005 220 sundeck last year and it's been great so far. It trailers nice from here in Saugus up to Winnipesaukee a couple times a summer. It also seems to handle a fair size chop weekends on the lake and out here on Boston Harbor.

Captiva
 

Since several mentioned Captiva : Channel Marine has had the following listed since last summer. I took a quick look at it and told a friend about it. Looked good and is priced right. Good Luck!

1998 — RINKER 232 CAPTIVA
Great Condition

Engine: 5.0 EFI
Stock#: JPRB5

Length: 23 Foot
Price: $14,995

go to http://channelmarine.com/ for pictures

Like what you see?
Call our friendly sales crew to come and take a closer look … or give us a call to find out more!
1-800-524-BOAT

boat
 

you also want to look at deadrise,21 degress or better will give you a great ride on those rough days. I would suggest waiting till you can actually test your purchase on a windy day. Once you've made your purchase you own it. Shep Browns had a few nice boats that would fit your need as well as channel

Steep deadrise is a plus. My Regal 2550 has 24 degrees at the transom and rides very nicely in Winnipesaukee chop. In two years of use, I have never had to come off plane due to excessive chop. This includes ocean use too. It slices the waves up with ease.

Speaking of chop, we upgraded from a 21 foot bowrider to our current boat, and the difference in fatigue from chop is huge. With the 21 footer, we never considered two weekend days in a row of boating on Winnipesaukee, we were always exhausted from the first day. We routinely do two, full days in a row now.

Get The Boat Surveyed!!
 

Jason...

Whatever boat you decide on, hire a licensed surveyor and have the boat surveyed. They will crawl thru the boat with a fine tooth comb and give you alist of problems and potential issues. Make sure they do a compression test and a leakdown test on the engine, and verify the engine hours using the computer....

Its about $25 or so per foot... but its well worth it!! You can avoid ALOT of headaches....

Woodsy

A good survey can be had for $17-18.00 per foot. Check out http://www.marinesurveyor.com/mlc. He does work all over the region and is known by most of the lakes region dealers.

Tell him that I sent you, maybe I can negotiate some free babysitting for sending him a referral :D (he is my father).

Deadrise
 

Can't argue against deadrise but I'll add that an important factor that you'll never find listed anywhere is how "deadrise" (which is measured at the transom) carries forward towards the bow. Boats that have a lot of "V" at the bow cut the waves better than boats that flatten out towards the bow. The latter is often done to make interior room for a cuddy cabin. Do you want room of a soft ride ? There's no real good way to find if a boat's tradeoffs are in line with your needs short of a test drive. Next best thing is asking for opinions of actual users.

Always test ride
 

A test drive is always what I recomend....and if rough water handling is what you interested in, find a good windy day and call up a few Marinas and go check out the boats.....

I actually ended up with a smaller boat then I had intended....I went to a marina that had a couple of boats I was interested in on a day when the wind was blowing, they took me out and we bounced around... The next thing I new I was saving a couple of thousand dollars, going with a shorter boat, because I didn't feel the extra 2 feet of the bigger boat made much difference......

SeaRay boats are my choice. I've owned two. Excellent quality and smooth ride in rough seas. A notch above Four Winns.

You could also check out Boston Whaler.

A Whaler may be tough in hitting the price point that the original poster indicated. Definitely not a cheap boat, not to mention their boats are a bit more utility style and not necessarily a comfortable boat to be in such as a Rinker or Maxim. A 2003ish or newer 23-24 foot (as requested) in a Whaler would be a lot pricier than mid-high twenties.

Just a thought
 

It's a little older, and a little higher on your price range, but if you could stretch, the 246 is a great Winnipesaukee boat:

http://adcache.boattraderonline.com/6/9/2/86435092.htm

Keep in mind that's an asking price, not a selling price, and winter is a motivator...

That's precisely the kinda boat I had in mind when I wrote:

"I think you'd be better off with a well maintained, slightly older, high quality boat. It'll likely depreciate less and last longer in the end."

above.

Those 246s are hugely popular on the lake, for good reason.

Here's two Cobalt 246s and a Cobalt 240 next to my boat:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/4...6108CbM27Nyzcg
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/4...6108CbM27Nyzcg

heh
 

That scene looks familiar.... (mine's the 240).

If the boat above is of any interest, and I can offer my assistance, please let me know.

That was a fun day. We'll surely have more of those next Summer. Maybe kdl will have a 272 to show off...