I too am thinking of getting a cruiser and rather like the Rinker price and features. That said, they are heavy for their size but in their defense, they do stay up on plane at very low speed. Boating magazine did a test on 24' cruisers recently and the Rinker won the comparison test. One thing they failed to mention in the test though was the fact that the same size Larson had substantially better fuel economy than any of the other boats. At cruising speed, the Larson got 2.7 MPG versus 2.0 to 2.3 MPG for the other 3 boats in the test.
The Larson was the only boat with a stepped hull and it also posted the highest top speed of the tested boats. I currently have a Regal bowrider with a stepped hull and am constantly amazed buy it's thrifty fuel usage. If fuel consupmtion is critical to you, give stepped hull boats a look. I realize .4 to .7 MPG does not sound like much but it's a 17% to 35% improvement in fuel economy which adds up quickly at $2.40+ a gallon. It also means the engine is not working nearly as hard which can make it last quite a bit longer.
Yeah, I'm a nerd.
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