New to me Boat

[Drew220]

New member here. Just bought my first boat today. I'm not new to boating but I have never owned my own. I captained a Carolina Skiff for over 7 years at my old job.

Anyway, I found a great looking 1995 Sea Ray 175 Fish and Ski with a 125 HP Mercury Outboard on craigslist with trailer for 6500. For a 20 year old boat it was in excellent condition with all the original parts. I looked at some real turds that were newer than this one. The engine looked new under the cowl and he had all the gas lines, plugs, etc replaced recently and the lower end was just serviced and resealed. No nicks or dings on the hull. You could tell this boat was well loved. He also included a new remote controlled trolling motor, upgraded stereo system with 10 inch woofer and 500 watt amp, Lowrance Elite-5 CHIRP fish finder and a nice tow behind tube. The trailer was all redone with new wheels axles and bearings. Motor cranked and ran excellent. I was thinking about buying a brand new Stingray but this one was just in such good shape. Can't wait to take my kids out on it.

 

[VaRick]

She's a beauty. I'm sure your family will love it. Looks fast!

 

[southkogs]

Nice boat! Congratulations ... and welcome aboard.

 

[Bayou Dave]

Really good looking boat! Congrats!

 

[tlombard]

Nice work. Where is that sub mounted? I can tell you from experience that a well set up system with a 10" sub and that much power can sound amazing. The boat I bought in December (and just finally got to take out this weekend) has a 10" under the engine hatch along with a dedicated sub amp and then another amp to run the 8" speakers in the rear bench and 6.5" speakers in the middle and it really turned heads. I think the stereo might be part of why I got stranded Sunday. Two days of the stereo playing might have rattled the connection that we had to replace loose since it was under the hatch where the sub is!

If you don't have Bluetooth and can add it, I would highly recommend that too. We were rafted up with other boats and I turned on the stereo and just left it. Every so often somebody would ask me if they could play something so I'd just tell them to coordinate with who was currently in charge. One person has to disconnect before another can connect so others just coordinated to DJ for me all day and switched off from time to time without even getting on my boat if they weren't somebody I already brought. Everybody was happy and I just got to relax.

It was funny how all of the younger and older people kind of filtered apart for a bit though once I let the younger people play music. Anybody under my age (38) filtered on over towards my boat while anybody older slowly shifted away to the other side. The stereo was't obnoxious outside of my boat but they weren't fans of the type of music we were listening to. You couldn't even hear what was playing two boats over even though it was a veritable dance club on my boat.

 

[Drew220]

Nice work. Where is that sub mounted? I can tell you from experience that a well set up system with a 10" sub and that much power can sound amazing. The boat I bought in December (and just finally got to take out this weekend) has a 10" under the engine hatch along with a dedicated sub amp and then another amp to run the 8" speakers in the rear bench and 6.5" speakers in the middle and it really turned heads. I think the stereo might be part of why I got stranded Sunday. Two days of the stereo playing might have rattled the connection that we had to replace loose since it was under the hatch where the sub is!

If you don't have Bluetooth and can add it, I would highly recommend that too. We were rafted up with other boats and I turned on the stereo and just left it. Every so often somebody would ask me if they could play something so I'd just tell them to coordinate with who was currently in charge. One person has to disconnect before another can connect so others just coordinated to DJ for me all day and switched off from time to time without even getting on my boat if they weren't somebody I already brought. Everybody was happy and I just got to relax.

It was funny how all of the younger and older people kind of filtered apart for a bit though once I let the younger people play music. Anybody under my age (38) filtered on over towards my boat while anybody older slowly shifted away to the other side. The stereo was't obnoxious outside of my boat but they weren't fans of the type of music we were listening to. You couldn't even hear what was playing two boats over even though it was a veritable dance club on my boat.

The Sub is mounted under the passenger side dash in a custom built box. The Head unit already has an Ipod/Auxilary hookup. I need to check on bluetooth, it probably has it since it is all brand new. I may add a new head unit with HD Radio down the road.

Taking it out for a sea trial with 5 passengers tonight before signing on the dotted line.

When I was younger i had two 10s and a 500 watt amp in my truck. It was loud.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Loud music never bothers me since I can't hear my wife at the dinner table anymore, or is it listen? Very nice clean boat, you will enjoy it I'm sure, and keep the music a blastin'.

 

[Drew220]

Sea Trials were a success. Boat is now ours. The kids really enjoyed it. Can't wait for all the memories we will make.




And a beautiful rainbow to top off the evening.

 

[tlombard]

Nice, Congrats!