I'll throw out my 2 cents as a life long boater and lifelong MN Resident and someone who lives on a lake in the summer and lives and breathes boats and boating and compares and rides in them and talks to their owners in person constantly. You are in the drivers seat and I can say that the deals right now are the best of the season. I saw that you tossed out a couple of boats and I'll say to avoid the 3.0 because again, now is the best time to get the most for the least. That means you get a 4.3 for what you would have paid for a 3.0 in the spring....even with a small budget. On brand, for 8k, it's not quite as easy to be picky if you are looking for something in the 2000's but that's maybe beside the point. My take is that the brands can be viewed completely differently when you are comparing any given brands small bowriders to their larger models. For example, Sea Ray makes excellent large boats but their sport series of bowriders are as spartan as can be. You have to get to their Select series and even they are lacking some things and details but their select series start slightly larger anyway. Crownline is ok but in those early 2000's, their smaller ones still had glued down carpet which is unacceptable to me plus they have a narrower beam than some others that were already at the full 8 feet 6 inches or close to it. Cobalt, sure they are decent in those earlier years but still lacking in those early 2000's compared to other competitors and of course they stopped making the smaller models around 2002ish or so if I recall anyway. I won't comment on Chap except to say I've had two and I don't make those choices lightly or jump into buying a boat that I will keep for many years without a lot of reason that they are superior than other options. The rest of the MN boats, the VEC models are good enough. Four Winns is a decent boat as well. Brand is tough because people so often will argue that their brand is this or that because of human nature. It is easy though to see and feel differences and specs though to the contrary many times especially in the bowrider category.
