[Fouremco]

After many years of sea kayaking and canoeing, my wife and I are now looking to purchase our first motor boat. After much research, and taking into consideration the limited towing capacity of our Honda Pilot, we've narrowed our choice to a Regal 1900, a Sea Ray 195 or a Crownline 19SS, all 2008 models. We are leaning towards the Merc 4.3 TKS, but haven't ruled outgoing to an MPI or even the 5.0L.

The dealers vary from one to two hours drive away, longer if towing a boat. Consequently, when weighing the many, many factors that will lead to our final choice, the distance and frequency of visits to the dealer has to be considered.

The first question, then, is how often can we expect to need to take the boat in for maintenance? Oil changes and other minor routine work I can handle myself, but I don't work on my car and don't expect to start with the boat. As the boat will need to be winterized and put up and the end of each season, would an annual checkup in the spring suffice, or can I expect to take it in several times over the course of the year? I expect that, on average, we would probably put about fifty hours a month on the motor from late May through mid-October.

Any and all comments would be appreciated.

[burp]

Fouremco,

If you are a little mechanically inclined then maintaining a boat is not a big deal.

Towing distance to the dealer should be considered but more importantly is the knowledge and compentency of the mechanic at the dealer/shop that you take the boat to for service. There are several "local" (within 45 miles) Merc shops in my area, but when you ask them about a routine service task of re-torquing the steering arm/gimbal ring connection and they want you to bring in the technical bulletin......or you ask another shop about coupler grease and they say that wheel bearing grease works for everything..... No thanks, I'll go elsewhere. So in my case, I'm very comfortable with a dealer/shop that is a 410 mile round trip tow. I don't mind the distance as I know the problem will be resolved with one trip to the shop.

I perform the routine maintenance and winterization myself so in the 9 years that I have owned a couple of Crownlines, I average way less less than 1 trip per year to the dealer for service. About the only reason that I would take it to the dealer is for any warranty issues, engine alarm condition (requires test equipment to read the error) and to the have the engine/outdrive alignment checked, as well as the steering arm re-torqued.

Most routine maintenance is done in the fall when the boat is winterized. In the spring, the battery or batteries are recharged and the boat is started. If the boat is used in salt water then corrosion prevention and flushing the engine after each use is way more important than if boating in fresh water. 200 hours of use per year on a boat is not extreme and shouldn't require a significant increase in the number of trips to a dealer each year.

[Fouremco]

Thanks, Burp, much appreciated. Your comment with respect to competency of the mechanics is a point well taken.