Buying our first boat!! [Doral Monticello]

Hello guys,

I'm totally new here, and I have a few questions I hope some of the more advanced boat users can possibly help answer.

I live on the Costa Blanca in Spain, a relatively calm sea, so great for power boating. A trip to Ibiza from here is only 100km a way for example. My girlfriend an I are looking to buy our first motor boat soon, and we recently both got our power boating licence which allows us the drive a boat up to 12m length.

We got our eye on a 2007 Doral Monticello. The listing can be found here: http://www.spainusedcars.com/UsedCa...ticello-9-metre-luxury-cruiser59950.html#more

It 9m long including the swimming deck at the end. After doing some reading online, people do recommend not going over 8m boats for your very first boat. So here comes my first question, do you think that this boat will be too large as a first boat?

As for the Doral boats, so far I have not read many bad reviews about them, they actually seem to get praised quite a lot. Has anybody ever had issues with them here?

This Doral Monticello comes with a large number of different engines when you buy it new. The one from this listing comes with a Volvo D4 260 diesel engine. It seems they have great fuel economy, which is something we are definatly looking for. But I have not found much information about it's reliablity. Does anybody here have experience with this Volvo D4 260 diesel engine?

We plan to use this boat in salt water environments only. And probably from around May till September, so quite a few months of the year. Would it be terrible to keep it in the water all year round?

Thank you very much for reading my post.

Re: Buying our first boat!! [Doral Monticello]

Hi, and welcome to iboats! I can respond to some of your questions...

First, Yes- a 9 meter (about 30') boat is very big for a new boater. Two friends of mine bought 8m and 9m boats as their first, and each damaged it on one of the first few times out. My (very strong) suggestion would be to hire a captain, or an experienced friend, to teach you how to use it. You can't afford to take this lightly. New boaters hit things. A small, light boat can absorb the impact with no, or minimal cosmetic damage. On the other hand, even at idle speed, 7 or 8 tons of moving mass can (will!) do significant damage to itself or someone else's property.

From the advertisement, appears this boat has a single, 260 hp diesel? I understand that boating outside the US is very different, and economy is more important than speed. That boat would be considered very underpowered by US standards, where we would expect to see dual engines in a boat that size. As for reliability of the Volvo powerplants, I think that they are as good as anyone else's, but I have no firsthand experience.

Your boating season is about the same as mine- May-June through Sptember-October. Keeping the boat in the water year-round is not preferred. I would want to keep it OUT of the water and covered during the off season.

My .02

My .02