What should I be looking for? 2001 Sea Ray 240 Sundeck

[BushBond]

All, I found a 2001 Sea Ray 240 Sundeck. It's exterior gel coat is in good shape, no cracks in the fiberglass. And interior is as well. (it's been stored indoors most of it's life). And it ran great on the test drive. Electronics seem to be working and the propeller's got a few dings, but nothing really noteworthy. The engine has mid-400 hrs on it.

This is my first boat purchase, though I've been around them my whole life. Is there anything that I should be looking for that I'm missing.

 

[alldodge]

I would suggest finding a surveyor. Your first boat could be a real bad experience if you don't know what to look for and how to check. You can even get a no good surveyor which doesn't know what their doing and only collects money.

The searay books out between 14K and 16K without a trailer, your area may be high/low then mine

Outside looks can be real deceiving, so the boat needs to be looked in the depths of the bilge area, because this is where trouble can be hiding or covered up.

What motor and drive is in it?
Is it carb or EFI?

Take a phillips screw driver and try to push it into the very low part of the transom. Your looking for softness. Your not going to hurt anything with the screw driver unless the transom is soft.

Do a compression test on the motor
Look under the helm to see if anyone has been splicing into the wires
Grab hold of the outdrive and shake it around to see if any play is noticed
Loosen the drive plug just enough to see if anything but clean lube comes out (don't remove the plug, just barely)

 

[GA_Boater]

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