I'm back, and my question is about cruisers and power

tpenfield

tpenfield

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Jul 18, 2011
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The Mercruiser series has inboard versions (MCM is i/O) (MIE is Inboard) not 100% sure about the 496, but you can check the Mercruiser part or the PerfProTech sites for the model listings.

The thing about inboards is that you will want to stay in deeper water to avoid damage to running gear. I/O's you can get closer to shore, if you are beaching, or if you need to get thru some 'skinny' water.
 
J

jkust

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Aug 2, 2008
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4,942
Blind Date said:
Having purchased 6 used boats in MN I have to completely disagree with that statement. I bought my SeaRay in Cincinnatii & I payed a lot less for it there than I would have in MN. There were 2 for sale in MN back in 2003 but it was still worth the time and expense to pull it back from Ohio. I could have parked it along the shores of lake Minnetonka and made $3-4K on it easy but I didn't buy it to make money.

Minnesota is a good place to buy a boat from because only freshwater and short seasons mean they age a lot less slowly than something from say Florida. Personally if I was slipping a cruiser in salt water I wouldn't touch one with I/O's. I'd go inboards with closed cooling.
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It is funny the paradigm shift between states with short seasons. I was just talking to someone who bought a 3 year old boat that lives down south with almost 300 hours on it and they were pleased at that. There are so many 8, 9 and 10 year old boats that didn't even hit the 20 hour break in an many under 50 hours around me. Even the garage sized boats sucumb to what was mentioned above of buying a boat and realizing boating isn't as much leisure as one expected.
 
L

lg260ss

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
Jun 25, 2011
Messages
81
I have a 2013 Regal 28 Express with a single Volvo 380 6.0l. Fantastic boat with the best layout in its class. 50mph wot, a real queen sized mid berth that is very comfortable and a huge vberth that easily can sleep 2 more if needed. If you have a chance to check one out, do it, you will be very surprised by the roominess. We looked at every brand in that size and nothing was even close to the regal for layout and overnighting comfort. The cabin is so open that it feels like a much bigger boat. This was a new design in 2012 so you should be able to find some used ones around now.
 
F

frantically relaxing

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Nov 19, 2011
Messages
699
I just went thru all this in another thread... :)
The 28' Regal in my sig- twin 4.3 Volvo DP's, and plane time is surprisingly low. Like 5, 6 seconds tops and it's on full plane. This really surprised me because that's about what our Chap 260ssi 8.1 VDP did for plane time. After plane time is another story ;) - Top speed isn't much to write home about, but I'm at 4400' altitude, and low 40's is fine with us.

Speaking of the Chap- I've owned 11 boats, and the Chap is far and away the winner in the 'built like a brick shiphouse' category. After 8 years of the original owner and his kids, and 5 years of putting up with us and all our kids and grandkids, totalling 466 hours on the meter, THIS is what the boat looked like last January when we sold it...
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While I DO take care of my stuff, I don't in any way BABY my stuff. I USE it. With the exception of snap in carpet showing some normal wear, the boat literally looked and acted like new. The upholstery in that thing is some of the toughest stuff I've ever seen. Simply a well built boat.

Our Regal, which is in nearly the same condition as the Chaparral, and is a very nice boat in its own right, isn't a Chaparral. Kind of like a Cadillac isn't a BMW (I guess that's a good analogy?) ;)

So my 2 pieces of advice-- twin engines in a 28' or bigger boat, and DO look at Chaparrals..
 
Philster

Philster

Captain
Joined
Sep 15, 2009
Messages
3,344
I had a Chappy for 20 years. Solid for all 20. Rinker and Regal layouts seem to make the most sense and Sea Ray is awful/uninspired. The Chappy's are priced like a premium boat, without steep depreciation.

Hope to board a few this weekend, but it might not happen til after labor day. These are boating weekends, and sellers with good boats are using them.

What I am hoping to do is narrow down to a few boats I want, get sea trials/survey on the top one, then hope the timing works out for it to be hauled out for final part of survey. Maybe wishful thinking...
 
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