What Boat to Buy?

[Green Meenie]

Hey! Thanks all for the great information. Like I said. I'm a marine dummy so I am soaking all this up like a sponge. I do have experience with buying other types of recreational vehicles though so I am not going into this all starry-eyed or unprepared to look at a purchase as practically as possible. That's why I'm here picking your brains. Every bit of info. is another building brick for me
I don't really know anyone with a boat other than my daughter & her hubby who are total newbies too. They just got into boating last August and are loving it! As someone mentioned, our end of lake Ont. is often quit calm and I have not only several weather sights I follow but I can also walk to the end of the street and have a quick look at conditions :joyous:. At this point my intended purpose is to just have a watercraft to take on short runs on the lake when conditions are right. Anchor off one of the beaches and go for a swim when it's nice out. Maybe take some snacks and what not. It's always cooler on the water and with the weather like it's been lately, cooler is a good thing! Something we could trailer also opens up other possibilities as there's no shortage of lakes within a couple hours drive! That's why I was thinking about something in the area of a 20 footer? That would be our starter boat - not necessarily our ultimate boat. Things evolve.

There is a local boat club (Marina) close to me so maybe I should go hang around and engage people in boating conversations. Many stay there all summer in campers right on the property where the boats are moored. I'm sure many of them would be happy to talk to anyone who shows an interest.

Anyway .... thanks again for all the great input. Really appreciated :yo:

 

[achris]

'Shipping water'= taking on water. ie, slowly sinking


Any seller who doesn't allow a test drive should be avoided.. There would only be one reason to not allow a test run, there's something about the boat they don't want you to know before parting with your money!

 

[jebby]

^ lol yes

Erie. not sure what my fingers were doing, it was a long day (un-winterizing the camper for this weekend so yay)

the detroit river offers a special arse kickin. the fast current, shoals EVERYWHERE, boat everywhere and tankers often bouncing off steel breakwalls on both sides....... great way to get your feet wet (pun intended)

anywhoo, good luck with whatever you choose. given all the posts maybe look at a ~ 19 ish footter. id go outboard powered if you can but whatever. ​

 

[Green Meenie]

Yeah, think I will end up in the 18' - 20' range (would prefer 20). I guess the main issue I'm a little surprised to find through all the responses is that an outboard is preferred over a stern drive by most here. Don't know why I'm surprised at that but just wasn't expecting that I guess.

The most valuable info. I've gleaned from reading your responses and reading others threads here is the hidden rot issues. Seems to be prevalent I guess mostly in older boats, which is likely where I'll end up for my 1st purchase so - thanks for that. Never would have thought of digging deeply into that otherwise. I would have thought any boat with a fiberglass hull would be fine in terms of any rot issues, providing it didn't have any major cracks/holes in the glass but ... good to know that I really need to check that out.

For sure I will be insisting on doing a thorough test drive once I get serious about anything. Will be sure to put it through the paces as much as possible. Will probably have more questions once I get to that stage so thanks again for all the great input. Really much appreciated :joyous: