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Originally Posted by JasonG
Ok, I am in need of a boat. Although we hit winni a few times a year out boating is done on smaller less rough lakes. Any help is appreciated.
I need to stay at $25-30k, or less. Because of this I am leaning toward a Rinker Captiva 232 or similar via Maxum or Stingray. Ideally we want a Cobalt or Azure, but it just isnt in the price range.
Trailer it a few times a year, etc.
thanks!
Jason
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Jason -- Let me hit on a couple of things you mentioned -- First of all, from the sounds of it (your price range) You will be looking at a second hand boat.
With that in mind there are many many choices to be had and I think you can throw Crownline back into the mix (look at the 208LS). In any event, interoir layout will be a very personal selection yet probably the most significat -- make sure you (and the wife) like the seating arrangements, are they funtional for the activities
you want to do with the boat etc. The next most important(in my mind) is to look at the boats QUALITY - regardless of Mfg. Look at things such as the stiching on the vinyl seats (will they hold up) On bow-riders look at the windshield support on the walk-thru area. Is it a solid metal chrome piece or what I call the "wind up" tensioners (the latter is useless after a few seasons). Other simple, and perhaps trivial items are look at cupholders and other accesories -- are they "Cheezy" plastic or durable. Remember the pounding a boat takes on Winni -- even though you will be other places too.
Finally -- I am surprised that no one mentioned Bryant boats -- This is another line you might want to explore. Their interiors and layouts seem to be very similar to Crownline.
With regard to getting your 50+ MPH -- don't cheat yourself on engine HP. The top end speed will be highly dependant on the final size/weight boat you select but from my own personal experiance you can reference the foloowing two boats I've had in the recent past 20ft Crownline (202BR) with a 250HP carburated V-8 Alpha One drive, Stainless Prop -- Top end was around 55-58 (GPS tracked -not the boater friendly speedometer). Our current Crownline 24ft - (230LS) has a 350 Mag, 330HP, Bravo 3 (twin Stainless) and we topout around 55 (GPS). Point being is that a big boat (22-24ft) takes a lot of HP to get going!! That is probably one of the best reasons some people have traded in their boat -- it was under powered for what they expected.
One last tid bit is that the Azure that you looked at might seem surprisingly close to the Crownlines (hull design)-- that's because they are!! A few years back,some of the key design engineers from Crown departed and set up shop as Azure.