wow, nice boat Slug...I may have to hit you up on the offer... the direct drive config is an awesome setup. loved it in my ski supreme. old boat that did the job well, very flat table and awesome to ski behind. With a boat that new how is it a money pit? I'd think the only servicing it'd need would be oil changes & tuneups on the motor & tranny fluid changes... cleaning just takes time...


Brian that's funny you mention the black max motors... i was drooling over them back when I was skiing. We did go out to lost isle quite a bit, played volleyball there alot when it was barely a pit. The four winns 238 i'm considering would be perfect I think for what I want it for... place for the wife to study/crash when she's tired, platform on the rear wide enough for Louie to get on/off w/o needing help. room enough to kick back in the back and watch the pole for that big one. camping out on shasta, don pedro, tahoe, trinity etc...



[IMG]local://upfiles/1508/B1A1372B208844DCBB9FB8A12C1916A6.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/1508/4DE1DBC06D864CF09EA01EE4CBFE6905.jpg[/IMG]

 

Mostly because of having to pay for it . Also GAS is a PITA now. That sucker has a 40 Gallon tank and that 5.7 is thirsty. Maintenance is pretty easy, oil change, check tq on shaft and bolts, a couple of lube points.

 

Shasta, Trinity - ah yes, those bring back memories...
I was trying to guess where SLUG took those pics he posted - wherever it is, you can tell it's CA with the golden hills.
Just last night was talking with my friend about selling our PWCs and getting back into four-wheeling at Pismo now that we live nearby - but after this thread I think I can't wait for spring now and the rivers and lakes! Thanks - you saved me about five grand on a new Bombardier four-wheeler!

 

I too was thinking about a boat as a weekend getaway. I was dangerously close to buying a boat last year. I was looking at an old Silverton 34(I think it was) footer. I absolutely loved it, but after factoring on the costs of the boat, and everything elseI just couldn't justify it. We can really only use a boat here for about 6 or so months a year. The one thing that really kept me from doing it was the slip fee at the marina. I think it was about 4K a year and that only covered 9 months. After that it was an additional fee to have the boat dry stored on a parking lot.

 

6 months hu, here we can use them from the end of may till the middle of september. here is our boat ugly but the price was right


[IMG]local://upfiles/48732/D384D60663B14F44A9A1081ACCA1095A.jpg[/IMG]

 

yeah but it gets you on the water which is where the fun is... not a whole lotta fun watching from the shore... unless of course you have a line in the water...

 

I just bought a triumph 195 center counsel fishing boat, its a new brand made out roplene they call it. Its great, I had a 04 chaparel 215 cuddy cabin beautiful boat chaparell's are expensive the problem it was to nice to use and get dirty I wanted a fishing boat. Now I go fishing and leave it dirty whatever no carpets if it gets real bad I reach into the center counsel grab the on board hose and wash er out. Boats are nice if you got time to use them, shop around is by best advise jump online check out the triumphs, four winns, chaparel's, rinkers all nice brands. Also some good advice is to go toboattest.com and read up on them they compare models and do all sorts of tests alot of good info. hope this helps

 

yeah it is great steve perfect for pulling a tube (to scared to ski) and great for fishing

 

Get a Jet boat. Yamaha makes a nice one that has twin 160hp jet engines in it. It is the same engines as my jetski. I am looking into making that my next toy. http://www.yamaha-motor.com/boat/pro...22/0/home.aspx. The boats must be the money pit because I have only had problems on one of my jetski's and that is one of the cylinders blew.

 

I think the whole point of this thread was to make it clear to me what i'm missing... with my boat owning co-workers, boat owning brother and wife all saying go for it, it's easy to say yeah do it but the$ that goes along with it is what needs to be considered... A small boat is not an issue... it's the bigger boat that is and thats what I'm targeting.

Thanks to everyone for your input, it is GREATLY appreciated...