Just buying an '86 268 'Dancer...

WTP07

New Member
Jul 16, 2008
219
Southwestern Ontario
Boat Info
1985 Cruisers Inc
Ultra Vee 336
Engines
T454 Crusaders - 700HP
I thought I would say hello!

I have just traded in my '07 Bayliner BR185 on an '86 Dancer 268. Our first venture into the cruiser lifestyle. We are a little nervous about taking this chance on a older boat, but are super excited about spending the weekends on it!

The boat comes with the standard (I think!) 5.7/Alpha combo, and has 430 hours on it. No repower, original plant and leg.

Interior is in great shape, and everything looks good on the outside. I am getting a full survey done tomorrow before taking possession on Friday or Saturday.

Boat comes with a tandem-axle trailer with surge brakes (new for me!), but we will be putting it in a slip not too far from home for the rest of this year. I have a 3/4 ton pickup, so I assume that towing won't be much of a problem anyway.

Anything I need to worry about with this particular model and vintage? :smt100

Dealer is going to give the boat an complete fluid change before I pick it up. I have never had a boat with a holding tank, shore power, etc... so any advice you might have to give would be appreciated!

TIA,

Randy.

Melbourne, ON
 
Randy,

Have you test driven this boat yet? These boats were great boats with a great layout but this particular set up with this power was Grosely under powered. You will have to run this boat at 3700 -3800 just to maintain plane. Alot of these either came with the 454 ci. / Alpha drives and a very few came with twins. Most of the 350's were changed to 454's and some of the big block powered boats were changed over to Bravo drives. I test drive a few of these boats back in the early 90's, again great boat but I would be extremely concerned with this particular power set up, consider that this motor was run very hard it's whole life.
 
Hi Larry,

No, I haven't had it in the water yet, that will happen either Friday or Saturday.

I have an agreement with the dealer that if I am in anyway unhappy we can both shake hands and walk away. I will be out the survey cost, but that is money well spent anyway.

Will the 4 blade prop help with the high RPM's to keep it on plane? The trim tabs? I can't remember exactly what they looked like, but maybe a foot square or so?

Would a SS prop help?

I guess I will see when it goes in the drink this weekend.

I was a little leery about going a BB, what with the price of gas and all. I was looking at a 25' Maxum that had a 5.0LX in it, and I thought THAT might be a tad underpowered.

I know I have been spoiled by my 3.0 in my Bay, but I didn't get into boating for the fuel economy anyway. :smt101

Any other concerns with this boat?

Thanks again,

Randy.
 
Randy,

A 4 bladed SS prop corectly sized will have very minimal positive affect but maybe some. I think your going to find the Maxum you drove a lot quicker then this boat. There is only a 40 hp. difference between the 5 liter and the 5.7 liter and very little torque differnce. The 268 is at least 1000 pounds heavier and I believe 6 " more in beam, this creates alot of drag. The 7.4 liter set up has torque and that is what is needed in a single engine boat of this size and this engine is still only marginal. I don't mean to burst your bubble on this boat, it is a great boat aside from it's performance.

Please let me know how your sea trial goes.
 
As a owner of a 86 268 weekender powered by a 350 4bbl carbed engine. I can tell u it's now speed demon.I can keep mine on plane around 3500 rpm's with the drive trimmed up. They're great boats for over nighting and such. We just spent 4 days on our boat when we towed it down to chesapeake bay for the 4th of july holiday
 
Randy This is a great cruising boat. My dock partner has the exact boat,year and power. You cant expect to 6 adults on the rear deck and expect 2 hop out of the hole. My wife and 2 kids have ran this boat on many occasions and I have never really had any problem. Bury the tabs and drive , Accelerate gradually to wot, when it lays down back the throttle off slowly and pick the drive a little bit at a time. If it starts to fall off bury the drive again and accelerate. KEEP the tabs down though. You will learn what the boat likes. Dont listen to anyone who tells you want 7.4 coupled to an Alpha drive. To much torque per the weight of that boat on that size drive, Trust me from experience!! You just have to be willing to learn. They are a great boat with great layout. Good luck Dan
 
I due agree that 7.4 liter motors have to much torque for the alpha drive, but that being said I would still rather have this setup and baby the drive a little. All you have to due is not do hole shots (hard acceleration) with this set up and and maybe add a shower to the alpha drive and you will get years of use before any failure. Any boat that is powered properly you should not have to give wide open throttle, this is just like getting in your car and flooring it up a hill every time you start off. All I am saying is you are potentialy getting a boat that has had it's 22 year old engine "floored" every time it started off, this is not proper operating proceedure for any engine.
 
Last edited:
Going back 21 years? You'll love the change. Those are good boats and, although some like even more power, you should do fine with a 350 in a 26 ft boat.

The main things to look at are rotting interior wood - bilge stringers, transom and the foredeck, especially near the anchor. Just make sure your surveyor checks those. If that boat has the long cabin windows, they can sometimes be prone to water damage and loose windows. Also, make sure he gets a look at the fuel tank. The old aluminum tanks can spring a leak if improperly installed. Don't let this scare you off, just get it checked to make sure your boat is ok.

And, Lime4x4, sounds like things worked out for your boat. Good to hear.
 
Hey all,

Surveyor gave it a clean bill of health...a couple of electrical connections needed to be re-crimped and a bulb was burned out. Other than that, he was impressed with the condition of the boat! He was very happy with the moisture content readings in the hull, stringers and transom, and as an added bonus...(drum roll please...) the 5.7 was spanking new! The previous owner had done a repower last year, the hourmeter on the new engine reads "00008"!!! :smt038:grin::thumbsup:

My wife was VERY happy about that. She had some serious reservations about moving to such an old boat. It is in the shop right now, plugged in to recharge the batteries so it is good to go tomorrow morning for my water test.

I found out from a co-worker today that this boat was in the slip in front of them last year in Port Franks, and that the owners used it exactly 3 times all season. (there's the 8 hours...) He was "nodding aquaintences" with them and said they did a great job of looking after it, having the marina basically do "whatever was needed" every year.

All in all, I am pretty happy and excited about the new-to-me boat.

I will post after the water test tomorrow, and get some pics if I can remember.

Thanks again for all of your advice!

Randy.
 
Is the motor new, or rebuilt? I don't own other's rebuilds.

If it is new.... Long block, short block, full dress?
 
Keokie...

haven't got a clue!:huh:

I will let you know tomorrow when I get there....

I will take a rebuilt with 8 hours over an '86 with 560 anyday!

I doesn't seem like the PO would scrimp and save on a rebuild, based on everything I have seen and heard so far.

Cheers,

Randy.
 
Extensive experience through my gang is that other's rebuilds are usually junk. There are a million shortcuts that can be taken, and the very vast majority of re-builders take lots of them. 560 hours on a properly maintained and operated 350 is nothing.

The 268 is a very nice boat that sold well. It should be pretty easy to find a good one. If this isn't it, walk away.
 
like to see pic's Randy and good luck w/ sea test
 
What a day....(long-ish)

So I got to the dealer at about 10:00 this am to pick up the boat/drop off mine/do paperwork. Some schmoozing and paperwork and waiting on the surveyor to drop off the paperwork, and we are on our way about 12:30 or so. The dealer took his time to show me the things I was unfamiliar with, like inverters, pump-flush toilets, etc...

So we leave Sarnia, drive to Leamington where the marina is that I am putting it into for the rest of the year, about an hour and a half away.

IMG_0164.jpg


My 5.9L gasser, 3/4 ton truck takes the weight OK, but is a bit sluggish off the line now. No prob. Surge brakes are new, but again, no prob.

This thing is WAY bigger than the 18' bowrider behind me, but all is good. So far. (note the foreshadowing here...)

So we get to the marina around 2:00ish, and do the paper work with the marina. Get her on the ramp and into the drink after watching some jackass take 35 mins to launch 2 jetskis. (this would take me, oh....2 mins tops.)

No prob, have a bit of prep work to do, not THAT much, but I am determined not to get angry or rush anything.

Get her in the drink.

IMG_0168.jpg


This is where it starts to go south. My buddy Jay says 'Why did your bilge just come on'? Me: 'Dunno, plugs in, you watched me put it in.'

So I climb in, open the engine hatch, (after moving all the safety gear and other assorted crap, anchors, ropes, fenders and such) to find that water is coming in about 2x as fast as the bilge can pump it out. Go back and get the truck, and drag it back on the trailer. Call the dealer, he gets me poking around and we find this:

IMG_0169.jpg


Giant hole in the exhaust bellows, bellows around the cables, split in half, and many cracks in the other bellows.

:smt021:smt013

So I tell dealer....fix it. Now.

He calls local shop, they have parts, go take it there. Did this, should be fixed tomorrow noonish. This is pretty good I think. The fix by noonish, not the broken-in-the-1st-place thing.

I have left a message with the surveyor that I paid $380 to this morning, asking him to give me a reason to not cancel that check. Still waiting on an answer.

Dealer is covering all repairs, seems like a stand up guy that got let down by his shop/techs. Very apologetic.

What think you all? Cancel the cheque to the surveyor?

I understand that mistakes happen. The shop techs missed this, and while the dealer is financially responsible for getting this fixed, how much blame should be applied to the surveyor? Or me for that matter?

Going back up tomorrow to put it in the drink again, and get it out for a tour.

Cheers,

Randy.
 
That stinks ! The exhaust bellows will not let water into the bilge. But I would guess the other bellows are compromised. So now you have to really question the shape of your u-joints & gimbal bearing. I say it is ridiculous a surveyor would miss that bellows. That is one of the first things I look at when checking out a prospective boat.
 
I'm no surveyor but I know to check the bellows! Sounds like he missed the obvious & easy. Nobody is perfect, still you didn't get what you paid for - "a clean bill of health". Makes one wonder what else he missed...

Assuming this is the worst of your worries, hope you got a good deal and enjoy the old boat. Can't beat a classic Sea Ray.

Let us know how the rest of your trial goes!
 
I'm not sure about the responses here.
Was this a survey that didn't involve putting the boat in the water or running the engine? I thought the guy was going to look at it on land then do the in-water check. If it was never checked in the water, there is a lot more that wasn't checked.

I don't have a problem with an on-land-only check, but that's not a survey. Was the guy a professional surveyor, or just some kind of boat guy that could check the boat? If you decided to go with someone other than a professional surveyor why all the complaint and replies about the "professional" quality of the survey?

What does your contract with the guy call for? I'm thinking maybe you got what you paid for and he deserves to be paid. Of course, I don't have all the facts either, but you deserve this point of view in your replies as well.

You may still need a full professional survey. Or, you can see what else happens.
 
My experience with surveyors in my area of the country is they are almost worthless. They commonly miss very obvious and major problems.
 
Survey,

I spoke with the surveyor yesterday, and he admitted to missing the bellows, and agreed to my cancelling the cheque.

He is a professional surveyor, he just made a huge mistake. Maybe he was cutting corners because it was 100+ degrees when he did the survey, but either way, it turned out as good as possible under the circumstances.

The tech that did the bellows, also noted that it needed a shift cable, and he replaced that as well, which also was paid for by the dealer.

Got it out on the water today, and it ran pretty well. It was kind of rough (3-4 footers) and I had a full load on, (6 adults, 2 kids) so it took quite a while to get on plane. Once up, it went pretty good. The only other glitch is that it doesnt' seem to be charging on shore power. When I went to start it, my voltage was at 11.9V on battery 1, 9.6V on battery 2, and 11.7 on both. This was after being plugged in for about 18 hours consecutively. Once it started though, my voltage came up to 14.5V immediately, indicating that the alternator is doing it's job at least. I will be getting the dealer to look after this tomorrow as well. He's been pretty good with everything so far, other than this stuff should have been done before it left the shop that is!

Some more pics...

Engine Compartment:
IMG_0173.jpg


On-board battery charger:
(note the lack of charging being done)
IMG_0174.jpg


Is this some kind of breaker/reset switch?
IMG_0171.jpg


Cheers,

Randy.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,948
Messages
1,422,805
Members
60,930
Latest member
Ebrown69
Back
Top