1999 Sea Ray 190BR

tramey

New Member
Oct 5, 2010
1
Charlottesville, VA
Boat Info
boatless
Engines
boatless
Hello everyone,
I am new here and to boating. I am in the market for a boat to be used on a fairly large lake in Central Virginia. I have found a 1999 Sea Ray 190BR. It is in what I consider to be very nice condition from what I can tell. Has a 5.0 Merc in it.
Went out for a test ride a few weeks ago and liked the boat. My concern is that with a boat that age, am I going to start experiencing problems that might be more major than minor??? I have also found a Four Winns H180 that is a 2007 model year for the same money. The FW only has the 3.0 Merc in it though. I have had people tell me that the 3.0 will be fine for towing people etc... I know that the 3.0 would be more economical. Plus the boat is only 3 years old vice the 11 years that the Sea Ray has.
Sea Ray's seem to have a good reputation from what I can tell.

Any thoughts on the older Sea Ray and things that you might be worried about with that age boat????
Thanks in advance
Tim
 
If you're not sure about what you might run into with the boat, have it surveyed and make your purchase contingent on the boat passing a survey. The age of a boat doesn't necessarily mean as much as how many hours are on it, how it was maintained, and how it was stored! The 3.0 will have to work at least 50% harder than the 5.0 to move the same boat. So roughly speaking, a 3.0 with 200 hours would have about the same wear as a 5.0 with 300+ hours. Don't get hung up on just the age. The Four Winns probably doesn't need a survey as long as it looks and runs OK. Unless you know the history of the Sea Ray, I would have it surveyed unless you are very confident in your boat inspecting abilities.

Larry
 
I have a 180 BR w/ a 3.0 and it is economical and does tow OK. I say ok because if you have the boat at capacity (6 persons in my case) it takes seemingly forever to get up out of the water. Infact the guy I bought it from ( a friend) had it for 2 days before he sold it to me because it didn't have the guts to pull a wakeboard out of the water when loaded. So if you plan to do a lot of towing, go for the 5.0, on the other hand a tank of gas lasts me about 2 weeks :grin: and I use it 4-5 days a week (maybe 2 hrs. per outing at the most).

By the way, if you're worried about age, check out the classics forum on this site. Lots of beautiful classic boats in great shape.
 

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