280 da sundancer buying advice new owner

ekim33

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May 22, 2009
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I'm a new member and (if the boat checks out Thursday) a new to me 2006 Sundancer 280 owner. I will be on sea trial Thursday with the surveyor I hired to check out the boat. It has a generator, a/c windlass, camper package, 2- 5.0 Mercruiser V8s with Bravo 3s, a Raymarine c80 display hooked up to a radar.

If there is any advice or typical gotchas that I should look for with this boat I would greatly appreciate the input from those who have been there. This will be my third boat(first 2 were deckboats with Merc V8s), but my first Sea Ray and my first twin engine boat.

Thanks, Mike :smt001
 
Mike,
Welcome to CSR & congrats on your first Sea Ray. I cant offer you much about your boat. The only thing we'll have in common is the Bravo 3's. I Guess I can remind you to have them inspected thoroughly if the boat was wet slipped. Is the P.O. offering service records?

Again, welcome to CSR.
 
Mike,

I had a 03 280 before I moved up to a 320. I loved the boat, had the twin 5.0's and everything. Really had no troubles with the boat. With that being said I did by the boat new. We had the boat for less than a year put around 170 hrs on the motors and almost 600hrs on the gen, as you can see we used that boat like crazy and it became to small for us. I am not sure how much different the 06 is, I do not believe there is much at least mechanically.
 
Mike,
Welcome to CSR & congrats on your first Sea Ray. I cant offer you much about your boat. The only thing we'll have in common is the Bravo 3's. I Guess I can remind you to have them inspected thoroughly if the boat was wet slipped. Is the P.O. offering service records?

Again, welcome to CSR.

Thanks for the welcome. There are some records with the boat but I don't know if they are complete. I'll review them on Thursday. The boat was kept in a lift but not a covered one. It appears that the camper style top was left on most of the time though. The props are stainless steel and appear to be in very good condition, no obvious nicks or irregular bends in them.

Thanks for the reply.

Mike
 
Mike:

In 2005, we moved up from a 215 Searay to a 2006 280 with twin 4.3 220 HP. We loved the boat and thought it was a great change but.......

A new friend at the dock had a new 320. As soon as we experienced this boat and it's wider beam, we thought our 280 was too small.

In 2006, we purchased our current 340 that we really love.

Even a 320 these days is not that much more $ than a 280 and you can get V-Drive inboards.

Good luck!
 
You're getting into a great all purpose boat - we love ours even after 4 years now.

..things to check on your 280 ...

windlass operation (imtra had problem with electronic lug connections)
mecathode system, esp the additional puck that marinemax highly recommended (so do I)
corrosion on the outdrives. check esp the rear of the prop shaft.
generator is finicky when temps go above 80. nothing to check, just be aware.
speakers in cockpit may rattle and need adjustments..
trim around the bottom of window leaks. look for caulk that has darker color on the starboard side for telltale sign.
any signs of rust on the engines. there should be just about none on your year boat.

other 280 owners will chime in with more I'm sure..
good luck with the boat. check the engines and drives carefully but the 5.0 and biii are proven performers that can run all day long..
And...It is unofficially Sea Ray's longest running production model at now nine years...lots of info on this board.
 
I don't think it does. When I looked at the boat prior to my offer, I had to lift the hatch manually, and it was heavy!

Mike

Did you make the purchase yet? Did you know that Mike(TurtleTone) has one for sale?
 
I don't think it does. When I looked at the boat prior to my offer, I had to lift the hatch manually, and it was heavy!

Mike


When I want to open the hatch I have the rear bench in the normal up or sitting position. I leave the table in place. I turn the T handle 90 degrees and lift on the T handle. By the time I have the hatch up about 4” to 5” the lifts take over. In my opinion, its not that hard and not near as bad as people make it out to be. Who knows, maybe mine is easier than most.

The current model 280 Sundancer is a nice boat. With all boats, it has trade-offs.
We like the boat a lot. I’m going to post my gripes:

The fuel tank is 100 gallons and in my opinion, 25 to 50 gallons too small.

The dash needs a place to flush-mount electronics. The only options are to mount electronis on top of the dash causing visibility issues or ram mounting them over by the throttles, causing them to be mounted in a less stable manor.

The head toilet is a bit high, or the floor is a bit low. It’s hard to wipe your ……self. Take a #2 and you will understand.

Cockpit – needs more storage. It has less cockpit storage then the smaller current model 260 Sundancer.

How big is your ars? Open the hatch, jump in the engine compartment. Can you bend over to test the float switches? Specifically the lower float switch? Can you reach the sea cock for the air conditioner unit? I can but I struggle to reach both of these things.

No level indicator on the fresh water tank. If you have the older non-insulated water tank at least you can open the hatch and look down and see how much water you have remaining. I’m not sure what year they had the dumb idea of adding insulation to the tank. It does not keep the water cool, it just prevents you from being able to see how much water you have left.

If you are going to sleep onboard you will need a mattress topper for the V-birth. I got a memory foam topper from Walmart and cut it to fit.

The horn is a joke. It sounds like a duck with a frog stuck in its throat.

The cup holder on the port side dash is a bigger joke. Don’t use it if the water is anything other then smooth, the drink will fall out and spill.

Make sure the cabin door is closed and clicked before someone steps on the cabin steps. If you don’t, the door may open with someone on them and send them on a nasty fall. My wife got a nasty bruise on her cute little caboose because of this issue.


OK, it does sound like I don’t like the boat. I do like it a lot. It’s an incredibly versatile, well laid out boat that meets our needs. We use the boat in a variety of ways. It’s our cruiser, vacation home, fishing boat, tube puller, etc.

It’s brought our family closer together although spending 9 days onboard last summer I now understand why some species eat their children. (kidding)

There is a lot to learn and we have many 280 Sundancer owners her at CSR and were happy to share our experiences.

Do me a favor. If anyone tells you that since you have a twin engine boat you should not touch the wheel as you dock, push them in the drink. As they look up at you from the water tell them that does not apply to boats with twin stern drives, epically one with as narrow of a beam as this boat. Several people told me this and I had dock rash to prove it.

Now I use the wheel and I am very good at docking even in wind and current.

We back in and dock with the finger pier on our starboard side. For what it’s worth, as I back into the slip to dock I normally flip up the seat bolster, stand and face stern with the rear cockpit door open so I can see the dock relative to the swim platform.

This is season #3 for us and I have really mastered docking this boat. I finally leaned the secret to the crab crawl (move the boat sideways). Say I want to move Starboard. I turn hard to starboard, put the starboard engine in reverse, the port engine in forward then play with the throttles. The starboard engine gets a bit more RPM’s as I crawl to starboard and a bit to stern. If I get too far to stern I straighten the dives then give it a bit of forward on the throttles.

Go to a open area and practice. It's my poor man’s version of Mercury Axius.




There are little things you will keep discovering on this boat. That button on the dash with the rectangular box with an arrow pointing to it on each side and what looks like a ‘shock’ symbol inside the box turns on the water pump. Yes, the cabin door lock does have three positions, not two. I had the boat over a year before I discovered the little swing out / retractable foot on the reclining port lounge.
 
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