380 DA Diesel

Cause i'm always shopping... I've noticed that the bigger gas boats that I looked at this time last year are still for sale. All the diesel boats have sold. The next boat I get will be diesel if for nothing else than they sell.
 
Yes, I bought my 380 w/ Cats for 141.5k, but it probably should have sold for $175k- it was just that the sellers needed out fast.

I did not even consider a gas 380- I love the diesels!!!!!
 
Frank Webster - It looks like your cruise speed with the diesels is much higher than any of the owners are experiencing. Why the big difference?

I appreciate all the feedback..
 
Mystic Dreamer,

Where did you look for the boat you purchased? Did you have a boat to trade?

Thanks.
 
Guys, I know that Mystic dreamers deal was not the norm, if that was the case I'd have mine by now! Just saying that in the current market you may not have to pay as much of a premium.
 
I have owned both gas and diesel boats and in my case the extra cost of diesel vs gas engines just does not make it worth it. The boat that I purchased new would have cost me an additional $70000 with diesel engines compared to gas. Since I boat mostly on a lake, my average outing consists of a 20 to maybe a 30 minute cruise one way. Of course the better fuel economy means something if you do about 150 hours of cruising per year. The identical boat with gas performed surprisingly well, probably due to the fact that the gas boat weighs about 2700 pounds less than diesel. On the subject of resale value, in my area it is actually difficult to get top dollar for a diesel boat compared to a gas boat. Nobody wants to spend the extra $50000 to $60000 on a inland lake. Having performed all the maintenance on my boats over the last 20 years, I must also say that the diesels did not prove to be more reliable or last longer than gas. These modern turbo diesels are producing 450 to 520 crank horsepower and that is ALOT!!! of horsepower for 8 liters of displacement.
 
Dani-Lu, you might want to look at Boattest.com. They have some very interesting comments on the 380DA with gas vs diesel.
 
elreyos said:
Dani-Lu, you might want to look at Boattest.com. They have some very interesting comments on the 380DA with gas vs diesel.
Click to expand...

Do you have a link for the lazy/busy?
 
bluebelly said:
I have owned both gas and diesel boats and in my case the extra cost of diesel vs gas engines just does not make it worth it. The boat that I purchased new would have cost me an additional $70000 with diesel engines compared to gas. Since I boat mostly on a lake, my average outing consists of a 20 to maybe a 30 minute cruise one way.
Click to expand...

Hopefully someone on a lake will want to buy a 44 foot gas boat when it comes time to sell it.... it won't sell on the coast.
 
Man, you don't understand lazy, do you. So, I spent the last 10 minutes digging into the web site, found out I have to join, went through the process, then found out they want money to read their article.

No thanks.
 
That sucks! I joined to and I'm sitting here waiting for the email with the log in info. All I saw was "free".
 
Oh Oh! I forgot. Yeah I paid to get access when I was boat shopping. Bottom line was from a performance pespective the gasser got the nod. One would really have consider the intended use of the boat to jusify the added cost.
 
What is it about the 380? Are they unusually small Cat's that they build it with? Is it the hull design? Is the excess weight just too much for the beam?
 
Well here's my opinion. I'm a novice when it comes to boats and power. But I know my way around the automotive side of gas and diesel. Given equal parameters of engine displacment and horspower the gas engine will out perform the diesel in acceleration and top speed. I make this statement assuming a given load. I believe the the 380DA from a weigth standpoint falls into the gas arena. So equipped with adequate gas engines it will perform well. Equipped with diesels with the same or near power you won't gain much over the gas engines. Where the diesels shine is in their ability to deliver maximum torque at much lower rpm. So they should last longer and be a little more economical. When hull displacement goes up, and you need 500, 600 or more horsepower and 1000s of foot pounds of torque gas engines can't deliver. The weight of the 380DA is falls into gas territory. That's just my opinion. Somebody tell me if I'm way off base here.
 
The 380DA is marginal in size for diesel vs gas. They will perform with gas motors, but their weight makes the 380 a gas hog.

Handling is a different story. A gas 380DA is not a good handling boat at slow speeds in tight quarters. A diesel 380 has significantly more torque and can, therefore, swing a lot more prop in both dia and pitch so they will move a ton of water at idle. That makes the diesel 380DA a real sweetheart in tight spots, a fast boat, and very efficient as far as fuel burn goes.

The diesel 380 may be one of Sea Ray's best ever boats....the gas version is far from it.
 
The 380 is a great boat. I agree that it is a "tweener" when discussing gas vs diesel. I will also go on the record as saying that I never felt my 380gasser was under powered. It did require different low idle, and docking techniques...but not underpowered.

My neighbor owned a 380 diesel while I owned my 380 gasser. We traveled many times together. We would cruise at the same speed...give or take a knot or two.....and some adjustments on both our parts to enjoy the trip and stay together.

Other than price, here's what I learned were some of the differences ....

1.He didn't need to stop to re-fuel at every destination....I did.
2.When it came time to go down into the ER...although it was tight, I could fit around my gassers....I had to REALLY squeeze to get around the outboard sides of his diesel. (the extra foot of beam in the 410 makes a big difference here).
3. Around the dock his handling was leaps and bounds over my gasser.
4. Everybody knew when he started up on a cold morning in the marina....:grin:...
5. When he brokered/sold his diesel...there was a bidding war....:thumbsup:
 
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Dani- Lu,

You asked where did I look for my 380 and did I have a boat to trade. I looked only at Florida boats, and was lucky enough to find the one I purchased already in the Tampa Bay area. I sold my 290AJ through a broker at MarineMax, and used him to search for 380's and also 410's. I chose only to look at diesel boats- a decision that came from a few years of "lurking" on this sight and SRO (reading almost all of Frank W.'s post by the way!) Anyhow, the boat I bought was origionally listed with a broker at $199, but it did not get any offers. The owners then tried to sell it themsleves on boattrader.com for $189. When I looked at the boat, the owner came right out and said he needed to sell the boat fast. Long story short is we went back and forth with numbers and finally settled at the $141.5 (after the surveys. )- my MM broker was nice enough to help, even though he did not get paid on the transaction (although he did on the AJ).

Brian
 
Here are the boattest #s w/ CATs
 

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