Getting the boat

pilot2fly

pilot2fly

New Member
Mar 10, 2014
103
Wrightsville Beach, NC
Boat Info
2001 290 Sundancer
Engines
Twin 5.0L Mercruisers with Bravo III drives
Closing on the new to me 290DA today. It feels like it's been forever since I first found it. There were a couple of minor things that had to be fixed. One guy was docking and his anchor pulled the bow rail and bent it, his insurance paid to fix it. Needed a new radio, owner put in a new one. Outdrives had too much play, but it was a small fix thank goodness. Current owner fixed all of that and I'll be driving down this afternoon to close the deal. I'm still trying to determine if I'll actually drive it back today. Forecast is calling for rain for the next 2 days. Naturally right when I want to get the boat!
 
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Bet ya couldn't sleep too much last night eh? Have a safe journey, good luck. Remember to post some pics.

We drove our new to us 260 up from Seattle in the driving rain. (about 300 miles) You should be good as long as the temps stay well above freezing. You'll just have to drive a bit slower.
 
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Yeah, it was hard to sleep last night. I keep looking at pictures of the boat over and over. I'll be taking plenty of pictures for sure. It's definitely going to be a fun trip.

I will have to drive back down tomorrow to pick up the trailer. The Wrangler isn't very fond of pulling 11,000 pounds of boat.
 
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Congrats. The 290 hits a great "sweet" spot on size vs trailerability (is that a word?)
 
The sweet spot is pretty good. We talked to the owner of the marina and they will use one of their diesel trucks to pull the boat out any time we need them to. They will even bring it to our house if we want. We just don't have a truck that's strong enough to pull it and I don't plan to run out and buy one any time soon.
 
That sounds like a perfect arrangement.
 
Good job on finding a nice 290. That is one sweet looking boat. I can't wait to see pics of it.

Just a small suggestion....if you ever are in need of a diesel boat hauler, get in touch with a local Budget or Hertz rental. I used Budget several times to haul my 330. $150/day, unlimited mileage and the trucks came with an electronic brake controller installed.
 
Congrats on the new boat , now we will be sending you a list of mods you HAVE to do , please send your checking account and routing number to me so I can help spend your money !!!!!!!!!! Hahaha


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Haha yeah I have a big list of things to be done the first time we haul her out of the water. Blue underwater lights off the transom, add depth finder to GPS (as a backup), lengthen some of the cables in the engine compartment, the list goes on.

I actually stumbled across this boat by accident. I was originally looking at a 34 foot Maxum with a boat broker. We told him we liked the Sea Ray brand a lot and he showed us a 280DA that wasn't very well taken care of, so we passed on it. Then he told us there was a guy he knew in the same marina that was selling his privately. We took a tour of the boat and immediately fell in love. The guy took great care of it, was a big hands on guy, and really knew his stuff. He kept it clean and very well maintained. That was a big selling point for me.

We went through all the systems with the previous owner (we signed the papers today) today, learned everything about the boat and drove it. Seemed like quite a bit of steering play, but the broker who actually used to work for Sea Ray says it's normal. Just something to get used to is all. Really loved it, drove great and boy does it put out a wake when coming off plane. The weather wasn't very good at all, heavy rain at times and we decided to leave the boat at that marina until Tuesday when the weather improves, then we will be doing the drive up. I'll be taking tons of pictures as well.
 
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we love our 290! being in ATL, my big thing was i wanted to travel with it to Atlantic or Gulf side. if you decide to start trailering regularly, i bought an AmeriTrail trailer that is way oversized, and use a 3500 diesel dually. it actually pulls fairly easily. and i've even gotten to where i can launch and retrieve faster than most people with a ski boat.
 
The trailer came with the boat and is in great condition, thank goodness. We drove the trailer back with the Wrangler and it felt like we were pulling a greyhound bus. The more I think about it, the more I want to go find a used dually just in case I ever need to take the boat out of the water when nobody else is around to.
 
Congrats enjoy!
 
You do not need a dually, just an adequate truck (a dually if you want) and really good, functioning brakes on your trailer. I pulled mine with a Chevy Duramax.

I had a triple axle trailer with electric brakes and a power winch. I could launch or retrieve in about 5 minutes.
 
I'm driving it home through the Intracoastal Waterway. It's a 4 hour trip but it will be fun. Plan to set out Wednesday morning.
 
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