Hello Club Sea Ray Members

[Sea Grass 260 Sundancer]

Hello from Vancouver, Canada. This is my first post to CSR, which is appropriate, as this summer we bought our first boat, which turned out to be our first Sea Ray. We ended up purchasing a 2006 260 Sundancer, with the 350 Merc and Bravo III leg. The boat had just 59 hours on it, and we have happily added 10 more in the past few weeks.

I happened to learn about this site when I was searching the net to gain information on the "tippiness" of our boat. In fact, tippy is a polite way of saying, at times it wants to act like a submarine! It was to say the least, a little unnerving the first time out, but I've since learned to trim using the drive and the trim tabs, but even then, she is still very unstable with any weight shifts, or even small rollers.

I was hoping some of the other owners of the 260 might be able to offer some ideas of any further ways to help reduce the tippiness. Perhaps I will just learn to live with it, but unless the water is dead calm, it makes for a fairly tense ride. Definitely no wine for the passengers while underway! (Just whining).

So if you have some thoughts to share, I am very keen to hear them, and I must say, it's nice to belong to a boating club for our first time. Regards, Sea Grass

 

[mwph]

Let me be the first to say welcome aboard!
I am a new boater myself and only have about three weekends on my 250 but I must say our deffinition of small rollers must drastically different. My wife was concerned about "tippiness". But no more! We are very happy with our boats stability. Again Welcome aboard. My only question for your issue would be ...How many people aboard when you have the problems? Always?

 

[Nehalennia]

Welcome aboard Salty.
We're nearly neighbors.
Welcome to the 260DA Club. There are lot's of posts on the newer models instabilty.
Do a search for it as it sounds like you may have already.

Best of luck and again welcome.
See you on the water

 

[Sea Grass 260 Sundancer]

Thanks for the responses, and you are right, I've seen quite a few posts now regarding some "inherent" tippiness of specifically the 05 thru 07 260s. I have a friend who has years of boating experience on all manner of boats, and he came with my wife and I for the first three outings. Even he was shocked at how much the boat heeled over, and the amount of constant trimming it took to keep it "mostly" level.

We were lightly loaded the first few times, (half gas, no water, empty holding tanks, very little gear) and we had hoped that a full load may settle the boat down in the water more, but so far, that has not been the case.

Of course, now that we've been out a few times, I'm feeling more comfortable with the rolling, but not ready to take any guests out yet, for fear of turning them off boating forever!

Time to start dreaming about a twin I guess.

 

[JeffM]

If you have Bennett trim tabs, you might consider their Automatic Tab Control. This unit is supposed to be easy to install (I haven't done it so I can't speak from experience), and automatically adjusts your tabs to keep the boat level. Last time I checked they were introducing a new version (ATC-3000) this summer and the old version was getting scarce.

Their website is http://www.bennetttrimtabs.com/ . There have been a couple of threads about this system; do a search and you'll be able get some first-hand opinions.

I have no connection with Bennett, but I do plan to add this system over the winter.

 

[Panda220]

IS this why the 05 thru 07 260 has had such a short production run ? I hope the new models, 270 & 250 are more stable.