If you have been to a boat show..............

D

Dave S

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Oct 3, 2006
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Upstate South Carolina
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............any thoughts on how the "competition" is doing when you compare their offerings to the Sea Ray line up?

I will be going myself next month and I am anxious to look at some of the new offerings from Four Winns, Regal, and Chapparal in particular. They all seem to have made some big improvements in some of their Cruisers. I think Sea Ray still owns the Deckboat market, but some of the other "non-deckboat" offerings are starting to blur the need for a Deckboat since "regular" bow riders are now almost as spacious and accomodating.
 
Dave S said:
............any thoughts on how the "competition" is doing when you compare their offerings to the Sea Ray line up?

I will be going myself next month and I am anxious to look at some of the new offerings from Four Winns, Regal, and Chapparal in particular. They all seem to have made some big improvements in some of their Cruisers. I think Sea Ray still owns the Deckboat market, but some of the other "non-deckboat" offerings are strating to blur the need for a Deckboat since "regular" bow riders are now almost as spacious and accomodating.
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In my opinion Doral and Four Winns are the nicest "other" boats. I think the Doral Boca Grande is a beautyful vessel and we were real close to buying a Four Winns before we bought our 320. I don't really care for the Regals or Chapparals.
Now if you want to get into the larger, Italian builders that is another story. I was on a 46 Azimut in September that was out of this world!
As for sport boats, Crownline and Sea Ray have it hands down.
 
I went to the Providence boat show 2 weeks ago and am going to the Hartford Boat show today. I think the boat that comes closest to the Sea Ray offerings is the Four Winns 316 (or something like that). Of course you need to get into the 31 foot offering from them to get the amenities of the 280DA im interested in moving up to. All the boats are really nice for sure but the Sea Ray fit and finish is something im really spoiled by.
 
Boat shows

Just went to the Baltimore show.

Four Winns is offering 2.99 financing for 36 months then it goes to 5.99, very attractive. I personally like the Four Winns 378 Vista.

Regal is coming out with a 52 footer that is going to blow the market as far as price. Talking with the ragal saleman the 52 footer is going to be priced below 700K. Here is the kicker its made to order..if you order one you pick everything out from cabinets, carpet, bedding dishes, electronics etc. Basically like buying a house.

Still think Sea Ray gets them all.
 
As for sport boats, Crownline and Sea Ray have it hands down.
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Big ditto. I really like what Crownline has to offer in the 255 and 275 CCs.
 
I was on a bunch of sport boats at the Chicago boat show. I still thnk my 270SLX has a better layout than anything I saw. Big Chapparal bowriders are close in layout but fall behind in quality. You can tell from little things like the hardware and fittings.

I agree Crownline is in second place unless you like spending more for a Cobalt. The new 31 foot(?) Cobalt is awsome and should be.

I still think other boats trail in design and components but some, especially Crownline, exceed SR in the quality of final assembly fit and finish. (My boat is an example of that type of problems but no need to detail all the gory details here.)

Dennis
 
Is it just me or have others noticed that some of the manufacturers seem to be “borrowing†each others design elements perhaps a little more than they typically do.
For example, the Four Winns Vista 318 appears to be almost a direct copy of the Searay 320.

Searay is not above this practice either as portions of the new helm design on the 310 look like what Doral has had for several years.

As the saying goes, “imitation is the highest from of flattery†or perhaps to be more accurate “there is nothing new under the sunâ€.
 
I was always big on the Four Winns Vistas. I liked the layouts (still do) but decided on a Sea Ray because I finally found one I could afford... and glad I did.

Last year at the boat show, I asked my sales guy that was at the MM area, what's his opinion on the closest competition, he advised Cruisers, and non of the others.

I'm too an anxious to see what else is around in two weeks!
 
I went to the Providence boat show as well. I think it depends on what model you are looking at. The Cruiser 26 was so small I almost got stuck getting out of the aft cabin. I am 6'1 265lbs. Honestly, I will will take the cabin layout of my 1992 29 over any new boat (any model) less than 30 feet.
 
I haven't been to the show yet this year, but just from looking at the 07's online..I would say the 30' series goes in this order for me

SeaRay
Four Winns
Doral
Crownline


Not a fan at all of the rear stateroom. It almost seems like they are just trying to be different just to be different..makes me clostraphobic too..yeah i spelled that wrong

Crownline's overall look doesn't really do anything for me, just doesn't seem as plush for some reason

Four winns didn't have a camper canvas option which is a must..I don't know I chose Sea Ray for a reason..that is all
 
I was quite impressed with Maxum. They have the storage thing going on.....
We like the 370.
 
I was most impressed with the 40 Ft Chris-Craft at the Atlanta boat Show.
I spoke to the Rep and he invited me to take a ride on it at the Miami in water show in Feb.
Well I got a voice mail today inviting me and a guest to take a test ride in VA Beach this week end on it. They will fly us up on a private Jet and put us up overnight Saturday Night. :smt038
 
[quoteIn my opinion Doral and Four Winns are the nicest "other" boats. I think the Doral Boca Grande is a beautyful vessel and we were real close to buying a Four Winns before we bought our 320. I don't really care for the Regals or Chapparals.
Now if you want to get into the larger, Italian builders that is another story. I was on a 46 Azimut in September that was out of this world![/quote]

You should have looked at the Tiara 32 Open. It's bigger, heavier and very livable for a 32 foot boat (actually about 37 feet overall in SR speak). The 32 SR lists for about $280,274 with popular options such as a good stereo, 496 engines, genny and an ice maker in the cockpit. At $281,100, the Tiara 3200 has more standard features plus many small features you never even knew you needed until you had them. The quality and seakeeping are superb. The asking prices for SRs are typically very close to Tiara's. This is one reason why so many Tiara owners have owned SRs. Once you compare handling and quality..........
 
I was at the Milwaukee boat show and I wasn't very impressed with the majority of the boats(except SR). I can't stand the "european" stairs in the Four Winns. The thought that I have to remember left foot first when entering the cabin just makes no sense :smt017 :huh: :smt017 . Right foot first and you end up head diving into the cabin :smt013 :smt013
 
Well, to be perfectly honest, had I not found a killer deal on a used 2004 320 Sundancer, I'd probably be surfing the Fourwinns forum. I was at the Miami boat show last year and was very close to pulling the trigger on a new 318 Vista, with volvo ocean drives and a ton of options, for under $150K. There are still things about that boat that I prefer over my Searay.

If I were buying new, I would cross shop the FW318/338, Chaparral 310/330, and the new Monterey 330. While those are all stern drive boats, and my Searay is a V-drive, I think the volvo ocean series is a pretty good setup. Even in salt, as long as you get the saltwater package. More speed and better mileage, at the expense of a bit more maintenance. But none of the corrosion issues you'd risk with a Mercruiser that we're limited to on Searay stern drive boats.

Now, my 320DA is a great boat. Well built, great support, and it will hold its value much better than those (actually, I could make money on it right now). I'm glad I got it and I feel that it looks better than anything else in its class. But I would not have bought one new, and I don't care for the new 310 Sundancer at all. Ever look at the vinyl on the new 310? Looks terrible. Like the seats on my folks old 1969 caprice wagon.

The one thing I wish Searay would do is stop using so much wood in the cabin. Everyone else has gone to a molded fiberglass cabin liner, which has a ton of advantages, but Searay still has a coated wood floor, seats, bulkheads, etc. It looks crappy when you take things apart. Lots of rough edges, splinters, and stuff is just machine screwed together in a haphazard way. They just use a lot of carpet and vinyl to hide it. But a fiberglass liner won't rot out, is easy to maintain/repair, can be wiped clean, allows the use of easily replaceable snap in carpets as opposed to glued in ones, and generally looks much nicer. That one thing will prevent me from buying a new searay. But for a great price on a used one, I'll live with it.

So, anyways, I'd recommend looking at those other boats. We saw the new Monterey 330 at the boat show and I was very impressed. It had a ton of thoughtful ideas, and was less than a new 320DA. I also love the interior layout of the Chaparral 330. I could have gotten a brand new leftover 2005 Chap 330 for $139K last fall, which for the money is an even better deal than my used 320DA.

But all in all, I'm very happy with my 320DA. It has been a flawless boat, and I'm not sure the others would have been. I know Searay will never offer volvo gas engines, obviously, but I sure wish they'd go to a fiberglass interior like all the other boats.

-Dave
'04 320DA, T350Mag V-Drives
 
as blasphemus as this may sound the only two lines I would consider would be Cobalt and Chapparal. Both have nailed the fit and finish which in my opinion over SeaRay. I do like some of Maxum's ideas but you can tell you're on a sub-par vessel to SeaRay
 
I will be at the Pittsburgh show tonight...Hopefully get to play on some neat water craft...maybe this will hold me over for a couple months


not very likely..probably will make it worse
 
jim696 said:
I was at the Milwaukee boat show and I wasn't very impressed with the majority of the boats(except SR). I can't stand the "european" stairs in the Four Winns. The thought that I have to remember left foot first when entering the cabin just makes no sense :smt017 :huh: :smt017 . Right foot first and you end up head diving into the cabin :smt013 :smt013
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Just got back from our local boat show and it looks like Four Winns has changed that "european" style stairs for the 2007 model year. At least for the 318's. I'm sure the other models will follow. I agree...dumb design. Here are my thoughts about the boat show. Four Winns continues to push SeaRay to improve the line. Other then SeaRay we all agreed that Four Winns was the best in "express stlye" cruisers. Dorals and Regals were also very nice. What surprised me were the Formula's. We were all very unimpressed with them even though I know they make a great boat.
 
Well just back from the LA boat show and Newport boats the local Searay dealer was the largest display. After looking at the searay's and others for the money I saw that Chapparal's really looked good. My wife really like the wood instead of carpet. They seemed more roomy. Probably 20% less for the same stuff. I still like the new 290 da but the 290 chap looked good to. Got out of there before making a big new payment. LOL There were some nice interest rates availible. 4.9 and 5.2 and cash back. A show this size only had wake boards and tubes as sellables. Really wanted to look at, touch and buy chart, gps but there was not any there. :huh: This was by far the biggest show I have seen. :thumbsup:
 
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