Hi folks,
Great forum. Even better that there is a special place for all the old-time Searay's! I'm into the classics moreso due to budget, but I love the features and looks of these boats provided they haven't been completely neglected and ragged out. We got into boating last year with a 15' Princecraft runabout, and eventually wanted to move up to a larger cruiser in a couple years, but didn't want to break the bank and operating budget getting a larger cruiser right out of the gate. So boats less than 26' while a little smaller are still pretty functional and if in good shape won't be a constant drain the wallet - hmm let's check back on that in a couple weeks :grin:
After looking at a couple boats we made a longer trip to Kingston, ON check out this well-sorted 1980 SRV 245. Just the right amount of space for us and a nice list of maintenance and upgrade items completed from the owners who have had it for 13 years. They moved up to a Cruisers 3270 Esprit :wow: which is a pretty big cruiser compared to the 245 by a huge margin. The Searay looks to be very well loved and doesn't look to have been neglected at all - which is good because at 32 years old most boats look twice that age.
We haven't yet taken it out for a water test (doing so later this week) but liked it enough to put a deposit down and get things moving forward.
Anyhow, everyone loves pics, so here are some from the ad.
Things were pretty orderly below deck but I don't have any decent pictures to show.
There has been lots of maintenance done over the term of ownership, and when they bought the boat they had a rebuilt engine installed and have only accumulated 134 hours on it, so it has not had heavy use. I talked to the mechanic who has serviced the boat (Bateau Boatworks on Wolfe Island) and he was pretty enthusiastic about it and gave me a yearly breakdown of what was done on the boat.
The maiden voyage will actually be somewhat intense, going from Kingston, ON to Hastings, ON via Lake Ontario and the Trent River. I'm lining up some more experienced captains to help me get the boat closer to home, as well as ordering a Raymarine chartplotter to give us a hand here and there, since the boat doesn't have any modern navigation systems, although it does have a digital depth gauge. Funnily enough a couple months ago a friend of mine gave me this huge bag of charts, mostly Lake Ontario, and at the time I told him they're nice but I don't think I'll be using them... Needless to say once I got home yesterday I pulled them out :smt038
I should have good Internet connectivity throughout the trip so I am thinking of doing daily reports and such. My boating experience is limited to about 15 years of medium sized lake boating, and 90% of that was going to the cottage to boathouse and back. So this is a big jump for me, planning on taking it very slowly with safety the top priority.
Wish me luck!
John
Great forum. Even better that there is a special place for all the old-time Searay's! I'm into the classics moreso due to budget, but I love the features and looks of these boats provided they haven't been completely neglected and ragged out. We got into boating last year with a 15' Princecraft runabout, and eventually wanted to move up to a larger cruiser in a couple years, but didn't want to break the bank and operating budget getting a larger cruiser right out of the gate. So boats less than 26' while a little smaller are still pretty functional and if in good shape won't be a constant drain the wallet - hmm let's check back on that in a couple weeks :grin:
After looking at a couple boats we made a longer trip to Kingston, ON check out this well-sorted 1980 SRV 245. Just the right amount of space for us and a nice list of maintenance and upgrade items completed from the owners who have had it for 13 years. They moved up to a Cruisers 3270 Esprit :wow: which is a pretty big cruiser compared to the 245 by a huge margin. The Searay looks to be very well loved and doesn't look to have been neglected at all - which is good because at 32 years old most boats look twice that age.
We haven't yet taken it out for a water test (doing so later this week) but liked it enough to put a deposit down and get things moving forward.
Anyhow, everyone loves pics, so here are some from the ad.
Things were pretty orderly below deck but I don't have any decent pictures to show.
There has been lots of maintenance done over the term of ownership, and when they bought the boat they had a rebuilt engine installed and have only accumulated 134 hours on it, so it has not had heavy use. I talked to the mechanic who has serviced the boat (Bateau Boatworks on Wolfe Island) and he was pretty enthusiastic about it and gave me a yearly breakdown of what was done on the boat.
The maiden voyage will actually be somewhat intense, going from Kingston, ON to Hastings, ON via Lake Ontario and the Trent River. I'm lining up some more experienced captains to help me get the boat closer to home, as well as ordering a Raymarine chartplotter to give us a hand here and there, since the boat doesn't have any modern navigation systems, although it does have a digital depth gauge. Funnily enough a couple months ago a friend of mine gave me this huge bag of charts, mostly Lake Ontario, and at the time I told him they're nice but I don't think I'll be using them... Needless to say once I got home yesterday I pulled them out :smt038
I should have good Internet connectivity throughout the trip so I am thinking of doing daily reports and such. My boating experience is limited to about 15 years of medium sized lake boating, and 90% of that was going to the cottage to boathouse and back. So this is a big jump for me, planning on taking it very slowly with safety the top priority.
Wish me luck!
John
I plan to get all new gauges, toggles, custom plates with lettering, etc. over the winter. Perhaps re-arrange things so I can flushmount the chart plotter - which I still haven't installed and am not in any rush. It would definitely improve the helm area though. My trim gauge also doesn't work, which is annoying.