is there an official 370 Venture thread?

Richie89

Richie89

Active Member
Aug 20, 2012
599
Miami Beach, FL
Boat Info
450 Sundancer
Engines
Twin Cummins 480 Zeus
want to watch this boat over the next couple of years cause it seems to be what i want next. either this or the Pursuit SC365.
 
Bump... to this thread. ( not a bad one to bring to the top , heh?)
i'm keeping an eye on this boat as well as a possibility in the next 3-4 years as they age a bit.. seems like the perfect combination for saltwater / river use ( i see some skinny water) , lower maintenance with outboards and nice accomodations for 4.
Any Venture owners out there have any comments / wisdom on this newer model yet ?
 
IslandTime said:
Bump... to this thread. ( not a bad one to bring to the top , heh?)
i'm keeping an eye on this boat as well as a possibility in the next 3-4 years as they age a bit.. seems like the perfect combination for saltwater / river use ( i see some skinny water) , lower maintenance with outboards and nice accomodations for 4.
Any Venture owners out there have any comments / wisdom on this newer model yet ?
Click to expand...

Anyone out there have ANY feedback on how this boat is performing after a few years out of prototype ?
 
i've seriously looked at 2 recently. they are interesting. keep wavering with one of these vs a 390 or 40 sundancer
 
I've always felt like it was a lot of boat for those engines. I wouldn't expect their service life to be great under so much load.

I also felt there were a lot of sacrifices in an attempt to keep weight down. No hard top, limited head room, etc.

You'd be much better served by a 390/400DA if you can deal with the draft.
 
I believe FWebster has the best info of anyone on here.

I know sales are lower than expected. The fuel consumption is insane. The concept is ingenious.

If if you have skinny water, IMO, Pulse Drives behind diesels are the way to go.
 
Jmwarren said:
I've always felt like it was a lot of boat for those engines. I wouldn't expect their service life to be great under so much load.

I also felt there were a lot of sacrifices in an attempt to keep weight down. No hard top, limited head room, etc.

You'd be much better served by a 390/400DA if you can deal with the draft.
Click to expand...

Good feedback and can't wait to hear from someone who owns or has serviced one .
 
We have one in town here.

The owner traded a 320DA with I/O's for it. He used to keep his boat at the marina but the Venture requires less water so he's move his boat to his house which is on a shallow lagoon. I saw him anchored in the usual local's spot and talked to him on the beach last month. The owner loves the boat and says he is burning much less fuel for the same use, best of all, he say's, is the fact that in just over 100 hours, he has been in for service only once and that was for his 50 hour initial service/inspection. Although not a fit for me, I am still blown away at how quiet the boat is.
 
fwebster said:
We have one in town here.

The owner traded a 320DA with I/O's for it. He used to keep his boat at the marina but the Venture requires less water so he's move his boat to his house which is on a shallow lagoon. I saw him anchored in the usual local's spot and talked to him on the beach last month. The owner loves the boat and says he is burning much less fuel for the same use, best of all, he say's, is the fact that in just over 100 hours, he has been in for service only once and that was for his 50 hour initial service/inspection. Although not a fit for me, I am still blown away at how quiet the boat is.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback... i'm keeping an eye on this boat over the next few years - i'm definitely not a gearhead and only do basic maintenance - and looking for a larger boat, with less maintenance/service needs and the ability to move around the bay as well as inland rivers like i do now... its only a bonus to be able to tilt those outboards up out of the water and not worry about the salt...! will be interesting to see how the boat / engines hold up in years 3 - 5 where things start to need "addresssing".
 
Actually, the only new technology in the Venture design is enclosed engine bay and the cowling that ducts fresh air into the engine cowling......and that isn't rocket science. The Verado engine platform has been around salt water for years and has proven to be an extremely reliable motor. The only knock I have for them is that they are very sophisticated and are well beyond the usual boat mechanic unless he has been to Merc Verado school and has access to Merc's diagonstics and a laptop. Parts can also get expensive since there isn't much aftermarket for them. A major event and you are buying a $30K motor but with an inboard, it is a $5-$7000 short block.
 
fwebster said:
Actually, the only new technology in the Venture design is enclosed engine bay and the cowling that ducts fresh air into the engine cowling......and that isn't rocket science. The Verado engine platform has been around salt water for years and has proven to be an extremely reliable motor. The only knock I have for them is that they are very sophisticated and are well beyond the usual boat mechanic unless he has been to Merc Verado school and has access to Merc's diagonstics and a laptop. Parts can also get expensive since there isn't much aftermarket for them. A major event and you are buying a $30K motor but with an inboard, it is a $5-$7000 short block.
Click to expand...
The only advantage I see in the o/b replacement is the downtime
By looking at it I would say it would be a 3-4 hour plug and play swap out as opposed to a month of downtime
swapping out an inboard.
 
frank, i keep coming back and back to this boat. i love everything about it. the downside to the 38, 390, or 40 for wife is the cockpit entertaining. the 370 has an awesome layout with grill and counterspace. downstairs, the 370 again is perfect for our needs. if it was a sun dancer, we'd be hard pressed not to love it for layout alone. i've asked lots of questions on this board as i learn more. the consensus is a 40 with diesel outboards, but the better performance and fuel economy i read about with the 370 keeps me coming back. we will use the boat for about 1 week a month from our beach house taking day trips running 30 miles or so up and down the coast, wanting to go fast at times outside. so it will be used as a bigger day boat, but then also for a week at a time for wife and i to take ICW trips staying in marinas. we now take trips in our 290 so the 370 is plenty big enough. i also can't get past the ability to tilt engines out the 2-3 weeks at a time when we are back at home. i don't seem to find anyone except the dealers that are positive about this boat though. you are the first to say positive things. i want to hang out is shallow water, sand bars, the GA marshes, etc so the draft sounds awesome to me. also, the slip we will be putting it in can get shallow possibly under 4' so again there is a safety feel for me. please tell me where i'm wrong cause i can get a new one of these for the price of an '08 diesel sun dancer and i actually like the layout better! did i mention the storage in the cockpit on the boat or the engine room? wow!
 
I haven't weighed in on this because I have no direct experience with any boat under consideration.

Ritchie, in reading what your requirements are it sounds like you're looking for a big center console with comfortable overnight and entertaining accommodations. Sounds like the Venture fits your needs now. But how soon will you want to move up again? IIRC you've done it pretty quickly in the past. Maybe bite the bullet and get what you really want now? Just my 2 pennies.

ps. I like the Venture even though I haven't seen one. If I was in a position to purchase a boat I would look long and hard at it.
 
I had a chance to ride on the venture at the sea ray event in Knoxville. I was with Frank and he pointed out that we had about 17 people on the boat during our ride and it performed fantastic from my perspective. I too liked the open interior space as well as the cockpit area. Love the fact that the engines can be lifted out of the water, not just for salt water considerations but for safe guarding the mechanical if you happen into shallow water. The only two drawbacks I took note of for me was the angled bed in the master stateroom area (not sure how sleeping at a constant angle to rocking motion would feel like) and the fact that a generator would be gas and not diesel (safety). Other than that, I loved the boat and have even contacted a local dealer to explore what ifs. We have decided to stand down for now because our current 400DB serves as more of a condo on the water for us and it is serving is well at this stage.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatal
 
Look at the pursuit 370 also. Yamaha power and the same type of layout. I know this is a Searay forum but if it was my money I would look at all options.
 
I was told that you has to run the motors at a pretty high RPM to keep the 370 on plane thus the fuel burn and lower longevity of the motors. This is coming from a MM Master Captain.
 
Now the discussion gets into personal preferences...........

I liked the overall layout of the Venture, I had no problem with its performance fully loaded, the outboard power was intriguing and certainly out-of-the box thinking.

But...........I didn't like the profile. I didn't particulary like the color choices.....the prototype we saw in Knoxville was chocholate brown, the one locally is 1968 Chevelle electric blue. White is right!*. Just about any other Sea Ray built since 1990 looks like it is going 50 MPH when it is tied to the dock....this one looks like a floating cigarette box. While the boat runs great on a flat river, I don't expect it to be a very good sea boat. It is too short, too wide and too stern heavy to handle seas well. Maybe not important on a lake, but if you boat on the coast it is a matter of time before a squall catches you and you end up slogging back to protected water in a washing machine sea. Although very dependable, I've seen too many Verados stripped to the frame for major repairs due to water ingestion, corrosion problems, bad castings, etc. While most could have been avoided by better maintenance and involving a mechanic sooner, a 5 figure repair bill will sting and will happen much more frequently with a highly tuned supercharged outboard, X2, than with a diesel. Give me a pair of old school diesel engines for coastal boating in a 40-45 ft hull any day of the week. I might be a tad behind the technology curve but, over the long run, I'll go further, be safer, boat cheaper and spend far less on repairs than a Venture owner.........I'll be a lot more comfortable too.

For Richie, do yourself a favor and go look at a 1996-99 450DA, a 2003-up 460DA, or a 48DA....then talk to us about room for entertaining or spending a weekend anchored out.


*a quote from the head of quality at PD&E at Merritt Island
 
I am in agreement with Frank
not asthetically pleasing to me...tall and skinny... looks like a dorsal fin.
one thing that I noticed on the river when taking wake from the side it did rock like a narrow beam boat
and to Frank...
do you think that the air intake design on the sides might add to the water ingestion problem or is there some sort of separator
in the intake hose?? I noticed this on the proto in Knoxville.
 
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