Looking at a 270 tomorrow

[boatman37]

Well after our 3 hour drive to Catawba Island today I called about a boat 15 minutes from our marina...lol. We used to dock right by him our first year but I don't remember much about the boat. It's a 1998 270 (9'2" beam). It has the 7.4 MPI, vacu flush, generator, and trailer. The bimini canvas is dry rotted and shot. The boat has been sitting since last summer due to the owners health issues. They said the cockpit cover is still in good shape.

So planning on a survey no matter which boat we buy but anything in particular I should look out for on this boat? Is this one of the models that are plagued with soft decks?

Wasn't originally planning on anything this old but we had been thinking along the lines of a 260 but not many of those have the genny. The 270 might be just right. I can still tow it with my truck (with a permit) and have a little more room than the 260. Just wish they made a radar arch for this one...lol. And no aluminum arch!

I would need to do a tune up, oil changes and impellers right away. It will suck not having a bimini for the rest of this year but the guy that made mine for our 250 charged me $2100 for ours with Sunbrella and all new hardware so probably not much more than that for a 270.

So good boats? We will be on the Ohio river 99% of the time.

 

[Strecker25]

Good boat, know someone that had the exact one. Bravo3, right?

I don’t think there was anything model specific they had issues with. Just check the normal stuff before going in for the survey. In addition to what you mentioned I’d give the bellows a look if it’s on the hard, they might be due with the extended time at rest.

With a single he had quite a bit of room down in the bilge. They didn’t have a gen though.

 

[boatrboy]

Now I am prejudice but I think it's a great boat. There is a lot to check but....

boat specific;
- look for water under garbage can in cabin under the top step where shower sump is. On mine it was caused by leaking port hole sealing - not too hard to reseal
- water in battery box - gas fill resealing also
General;
Compression test and look at plugs for signs of water leaking
Agree with bellow change with bearing - look for water just under steering arm laying on motor - sign of seal on bravo steering shaft leaking.

I don't have Genny so I can't speak for that.

Also - the waterline may show a slight list - almost everyone I have seen has this - don't worry.

Good luck

 

[Stee6043]

You think a 96 is old??? ha. I say at this age they are just depreciating more slowly...

Canvas can be pricey ($2.5k is a steal) and I believe the soft decks plagued just about the entire Sundancer line during the 90's and into the 2000's. Walk on the deck before you pay for a survey. You can likely feel soft spots right away...

 

[boatman37]

Thanks all. I plan to walk the deck today to check for and sponginess. Also, if we buy it I will be changing fluids and impellers at a minimum prior to putting it in the water.

Will check for water. No idea on the bellows but the guy had a local shop do all work on this boat and I think he bought it around 2015 so might have been done then. I remember he pulled it because he had a generator issue and something else in 2015. I never paid much attention to the boat then only that I walked by it every weekend and chatted with him a few times.

Anyone know if the rear facing seat converts to a sunpad like the 260's do? If not I could probably make a base and get a pad made for it to do it the old school way.

Apparently it looks like it has a Kohler 4.0Kw gennie. How hard is the impeller in that?

Yes, Bravo III. I have heard of the steering pin leak issue. Is that something a surveyor will catch?

Any idea if these guys are any good for canvas? http://rnr-marine.com/searay.shtml#270
Since the bimini is dry rotted and I don't feel like being a baked potato the rest of this year I might just order a bimini through these guys then over winter have my regular guy make the rest? Or I could take the dry rotted one to my guy and have him copy it? Jumping ahead here but just trying to plan....lol.

Trailer looks pretty new but is a tandem axle. My old one was a tri-axle and it pulled great. The boat is at the owners house on the trailer.

Also says it has vacu-flush w/holding tank.

Will find out more tonight and update the post.

 

[Little Ducky]

Exciting times.

Take some pictures.

 

[boatrboy]

"Anyone know if the rear facing seat converts to a sunpad like the 260's do? If not I could probably make a base and get a pad made for it to do it the old school way."

The table has a short leg/post usually under the rear facing seat and under the table there are a couple of folding legs which hold the table at the height shown. So yes there is a snap on padded sun pad but I have yet to use mine. Keep in mind the table may be under the hatch - actually attached to the underside in a shelf.

"Trailer looks pretty new but is a tandem axle. My old one was a tri-axle and it pulled great. The boat is at the owners house on the trailer."

Always had a tandem......

 

[boatman37]

"Anyone know if the rear facing seat converts to a sunpad like the 260's do? If not I could probably make a base and get a pad made for it to do it the old school way."

The table has a short leg/post usually under the rear facing seat and under the table there are a couple of folding legs which hold the table at the height shown. So yes there is a snap on padded sun pad but I have yet to use mine. Keep in mind the table may be under the hatch - actually attached to the underside in a shelf.
View attachment 57605

"Trailer looks pretty new but is a tandem axle. My old one was a tri-axle and it pulled great. The boat is at the owners house on the trailer."

Always had a tandem......
View attachment 57607

Cool. Wife likes to lay down at the rear of the boat when we are anchored. Our 250 seat was a little too small for her but this should be good.

Nice that the tandem works good.

 

[b_arrington]

My inlaws have this year / model, I think with the same engine too. As a plus, they have a custom aluminum arch also - nice for fishing. The wider beam is very nice and gives a lot of room above and below.

He's had niggles on the boat, but not anything that I would say is unique to the model. The most irritating thing right now is that his transom assembly is leaking. Unfortunately that repair requires removing the entire engine and a new assembly, to the tune of $7-$9k. You might want to check that.

I have noticed his boat is aft-heavy especially with a couple people in the cockpit. I would think the addition of a generator and being in fresh water would make it more so. I'm not saying this is necessarily bad, just an observation.

The side lounger is pretty comfy for laying down, too.

 

[boatman37]

My inlaws have this year / model, I think with the same engine too. As a plus, they have a custom aluminum arch also - nice for fishing. The wider beam is very nice and gives a lot of room above and below.

He's had niggles on the boat, but not anything that I would say is unique to the model. The most irritating thing right now is that his transom assembly is leaking. Unfortunately that repair requires removing the entire engine and a new assembly, to the tune of $7-$9k. You might want to check that.

I have noticed his boat is aft-heavy especially with a couple people in the cockpit. I would think the addition of a generator and being in fresh water would make it more so. I'm not saying this is necessarily bad, just an observation.

The side lounger is pretty comfy for laying down, too.

That sucks about the transom leak. Hopefully the surveyor can catch that if there are any issues. The boat is currently on the trailer at their house and hasn't been in the water since last year. The owner has health issues and can't use the boat anymore.

The 260 lounger is pretty comfy and this one looks the same just longer so you could stretch out more. The pics look really clean but who knows when they were taken.

 

[boatman37]

Well just got back. Boat wasn't near as clean as in the pictures. Looks just like yours boatrboy (as far as style and graphics), just with a few more blemishes. Not ruling it out but have to think about it.

Let's start with the trailer. It is a Loadmaster that looks in pretty good condition. The tag says 2005. Next thing I notice is damage to the swim platform that has been 'repaired'. Looks like a crappy repair job but I grabbed it and tried wiggling it and it didn't move any more than the other side that wasn't damaged so probably just cosmetic. There is another spot just below the rubrail on the port side where it nears the front edge of the swim platform. Whatever happened there they gooped some stuff on it to seal it up. Opened the engine cover and all looked good in there. Was pretty clean, cleaner than most I'd say. I asked what was wrong with the generator a few years ago and he said it was shot so they installed a brand new one. It is a Kohler. It sticks out about 2" past the opening of the engine cover so the table can't be stored in there. They said it was slightly bigger than the original genny. Engine bay overall looked good.
The cockpit looked pretty good. There was some burn mark in the top of the aft seat. The sliding cabin door opened and closed fine. When we got home I was looking at the pictures my wife took and it looks like there is a small crack on the right side of the sliding cabin door on the curved part just above the top step. Everything else in the upstairs looked good. Cabin looked good. Carpet was dirty but it is 20 years old. Noticed that with the v-berth table up it is not possible to get in there to sit. So I guess if you wanted to sit there and eat you would have to remove the table then replace it after you sit down? It literally touched on both sides so there wasn't even an inch to squeeze through to sit down. We would likely always leave that as a bed anyway but just an observation. It did have the vacu-flush with macerator.
Back to the outside. The starboard side at about the area of the helm had a spider crack half a few inches below the rubrail. I didn't even notice it myself but my wife did and took pics. There was another similar spot right at the mid cleat on the starboard side at the rubrail that had cracks.

So the negatives: swim platform damage. This can be repaired better than it is or replaced. Spider cracking in 2 spots mentioned on starboard side. Crack(?) in cabin door? Also, the outdrive skeg has some erosion. Not too bad but noticeable. Could probably sand it and smooth it with JB Weld or Marine Tex then repaint but that is just my OCD. It is probably fine as is. Canvas is gone. Cockpit cover is in good shape and all hardware for the canvas is there but the whole enclosure is bad and they even threw away the 2 bimini sections. Oh, there are also a couple of cracks on the counter top at the front edge near both front corners of the cooktop. I can live with them but curious as to why they are there? Is this common?

The positives: We like the layout up above. It has everything we want except the radar arch. The generator is almost brand new (said it cost $5000 for the new one installed). We like the trailer (most boats we have looked at didn't have a trailer). We like the price that I think we can get it for.

Ultimately if it weren't for the 2 spots with the spider cracking I probably would have made an offer tonight and gave a deposit. The swim platform bothers me too but I can live with that as it is cosmetic and I think I can make it look better or we just buy a new one but would have to factor that into our offer.

They told me on the phone they wanted $27,000 but said they know it needs some work so told me to make an offer if we liked it. The guy told me tonight that he knows he won't get rich selling this boat so just make an offer. Just throwing numbers out on the drive home we were talking more like $20,000? We would have to spend at least $2000 on canvas and likely another $1000 in normal stuff that needs done before getting it in the water.

If these spider cracks are just cosmetic can they be repaired so they aren't noticeable? I don't mind doing 'some' work.

I didn't walk out on the deck but asked the owners if there were any soft spots. They had no idea what I was talking about...lol. But the guy is pretty big and said he would know it if there were. I also asked them if they thought there would be any issues the surveyor would find and he said not that he knows of.

I emailed a local surveyor today and got a response. I'm supposed to call him tomorrow. He charges $18/ft. plus mileage.

So just thinking if the spider cracks can be repaired and it passes the survey then we are interested...but at what price? Figuring it needs roughly $5000 to get it to above average condition I'm thinking $18-20,000?

It also has a Garmin 2006C but not sure what that is worth because of age?

 

[Bugsy22]

Sounds like an 01'+ 280 dancer is the boat you really want? They come with the arch, are a little wider, better interior layout and better power options. My advice is do not sacrifice. This is a long term decision. You may pay a little more now but down the road you will hopefully not get the "itch" again and will be happy. We bought our 310 after thinking we wanted a 280 or 290 and couldnt be happier.

 

[aerobat77]

the 270 seems to be a pretty boat for a budget .

the swim platform looks bad and since it needs significant force to damage it to such an extend i would doubt if the deck/hull connection in the aft area is undamaged and if there is no further invisible damage on the swim platform attachment .

also ask the seller how it happened to make an opinion if he had problems in handling the boat and so too look closely for other possible mishandling issues ( hitting ground , eating sand with drive , winterization mistakes etc .

beyond that some wear and tear and a +20 years boat is obvious and has to be accepted , when no significant hidden damage it seems like a fine boat !

 

[sdarc]

I don't like the corrosion on the outdrive. Is this a freshwater only boat? The one I had lived it's whole life in fresh water and did not have that. Boat looks to have been "well used".
I had this boat. A 2000 model. Had everything but the genny. Camper canvas, cockpit cover, no dings in the gelcoat inside or out. Sold mine for $25K. No trailer. 550 hrs. I'd think real hard on this boat. Plenty of them out there.

 

[Stee6043]

I was going to suggest the same as aerobat - if they hit something hard enough to do that amount of damage to the platform you have to believe the transom may also be damaged. If the hit came from the top it doesn't seem impossible that the "goop" on the port side is the result of some kind of separation related to the damaged platform. It could have pulled out and cracked that section of glass?

I wouldn't worry so much about the spider cracking. At a certain age I think we all have a bit of it. The new generator (assuming it's still in good shape) is a big bonus. But that platform/transom issue would scare me. I'd imagine $3k for a new platform but I'd also want a really good surveyor to tell me there is no other damage prior to making a deal...

 

[boatman37]

The current owners bought it 3 years ago. They don't know alot about boats and always took it to a local shop for any repairs. He did say that when he bought it he took it to the one shop and told them to go through and fix anything it needed so I plan to call them later. I have been to that shop a few times (was there last week). I'm also supposed to call the surveyor today just to get general survey questions answered and will mention the damage to him.

We thought about the 280 but not sure we want twin engines. There is another 270 not far from us that has a trailer and looks pretty good in the pics but needs canvas and has no genny for $25,000.

Just told my wife this morning that we might want to look at that other 270 and she said she likes this one and is ok with the cosmetic issues...lol. She likes the genny and she likes that we know the current owners (they were docked a few boats in front of us in 2015 but that marina closed down so we went to one and they went to a different one. We know the people that own the marina they were at (that's how I found out about this boat) and their son is pretty familiar with the boat (he usually loads and unloads them for anyone that needs help).

Going to make a few calls today and see what I can find out. The current owners bought it off the original owner 3 years ago.

 

[boatman37]

I was going to suggest the same as aerobat - if they hit something hard enough to do that amount of damage to the platform you have to believe the transom may also be damaged. If the hit came from the top it doesn't seem impossible that the "goop" on the port side is the result of some kind of separation related to the damaged platform. It could have pulled out and cracked that section of glass?

I wouldn't worry so much about the spider cracking. At a certain age I think we all have a bit of it. The new generator (assuming it's still in good shape) is a big bonus. But that platform/transom issue would scare me. I'd imagine $3k for a new platform but I'd also want a really good surveyor to tell me there is no other damage prior to making a deal...

I agree with the amount of force concern and thought of that myself. Definitely not buying anything without a good survey report, whether it is this boat or another.

I talked to swimplatforms.com last week on a different boat and for one for an 8'6" boat it was $2000 shipped to my door. Maybe slightly more for this wider boat. Or maybe I get lucky and find somebody selling their old one much cheaper...lol. But yeah, any structural damage anywhere on this boat and I walk.

 

[aerobat77]

i would assume a good glasser fixes this platform for 500 , no need for a new one . like we all agree just closely look for hidden structural damage since it must have been a really hard hit .

 

[Little Ducky]

Skip. Unless you are a serious DIY and you are getting it for a steal. Like 2K.

I'm surprised how cracked up some of the interior surfaces are. The interior might be loose or racked from hard use.

 

[boatrboy]

I am typically couriois when I see another 270 and check them out. I can honestly say that I don't remember seeing one that rough. I am a diy'er and I can't image myself taking this project on with that many unknowns at that amount of money.
Just my opinion.... Good luck either way
Mark