spikeitaudi
Member
Long LONG Story… Read at your leisure.
Well as some of you know I bought a 06 240 Sundancer in late June. The family and I were moving up from a 2010 Bayliner 185br. We wanted to be able to be able to stay on something overnight and not have to worry about waves coming over the bow in an open bow configuration so it was time to trade up.
So I got some recommendations on a Surveyor from BOC. This surveyor came with good references. FYI the Marina the boat was at was in MA and I live in NJ. So I signed the contract and obviously I would agree to purchase only if the survey came back good. So the surveyor did his thing and sent back a 12 page report that outlined the condition of the boat and any issues he found. Nothing in his report said anything about any major defects or damage. This survey was done out of the water. I asked him if a sea trail was needed. He said from what he has tested and seen no. (That was my first mistake). So one of the main things on the survey he notices was the drive splines didn’t look lubbed. So the surveyor recommended that the outdrive be taken off for routine maintenance. I am a big maintenance guy and have always been told that after every season the outdrive should be taken off to do routine yearly maintenance. So I asked the marina to do this service in which I would pay for half and the owner pay half in which the marina was brokering the deal. They said sure. So a week later I get the bill for my share of the outdrive maintenance. By the way all during this time the family and I went up and dropped off our old boat in a trade in so we went to go see this boat. When we went to see the boat I did notice that the engine compartment had a lot of crud and wasn’t real clean. I asked the surveyor about that and he said he had seen a lot of other engine compartments that were much worse off. So I shook it off as a newbie being to anal. Bad move on my part.
So I took delivery of the boat in Mid June. Had a driver drive it down from MA to my Marina in NJ. The family and I were so excited. I had already setup a launch date the day after.
So the next morning came and when I got to the Marina they already had it up on the lift. I get on the boat they drop me in. Turn on the boat and it starts up right away. Sit there for a couple of minute and everything looks good. I take her over to the fuel dock to fill up about 10 minutes. Then after fill up is done I start doing my pre start inspection. I start hearing like dripping noise coming from the engine compartment. I look and I see water coming in from the transom area. Make a LONG story short we pull the boat out 30 minutes after and find out there is a leak in the transom bracket area.
So to find exactly where the leak is the outdrive has to come back out. To make another long story short my marina can’t get the outdrive off as the bolts that hold it on are corroded to bad. They actually had to take a rose bulb to head those bolts off. So the obvious work that the selling marina was suppose to do on the outdrive was never done. So back and forth for couple of month the selling dealer finally admitted they hadn’t done the work.
So back to the leak, after they got the outdrive out my marina said the transom cutout was done improperly at the manufacturing plant. Looked like somebody just took a jigsaw and decided to cut whatever direction they wanted. There was also some water in the bilge area. So my Marina was worried about water intrusion. So Engine had to come out also to see if there was water intrusion. So Sea Ray got involved and took care of rebuilding the transom cutout as per their specs, sending a brand new transom bracket to replace the corroded one, they also reglassed the entire engine compartment and ensured me that that nothing got wet in the structure of the boat and my Marina confirmed that finding. That took about a month to fix. This was all on Sea Ray’s dime. All in all it was about 5 grand to repair.
While I had the engine out, I told my mechanic to go over it and they found some major issues like sludge in the engine, engine mounting bolts corroded, engine oil pan starting to corrode, and many other things. FYI… as part of the survey I did have the surveyor do an engine compression test and they the cylinders were within specs. So since I had the engine out I had just about everything torn apart and replace as needed. Waterpump, impeller, oil pan, mounting bolts, and MANY MANY other parts. That out of my pocket was about 3 or 4 grand.
Then we still have the outdrive. My Marina would not put the old outdrive back on as they had to take a rose bulb to it to get it off. So they requested a new Upper Gear Case plus internals from the selling Marina to fix. The selling marina complied and sent a complete new upper gear case plus the internals to bolt right up to my lower. Upper gear case for my bravo 3 leg list at 9 grand.
There is much much more to the fix and the story as I had to be the project manager for 3 months on this to get them to move and daily conference calls with all parties to ensure they were moving.
I finally got the boat back in the water in August, the day of the East Coast Earthquake. I had minor issue with the outdrive oil but that looks like it was a cap issue. Other then that the boat has been good.
Sea Ray is even replacing the cabin cushions for me at their cost.
Sea Ray has been an awesome company to deal with. As for the selling dealer, I can say I feel like I was shafted overall. They tried to make things right only after I pushed hard. But, to this day I still haven’t been called by the owner with a full apology of the situation. I dealt with the service manager the entire time in which he was helpful, but didn’t have the authority to call the shots. So there was a lot of waiting back and forth.
So in the end the boat most likely had close to 18k-20k of repairs, I only paid a fraction of that on the engine maintenance.
I also did have the Surveyor admit he missed a lot, so he refunded my $500 and send some additional money to cover some of the other repairs expenses.
I know I left a lot of the story out cause I could go on and on with details but tried to give a overview. If anybody has any additional questions shoot me an PM.
As for the selling Marina I will not post up here but I think most can figure out who it is.
As for my Marina (Morgan Marina) in NJ they are awesome. Nice family owned and they stepped up.
Things learned:
Always take a sea trial no matter what.
Listen to yourself, if something doesn’t look right question it to death until you are comfortable with the explanation.
It paid off that this boat was a Sea Ray. The company stepped up as a whole and took care of their issues. They went above and beyond and I am still working with them on things.
So in the End we love the boat and hence named it "Hope Floats".
Again sorry for this being LONG and drawn out but I could of written a book on this easy.
Well as some of you know I bought a 06 240 Sundancer in late June. The family and I were moving up from a 2010 Bayliner 185br. We wanted to be able to be able to stay on something overnight and not have to worry about waves coming over the bow in an open bow configuration so it was time to trade up.
So I got some recommendations on a Surveyor from BOC. This surveyor came with good references. FYI the Marina the boat was at was in MA and I live in NJ. So I signed the contract and obviously I would agree to purchase only if the survey came back good. So the surveyor did his thing and sent back a 12 page report that outlined the condition of the boat and any issues he found. Nothing in his report said anything about any major defects or damage. This survey was done out of the water. I asked him if a sea trail was needed. He said from what he has tested and seen no. (That was my first mistake). So one of the main things on the survey he notices was the drive splines didn’t look lubbed. So the surveyor recommended that the outdrive be taken off for routine maintenance. I am a big maintenance guy and have always been told that after every season the outdrive should be taken off to do routine yearly maintenance. So I asked the marina to do this service in which I would pay for half and the owner pay half in which the marina was brokering the deal. They said sure. So a week later I get the bill for my share of the outdrive maintenance. By the way all during this time the family and I went up and dropped off our old boat in a trade in so we went to go see this boat. When we went to see the boat I did notice that the engine compartment had a lot of crud and wasn’t real clean. I asked the surveyor about that and he said he had seen a lot of other engine compartments that were much worse off. So I shook it off as a newbie being to anal. Bad move on my part.
So I took delivery of the boat in Mid June. Had a driver drive it down from MA to my Marina in NJ. The family and I were so excited. I had already setup a launch date the day after.
So the next morning came and when I got to the Marina they already had it up on the lift. I get on the boat they drop me in. Turn on the boat and it starts up right away. Sit there for a couple of minute and everything looks good. I take her over to the fuel dock to fill up about 10 minutes. Then after fill up is done I start doing my pre start inspection. I start hearing like dripping noise coming from the engine compartment. I look and I see water coming in from the transom area. Make a LONG story short we pull the boat out 30 minutes after and find out there is a leak in the transom bracket area.
So to find exactly where the leak is the outdrive has to come back out. To make another long story short my marina can’t get the outdrive off as the bolts that hold it on are corroded to bad. They actually had to take a rose bulb to head those bolts off. So the obvious work that the selling marina was suppose to do on the outdrive was never done. So back and forth for couple of month the selling dealer finally admitted they hadn’t done the work.
So back to the leak, after they got the outdrive out my marina said the transom cutout was done improperly at the manufacturing plant. Looked like somebody just took a jigsaw and decided to cut whatever direction they wanted. There was also some water in the bilge area. So my Marina was worried about water intrusion. So Engine had to come out also to see if there was water intrusion. So Sea Ray got involved and took care of rebuilding the transom cutout as per their specs, sending a brand new transom bracket to replace the corroded one, they also reglassed the entire engine compartment and ensured me that that nothing got wet in the structure of the boat and my Marina confirmed that finding. That took about a month to fix. This was all on Sea Ray’s dime. All in all it was about 5 grand to repair.
While I had the engine out, I told my mechanic to go over it and they found some major issues like sludge in the engine, engine mounting bolts corroded, engine oil pan starting to corrode, and many other things. FYI… as part of the survey I did have the surveyor do an engine compression test and they the cylinders were within specs. So since I had the engine out I had just about everything torn apart and replace as needed. Waterpump, impeller, oil pan, mounting bolts, and MANY MANY other parts. That out of my pocket was about 3 or 4 grand.
Then we still have the outdrive. My Marina would not put the old outdrive back on as they had to take a rose bulb to it to get it off. So they requested a new Upper Gear Case plus internals from the selling Marina to fix. The selling marina complied and sent a complete new upper gear case plus the internals to bolt right up to my lower. Upper gear case for my bravo 3 leg list at 9 grand.
There is much much more to the fix and the story as I had to be the project manager for 3 months on this to get them to move and daily conference calls with all parties to ensure they were moving.
I finally got the boat back in the water in August, the day of the East Coast Earthquake. I had minor issue with the outdrive oil but that looks like it was a cap issue. Other then that the boat has been good.
Sea Ray is even replacing the cabin cushions for me at their cost.
Sea Ray has been an awesome company to deal with. As for the selling dealer, I can say I feel like I was shafted overall. They tried to make things right only after I pushed hard. But, to this day I still haven’t been called by the owner with a full apology of the situation. I dealt with the service manager the entire time in which he was helpful, but didn’t have the authority to call the shots. So there was a lot of waiting back and forth.
So in the end the boat most likely had close to 18k-20k of repairs, I only paid a fraction of that on the engine maintenance.
I also did have the Surveyor admit he missed a lot, so he refunded my $500 and send some additional money to cover some of the other repairs expenses.
I know I left a lot of the story out cause I could go on and on with details but tried to give a overview. If anybody has any additional questions shoot me an PM.
As for the selling Marina I will not post up here but I think most can figure out who it is.
As for my Marina (Morgan Marina) in NJ they are awesome. Nice family owned and they stepped up.
Things learned:
Always take a sea trial no matter what.
Listen to yourself, if something doesn’t look right question it to death until you are comfortable with the explanation.
It paid off that this boat was a Sea Ray. The company stepped up as a whole and took care of their issues. They went above and beyond and I am still working with them on things.
So in the End we love the boat and hence named it "Hope Floats".
Again sorry for this being LONG and drawn out but I could of written a book on this easy.
