New boat, comments?

Lazy Daze said:
The 240SD of that era is one of the most versatile and popular boats Sea Ray has ever made in that category. It performs better than the 220SD of that era and is notably larger (more than what you might think) and has quite a bit more storage.
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Something like 4 feet longer overall.
 
Lazy Daze said:
The 240SD of that era is one of the most versatile and popular boats Sea Ray has ever made in that category. It performs better than the 220SD of that era and is notably larger (more than what you might think) and has quite a bit more storage.
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Thank you. Your opinion is valued. Adding a folding tongue may be possible for about $300. How recent a 220SD will still have a porta-potti? 2012? My 50' frontage parking is shared with a 2 car drive. A 5.7 Bravo 3 would do.
 
Arminius said:
Thank you. Your opinion is valued. Adding a folding tongue may be possible for about $300. How recent a 220SD will still have a porta-potti? 2012? My 50' frontage parking is shared with a 2 car drive. A 5.7 Bravo 3 would do.
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Even newer than that.

The 350MAG/B3 combo is an EXCELLENT package in the 240SD.
 
We are water skiers, older and perhaps less able but we want a boat that gets on the plane instantly and has no wake. The present Select 200 with 305 mpi and 17'' prop does a good job. Bigger is a negative. Downpitching the Bravo 3 will be an issue but I see 18" props are available. This is a matter of taste. In matters of taste, there can be no disputes.
 
You'll have no problems doing water skiing with the 240SD. It does REALLY well. No reason to mess with props. 90% of the time, you won't even need the trim tabs.

However, physics is physics and it will throw a bigger wake than your smaller boats. You "can" slalom over it... just be ready to pull your knees up as you approach.
 
I did find that bolt on tongue hinges are cheap and apparently safe. $300 at a good trailer shop with long safety chains extending back to the boat side of the tongue. Slalom skiers cut through the wake. I took Susan down to a private water ski lake for instructions on "cutting." After falling, she resurfaced with a broken leg. We got her into the SUV and she demanded to be driven to her favorite hospital in Seattle. There were no marks on the ski and nothing floating in the water. No investigation and she healed well. I will pull her but ask that she not cut. We both take our density meds.
 
The French company Benateau is listing these on Craigslist for $77,500 with a 200hp Suzuki. These deck boats are only the lower half of a real boat, Nonetheless, I had a 140 Suzuki and it pulled like a 2 stroke with an extra reduction gear. Maybe I should track down the owners of the Antares 7 in the neighboring slip. This looks like a workboat hull. In fact, Searays are comfy while this thing has benches to get the laborers out to the yachts.
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They sell them at a new unaffiliated dealer in Woodinville, WA named Rock Harbor. Near me, I will go by. I suspect it is a pop-up by a Msft millionaire. They are our zombies, useless at anything but math. They would like to start a new business, are motivated, generally overweight. Some guy probably took a trip to France. Last week, the WSJ had a story about Red Bull. After a hard night at the Bang-good Hotel in Bangkok, a cab driver told him they had a good special legal elixir at a local drug store. It worked, he was in marketing, had it analyzed, sold it as Red Bull, got into Formula 1, and the rest is history. The moral is you can go anywhere with a stolen concept and some money.
 
Rock Harbor has an inventory of boats I haven't seen before. I asked the sales guy over the phone if there were a rich benefactor. No, it was established as a sales outlet for their 7 boat clubs around the country, not that I could Google any in its name. They have acreage for a storage yard but water access is unlikely. I checked "boat clubs" briefly and there are a variety of tax advantages like Section 179, whatever. Their boats seem bigger and more expensive than my needs. Some enterprises are accountant driven. I will stop by and inspect. The boat pictured above is shown on a trailer and it has the displacement hull of an open water work boat.

Looking at used SD220s. The first seller was too whacky with an expensive fish finder to protect against sea monsters. The 2nd Master Tech's sounded and looked great till we got to winterization. He had poured pet proof antifreeze into the thermo housing but never pulled the plugs. I wonder where he got that irresponsible idea. Put it in the water for a day and then call me. There is a 3rd 5.7 maintained and on consignment by a Searay dealer. He is to call as soon as the shrink wrap is removed. I have high hopes.
 
Rock Harbor has all these insanely priced displacement deckboats owned by club members/the club whose Code depreciation may have been deductible. If they don't have a fire, they will need to have an auction to realize the final losses. I'll keep my eye on them as my neighbor's Antares 7 with the 175 Merc seems nice.

Meanwhile, Susan has seen the wake of the inadequately winterized SD220 and she is going negative. I've already told the owner that the freeze damage risk is unacceptable. It is a horrendous wake. It is crazy but they now build for fat wakes by flooding sections of the hull. Not our thing at all.
 
Arminius said:
Meanwhile, Susan has seen the wake of the inadequately winterized SD220 and she is going negative. I've already told the owner that the freeze damage risk is unacceptable. It is a horrendous wake. It is crazy but they now build for fat wakes by flooding sections of the hull. Not our thing at all.
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I mentioned above about the wake of the 240SD being tough to slalom through... you seemed to think you guys could just put the ski on edge and slice right through it? I'm not sure why you thought that was possbile, but OK. The 220SD wake's isn't far behind the 240SD.

Calling the wakes horrendous is an innacurate and odd statement. The boat's wake is doing exactly what it should do coming off a good hull designed for comfort and average level watersports.

If you want a flat wake, buy a boat designed for slalom skiing. But don't expect the boat to be comfortable in anything more than a very small chop.

You can buy a small/light boat with a decent ride (for it's size) that won't throw a big wake... but then any decent slalom skier wouldn't enjoy the ride since as they pull hard at the apex they'll be pulling the back end of the boat around... which also makes it quite interesting for the driver to keep things straight.
 
There's another 220SD at a local lake with a new long block for a good price. Owner has a small marine shop and seems to specialize in rebuilding neglected and freeze damaged boats. I liked him but his 1 year guarantee is not compelling. The boat needs a shake down cruise of substantial duration. It is amazing how many boats are frozen and then abandoned in backyards. I think the requirement by Mercruiser that RV antifreeze be poured into a raw water cooled engine after draining confuses some as they find how hard the plugs are to get at.
 
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