New to cruisers, advice?

[MonacoMike]

Don't forget to budget for repairs, replacements, and upgrades you will want for the new to you boat. Plan to spend 5-10k on electronics, stereo, and other stuff. Moving up this much will have a different set of needs and wants. You will be astounded at what you find to improve on a boat in great condition that surveys well after you get to doing the details.

Good luck,
MM

 

[tdschafer]

Hi John,
Welcome to CSR. There is alot of good info to be gleaned from the previous posts. I just want to add my 2 cents. To sum it up in a word, BEAM. Probably just as important as length. I have a family of 5 and when in my 260 DA overnights were more than "cozy", they were brutal! Day trips were no problem. I stepped up to my current 330 and also gained 3 1/2 feet on beam now at 11 1/2 feet. The boat seemed huge 2 years ago but learning to drive it was easy. The boat is starting to feel cozy now as my kids are growing. Soon I will have to drop the dinette to accomodate us all at night and that just seems to be a PIA if you ask me. I would seriously consider the biggest boat you feel comfortable with both physically and financially. Please do remember also all of the associated costs that will be affected by size incl: dockage, storage, bottom painting, detailing, shrink wrapping etc as these are usually charged by the foot. Also try and figure how much cruising you may realistically want to do and then use the cruising burn rate of the boats you are considering to roughly estimate your fuel costs. I was looking at a repo 63' Sun Sport a few months back. It was dirt cheap until a friend of mine opened my eyes. The approximate burn rate on that was 60 gallons an hour I think. Quick math had me spending about $300.00 an hour to run it!! That pretty much ended that for me unless I wanted to have a dock queen!! So take your time, figure out what will work for you in all aspects and have fun with it! Happy hunting!

 

[Whitenights]

I was also trying to say what Todd did. It sounds like you are looking around, forget about what length the boat is called as all builders have played so many games with this over the years. And each year the same boat is called longer even though it changes little.

The beam is what will tell you the real size regardless of the length.

Good luck.

 

[sbw1]

Assuming your budget allows for a bigger boat, go for it. I have one friend who's first boat was a brand new 42 open that was close to 50 loa. I asked him about his other boats. Turns out, this was his first. He picked it up at the factory. I ran into him in Wisconsin. He ran there from Holland and was about to begin the great loop. Met him a year later in Harbor Springs after he finished the loop. Another friend moved from a 21 SR to a 55 Express which he just sold after using it for maybe 10 years. Both had no experience with big boats. The one with the 55 express needed a captain for a short period of time to satisfy insurance requirements. It really boils down to what you learn to operate and this does not require a series of small boats.

 

[wavedancer37]

From my personal experience, I owned a 18' bass boat with a single 90hp outboard and jumped up a little to a 37' cruiser. There wasnt much of a learning curve because with twin inboards she turns on a dime and handles very well. It justs sucks about 1000% more gas than the bass boat did,lol. I would say go big as your budget will allow. Good luck

 

[rcknecht]

Boating is a great past time, what gets the people I know out off boating is it costs a lot to maintain a boat, and if you don't use it enough it will aggrevate you:smt021. As another poster said, the initial cost of buying a boat, especially for a used boat, is a drop in the bucket compared to the operation and maintenance costs. I don't recommend you think too much about how much is costs, just be warned its probably our (meaning most of the guys on this site) most espensive habit... Regarding what boat to choose, buy the a boat bigger than you think you need, but smaller than you think you can afford to operate and maintain. I have a very good friend on this site (Alex F) who has a beautiful 2004 320 for sale that would be a great boat to start with.:smt038..

 

[Alex F]

....DO NOT BE WORRRIED ABOUT HANDLING - you can learn, its easy ....

I agree that anyone can learn the skill, but everyone is different. I know someone who was boating for several years and he's still not comfortable.

 

[John_Gault]

Thanks again to everyone. This is exactly the feedback I needed, and was hoping for.
Reading everyone's posts also got my wife more into the search. Her enthusiasm for this cannot be over appreciated!

I have been checking all the associated costs as I've started leaning toward the 320 for more beam. The slip rate is a big jump at +30'.
I'm armed with with just enough knowledge now to make me dangerous to my checkbook!

Laurence

 

[Alex F]

....... I have a very good friend on this site (Alex F) who has a beautiful 2004 320 for sale that would be a great boat to start with.:smt038..

Thanks for good words, Rod! That's what friends are for :thumbsup:

 

[CV-23]

Since you are looking to keep your boat at a Marina.....make sure you have a slip to put it in. We have cruiser owners waiting for available slips at our boat club! I made sure I had docking before going from 23' to 29'. We are on a river and docking big boats is hard to find. Make sure you figure in all the expenses and budget them with the purchase price. I was looking into larger non-trailerable boats and had to add $10,000 a year into docking and hauling it out each year for service. I'm glad we went trailerable so we can travel to other larger bodies of water to play on. FYI.....my fuel bill also doubled going from a 350mag Alpha1 to a 454 Bravo1 but the ride is so much nicer, Mike.

 

[John_Gault]

Hello again!
I've settled on the model (310/330 2008-2010), and have my eye on one. Here's my conundrum, the 08 310 has Axius and I don't know how to evaluate the $'s this would add to resale. I know the ultimate question is what I'm willing to pay, but I don't want to find out later I paid too much.
Thanks!

 

[billnpat]

My 300DA is my first boat. A couple of lessons with the broker who sold me the boat, a few hours figuring out the systems, and it came around pretty quickly. Still have lots of experience to acquire, and I'm a fair-weather boater, as well. Once I figured out the right way to back into the slip, the weight came off my shoulders. Gleaned a lot of tips from this forum, to be sure...

-
Same here.....