Newbie - Looking for Suggestions on First Boat

Hi Kraig

Best of luck on the shopping! Either marina is a good place. There are folks on the forum here at both.

As for the boat if you really want to tube or ski the 280 is the perfect choice. Our first boat was an older 280 with the 10.5 beam and it was the beam that made all the difference! It was my first boat and I can assure you you'll have no troubles.

Don't think newer will be any less trouble then a 2000 or 2001 either. It's all about how the boat has been taken care of! Also don't stay away from looking at a 320 or 340 in your price range. I find our I boat even easier to dock then sterndrives since the props are under the boat.

We were down at the Annapolis show. There were two 340s for sale. A 99 for 59,990 and 01 for 65,000. Both looked pretty good. If they surveyed good they would give your growing family some room.

We are a family of 5 and we all sleep fine on our 330 with room to spare.

Hope to see you out on the bay next season!!!

Take Care and feel free to PM me if you have any questions on Marinas.
 
I have had several boats, but my 280 was my first twin engine one. I got the hang of docking pretty quick, I am sure you will too. You will appreciate the extra 12 inches of beam in a 280 over a 260. It is much more stable. I rarely use trim tabs.

We had no problem tubing with this boat. In fact, I used two tubes to pull four people all at once for the better part of an afternoon. The kids had a blast. If I can ever find someone to drive it, I intend to at least try skiing behind it. I'm a pretty decent skier, so if the boat can pull me up, I can ski behind it.

I am a casual fisher, but it is not bad to just stand on the swim platform and cast away in any direction.


Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like I'm headed in the right direction.
Nice Boat you have there...exactly what I'm looking to get.
 
Thanks for the info. I looked up Peters Marine, is it located in Allentown? If not, what town is it in?
Thanks,
Kraig
 
Kraig,
With four people you definitely want to go with the 280 over the 260 which has the same beam and length as my previous boat. Just not enough beam compared with the 280. I went with the 320 because I wanted V drives and the 280 only came with stern drives.

Another consideration that nobody has mentioned so far to address your docking concerns is find a marina that either has finger slips or center pilings separating the double slips. In either type of slip you don't have to worry about hitting your dockmate's boat or vice versa. It will greatly reduce your anxiety about docking if you have this type of slip set up. It has been a major decision criteria in picking both my current and new marina for next year.

280 it is! I'm no longer considering a 260. As far as the slips at the marinas we are considering, I'm not sure how they are configured, but what you are saying makes a lot of sense. I'll take that into consideration when we go look at the marinas again.
 
Thanks for the info. I looked up Peters Marine, is it located in Allentown? If not, what town is it in?
Thanks,
Kraig

Yes Peters is located in Allentown. It is a great marina, I worked for them when I was in highschool part time. They know their stuff. There is a guy on here that works for them. his user name is "Lazy Daze"
 
Good luck in your search. Based on you comments I feel you will outgrow the 280 pretty quickly. 320bob made some good points.

MM
 
Sorry, didn't see your reply back in January.
We just made our purchase last Friday, and decided to move up just a little more. Bought a 2006 300 Sundancer - hopefully we won't outgrow this too quickly.
 

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