Performance info needed on '97 280 open bow

[Big Island Lifer]

I am assisting my sister and her husband in their search for a boat. This is not their first boat but they are looking to get back into day boating as they just bought a condo on our lake. They have their eye on a 1996 280 open bow with the 7.4 L motor with Bravo 3 drive. What is the performance like with this set up? They will spend most of their time at a slow cruise or anchored and swimming. What is the max speed that this set up will reach? Will it get on plane with 8-10 people aboard? This doesn't need to win any races. I just want to make sure they can get up and go if they need to beat out a storm or something like that. (Something my boat struggles to do)


Thanks for the replies.

 

[Joe5.0]

No direct ownership experience, but I looked at the 280 SS for a long time and even took a ride on one with the same power you ask about. The owner stated it cruised in the mid/high 20's and topped out in the low 40's.

My current boat has the same HP as the 454, but obviously less torque. It has the same speeds for cruise & slightly higher top end as what I posed above, and I had no problem getting on plane in 4' of water with 1/2 tank of gas and 7 people on board. If he's really worried about speed then get the twin 5.7's, which is what I would have gotten if I found the right one.

 

[RollerCoastr]

I have a 280BR "project boat". She has twin 5.7's with Alphas and the performance is outstanding. My neighbor had a 280SS with the 7.4 B3 (same boat with a cuddy), and he said it was the best boat he ever owned. I've never heard a complaint about the performance of a 280BR with the single BB/B3 setup.

I think most people will agree that twin 5.7's is the "preferred" power package, but that might not apply to your friends. An extended swim platform is expensive, so it isn't easy to find a boat with that option/addition. Without the extension, the port drive is right next to the swim ladder, which of course puts the drives and props very close to swimmers. The single BB/B3 boats that I see have a telescoping ladder, so the skipper could put the (lower and on-center) drive hard to starboard to get a larger margin of safety for swimmers using the ladder on the port side of the built-in platform. Add to that the lower costs of maintaining a single engine and that might be the setup that's best for their use.

In the other camp, the twin setup is crazy-fun to drive. It doesn't break a sweat with 10 people aboard. A 280BR with twins is configured with the Morse racing-style shift and throttle levers mounted on the sill, compared to clunky (IMO) side-mounted throttle/shift for the single.

Draining batteries at anchor is entirely possible. The 280BR has a stereo with 6 speakers, a VHF(probably), courtesy lights, lights in the storage compartment and head, a sump pump, water pump and bilge pumps. Vacuflush and a fridge were options. With twins, SeaRay dedicated a battery to the starboard engine and two batts for port/house. They're all switched AND there's a parallel solenoid, so you can start both engines if any TWO batteries go dead. The single setup has 2 batteries on a switch. If I anchored often, I would probably add a third battery to a single-engine 280.

It's easy to forget how big this boat is. I've seen (usually early models) sitting on tandem-axle trailers. At 6,400 lbs dry, I think a triple is a safer bet.

I have a soft-spot in the floor below the battery switch. I think water got in from the screws that mount the engine-compartment cowling to the floor. Water from the deck flows past this area into channels on either side of the ER. The scuppers are mounted vertically and clog easily, so the bilge can be wet with water that flowed past poorly-sealed screws in the deck and then overflowed the channels. That's about the only design/build flaw I've really noticed. (aside from that cowling itself - I wish it raised with the seating platform to allow more access to the lower areas of the ER)