Survey's in...about to buy this '09 350DA, but..

[scoflaw]

And there lies the beauty of the B3's, bump bottom and all you have to do is trim up and get out of there.

 

[Henry Boyd]

can anyone tell me what the lowest depth a boat this size with sterns can go? My wellcraft can get in as low as 2.9ft, never gone any closer though...

The sea ray spec has a drive up and drive down draft. The drive up dimension is basically the lowest amount of water the boat will float in.

The BIII only raises a couple inches in the safe operating range. Operating within the trailer range is not recommended except at very low speed.

The best recommendation is to physically measure the distance between the depth transducer face and the tip of the skeg. This will give you a distance to use as an offset on your depth gauge. That way "zero" water means that the tip of the skeg is touching bottom.

Henry


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[Ethan's Tank]

A few members have asked me what the status was with my purchase, here is my update:

As of this morning, the loan from the bank finally got approved...after dozens of calls to make sure all the paperwork was in, yesterday they told me the purchase agreement had to have my wife [co-signor] signature on that as well. I submitted that last night and at the same time, I got a msg from the bank saying the loan was closed out. I was furious, had to wait till morning to make the call.
So I called this morning, as calm as possible, and asked them why they closed out the loan despite of the numerous times telling me its a done deal. They said yesterday was the deadline for the final paperwork. After 2hrs of working with them, they finally approved everything for 3.99%.

Now the dealership over the weekend picked up my old wellcraft, and I ran a sea trial. Bear in mind this is the biggest boat I have driven and being in the chesapeake with all the sailboats was overwhelming. The boat is very nice and drives very well, but with all the additional instruments and DTS [very sensitive] I was not used to it, but my wife and son loved the boat, I was happy!
This morning he sends me an estimate for my wellcraft survey....
$9000 to fix all the issues, some were lower unit and trim tabs stuff, some were cosmetics.
-replace trim tab down solenoid
-universal joints knock on steering; replace yoke shaft
-replace plug wires
-install replacement gear housing
-replace speedometer gauge and rocker switches
-water stains in headliner
-inoperable showerhead

So all-in-all, they said they would close out the deal for an additional $1200 to fix the 350DA survey issues and the wellcraft issue. On top of that, the aft cabin didnt have a TV for the kid, so that was still being installed with mount.

What do you all think? Should I kick out the extra $$ to close this deal out?

 

[magstang1]

It seems like they are really picking the Wellcraft apart.

 

[sdleo26]

Happy wife , happy life.... do it! LOL, easy to say for me I suppose, but I love the 350

 

[Ethan's Tank]

It seems like they are really picking the Wellcraft apart.

Not sure if that is standard practice, but they insist its going to have to be address by me if I decide to walk out or they will have to fix it for the next purchaser when they get it surveyed [if they get it surveyed, I learned my lesson from that one]

 

[Ethan's Tank]

Happy wife , happy life.... do it! LOL, easy to say for me I suppose, but I love the 350

I do all the finances in my household, but not sure if she gonna be happy if I have to kick out additional cash to close this deal...

BUT I DO LOVE THE 350 too, the spacious salon and big windows closes that deal for the wife and son

 

[BigBoysToys]

Honestly, in the grand scheme of things, $1200 is pocket change. But I'd be willing to bet it would all just go away if you threatened to walk away from the deal.

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[sdleo26]

I was gonna say the same thing; your talking less than 1% of the sale... They are not going to let you walk over 1200 ... they want that boat off their books ASAP

 

[Ethan's Tank]

Honestly, in the grand scheme of things, $1200 is pocket change. But I'd be willing to bet it would all just go away if you threatened to walk away from the deal.

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I was gonna say the same thing; your talking less than 1% of the sale... They are not going to let you walk over 1200 ... they want that boat off their books ASAP

I kind of did the same with Price William marina when i opted out of the 05 340DA and asked for the refund, they let me walk out....not sure how much they are willing to take my bluff. I'd be a fool to come back later and give a green light and its sold or they wont to deal with me again. I don't think boats are moving fast, but something tells me my bluff may backfire.

Dammit, I hate these decisions, wifer already told me she is cool with whatever decision I make cause I justified that I will have to address those issues if I back out and keep the wellcraft

 

[ZZ13]

Are you the second owner? Is the current Mercruiser warranty already at the full 7 year maximum? If you are the second owner then you will have the option to extend the warranty to the full 7 year max if it is not already at the max and it is not already expired. That would give you two years of warranty on your engines and drives while you were the owner. So you could counter with paying the $1200 as long as they cover the warranty extension cost. Just an idea.

 

[dpmulvey]

Go back and read Frank's post. Saint Max is a 99 and no soft spots. You are looking at 10 years newer and have soft spots. I would be very leery of this particular boat. There are others.

Then again....your money, not mine. Caveat emptor.

 

[skylark]

ask for the fuel tanks to be full and enjoy!

 

[Ethan's Tank]

Go back and read Frank's post. Saint Max is a 99 and no soft spots. You are looking at 10 years newer and have soft spots. I would be very leery of this particular boat. There are others.

Then again....your money, not mine. Caveat emptor.

I addressed the issue with the moisture reading on the boat, Having taken Frank's advise, I asked them about the balsa wood and the hull coring damage from moisture. The dealer told me the newer searays don't use the balsa wood anymore, i'm not sure how true that is though

 

[bajturner]

What do you all think? Should I kick out the extra $$ to close this deal out?

I had an opportunity to buy this exact model this spring and almost did. Beautiful boat. I didn't get approval from upper management, however...probably just as well! I would definitely follow Frank's advice about confirming whether there is a moisture / water intrusion issue or not before proceeding any further. This is a big deal. It's hard to put on the brakes once you are invested financially and emotionally, but you really want to do your due diligence here. It would be very surprizing if there really are major moisture problems with this boat. The readings could be false positives, or they could be reflecting a real problem...regardless, you need to confirm. They certainly aren't shy to pick apart your trade-in!

As for the BIIIs on this boat, it shouldn't stop you. Every boat with Axius has outdrives; they aren't going away. They even just started making these boats with outboards! A guy at my marina test drove this model in both configurations, V-drive and Axius, and much preferred the way the boat performed with the outdrives. I think it is a personal choice. You will battle corrosion so make sure the anodes are in good shape and try to determine if the Mercathode system is operational. The anodes are a negligible cost in boat dollars, in my opinion. Bellows are not a big deal to replace. I had mine done this spring: 2.5 hours labour total (for both drives) and the bellows themselves were $111 dollars each. Total bill was ~$450. The drives need to be pulled which is a good idea for inspection every year or two anyways.

As for draft, it depends on what you mean by "lowest depth it can go". My 300 requires 40" with the drives down (yours is 37"), but I don't like being much under 4'. Although that 40" is supposed to be fully loaded, load distribution could lower one side, waves or a wake can move you a lot, and an uneven bottom is unpredictable. The draft with stern drives up is 24" (yours is 27"). I believe this is in the trailer position, although the documentation is not clear, and I've honestly never taken the time to confirm. Once I'm in water that shallow I don't just proceed based in the depth gauge anyways...too many variables. You need to look at your drives and see how close they are to take a reference. I can tell you that you can substantially lower your draft requirement with trim even just to the trim limit, but you should not operate the drive at all past the upper trim limit (towards the trailer position) or you can quickly damage the U-joints. One other reason for not running in the shallowest water possible is you can suck a lot of debris into your impellor and damage it.

Something very useful you can do with drive trim is drop anchor, back into a beach, trim up to the limit, back in some more, shut down, trim to the trailer position and then walk the boat back into a couple feet of water and set a stern anchor. This ability alone is enough to keep outdrives a real option for me moving forward, even though I like the idea of the reliability of V-drives.

 

[Ethan's Tank]

So, let me get this straight....you want a turn key boat from the broker, but you aren't willing to give him a turn key boat in your current vessel? Pay the $1200 and be done with it.

You can't have your cake and eat it too....IMHO of course.

Not trying to downsize anyone, but wanted to get the best deal I can get. Sure $1200 is not much in boat money, still hefty when I'm kicking out tens of thousand of dollars to tie up this boat and all the other fees to get to even a sea trial to purchase. It's just added expenses I could use for other things.
Back in the day when I worked as a mechanic for Toyota/Lexus. OUr service manager would have us to examine a trade-in car, write up all the issues with it and they take note of it. They value the used car and present to sales manager for their quotes. If something was wrong, it would get subtracted from the value and that is how they determine the value for that trade. And of course they always used the speech, 'well lwe have to fix these things on it to sell it, because we are not keeping the car'. Now that car sits in the lot till someone of interest comes and makes an offer on it. Bear in mind, they never fixed the issues on it, but they wait till the next buyer points it out or has a shop point it out to fix it. If it doesn't get pointed out by the new buyer, then they pocket the cash they made when it was traded in initally.
I'm not trying to scam anyone, but again just trying to get the best bang for my buck...no harm in doing so, right?

 

[dpmulvey]

I addressed the issue with the moisture reading on the boat, Having taken Frank's advise, I asked them about the balsa wood and the hull coring damage from moisture. The dealer told me the newer searays don't use the balsa wood anymore, i'm not sure how true that is though

<"...The dealer told me the newer searays don't use the balsa wood anymore..."> The boat is an '09. It's 6 years old. How new is newer? What material is SR using in its "newer" boats. More specifically, what were they using in 2009.

Moisture is moisture. It belongs outside the boat, not between the layers of glas regardless of the material between the layers. Moisture consistantly against laid up glas is a potential failure point via delamination. I don't know if moisture can cause blisters from the inside out.

 

[bajturner]

I'm not trying to scam anyone, but again just trying to get the best bang for my buck...no harm in doing so, right?

No harm, but I would say if the 350 has no problems, pay the $1200, get on the water, and you still got a good deal (you said they are going for $200K+, right?).

 

[Ethan's Tank]

I had an opportunity to buy this exact model this spring and almost did. Beautiful boat. I didn't get approval from upper management, however...probably just as well! I would definitely follow Frank's advice about confirming whether there is a moisture / water intrusion issue or not before proceeding any further. This is a big deal. It's hard to put on the brakes once you are invested financially and emotionally, but you really want to do your due diligence here. It would be very surprizing if there really are major moisture problems with this boat. The readings could be false positives, or they could be reflecting a real problem...regardless, you need to confirm. They certainly aren't shy to pick apart your trade-in!
.

wow lots of info...ill have to re-read this again

Out of curiousity, were you the cash buyer they declined on the deal...I wasnt sure why they did that and just took my offer instead...

 

[Ethan's Tank]

Good idea, that's about $1200 right there.

ask for the fuel tanks to be full and enjoy!

Full tank and boat cleaning and detail too