What was your first boat and how did you pay for it?

[El Capitan]

Love this thread.

First boat I purchased was a 1980 SRV240 in Ft Lauderdale, Florida back in mid to late 90’s.

Off White w blue striping and trim on seats.

Just repowered by PO to 454/BI drive.

Fantastic boat. Handled big water, I mean ocean freaking waves in thunderstorm w whitecaps and sudden 20 degree temperature drop.
End of the world type shit right there. Surfed her in and decided right then and there I’d never buy anything but a Sea Ray again. And I haven’t.

 

[Steven Whel]

Love this thread.

First boat I purchased was a 1980 SRV240 in Ft Lauderdale, Florida back in mid to late 90’s.

Off White w blue striping and trim on seats.

Just repowered by PO to 454/BI drive.

Fantastic boat. Handled big water, I mean ocean freaking waves in thunderstorm w whitecaps and sudden 20 degree temperature drop.
End of the world type shit right there. Surfed her in and decided right then and there I’d never buy anything but a Sea Ray again. And I haven’t.

Good stuff right there,
End of the world weather hahaha
I’ll keep this really quite but I thought SR was a plastic fanatic. Until I just bought one and I’m amazed. Excellent build quality and fit for purpose. I’m thinking keep this old weekender for a year and move up. The wife loves it.
The first Sea Ray I have owned.. to keep this thread on track.

 

[CNYBoater]

First boat was financed, used Catalina Capri 14.2 sailboat with small new 4-stroke kicker.
Started dating my future wife and the slow peaceful slap of waves against the hull wasn’t peaceful.

second boat was a 1978 Starcraft Tri-Star 17’ with a 1978 Johnson 115. My uncle bought it used at auction. They got swamped in sudden waves on eastern Ontario and threw it in a barn. When I sold my Capri, they asked if we wanted it. Ended up selling it a few years later. Kids loved the bow ride but if you hit waves on Oneida Lake the freeboard suddenly felt very low. When my wife’s feet were sitting in water and the bilge pump was doing its job, I was told by the Admiral, River only or bigger boat. say no more.

Third and current boat is my 1994 200 overnighter with Mercury 135HP. Paid cash for boat, trailer and deferred maintenance. I borrowed money from myself. Used a 401(k) loan through work plan and paid myself the Prime+1 interest.

 

[Mikemapva]

First boat that I purchased (in 1990) was a 1971 Cobia 17' bowrider with a 1988 125 HP Force outboard that I bought at an auction in Kent Island, MD for $2100 cash.

Had a blast on the boat for the first season and then found out it had a rotted transom. Sold it as an engine with free boat and trailer for $2500.

 

[jmauld]

First boat was a 2004 Yamaha LX210 (twin engine jet boat). I really miss that boat. Paid $8500 cash for it, and sold it five years later for the same price. I would HIGHLY recommend starting with a small boat that's paid for. Mistakes are much smaller and cheaper on a smaller old boat. You just have to be careful to get something that is not a maintenance nightmare.

 

[Joint Custody]

40 years on the water!

1982 Glastron cvx 16ft 110 Johnson out board . I was 15 years old and washed dishes!I had been saving my paychecks since I was 13 years old to buy a cool car when I turned 16. All my friends had muscle cars. I had a boat and a bag of weed.
"All right All right All right" What do you think got more girls
1989 Malibu skier. Had this and a 14ft camper on 1976 GMC camper special. Again see above. In my group of friends we had five of these combos. We pretty much went to every lake we could in the west. Or just chilled at our favorite local lake. Great times!
1992 Rinker 205 cuddy. Fell in love of sleeping on the water and having a cuddy made it so you could explore the lakes you are on and overnight where-ever. Simple times!
1995 Rinker 236 cuddy. Upgrade to the 205. These boats where fast for the price. I could get 60mph.
1996 Rinker 265 vista Vee. My first cabin cruiser and I was hooked.Shower , Head, refrigerator wow what a upgrade. Bought the boat with 40 hrs on it and sold it with 1200 hrs and never had one drive or engine issue. I still see the boat at the lake.
2005 Summerset 75ft house boat. Had it built in Kentucky and shipped to Lake Powell. To go with it two wave runners and a 2000 Centurion 23ft wake board boat. Whole new way of boating. Lived on it for the first year.
1999 Searay 330 Sundancer. This was a mile stone for me in boating.Not only because the boat had everything you could need in a cruser. We Spent 6months consecutive at lake Powell not coming home one day. My son and I GPS mapped the lake on our waverunner from the river head to the dam during those six months.
2002 Searay 340.Just an upgrade to the 330. Both the 330 and 340 are great boats.
2000 Cruiser Yachts 3340. This was my divorced replacement boat. Bought it right and it got me back on the water. Fell in love with the new Admiral!!!
2001 Searay 460 Sundancer. Love this boat for many reasons however a little bitter sweet. For my body of water a 34ft to 38ft with outdrives are the best and most economical way to enjoy the lake and for the most part very easy to care for and keep up as you have a trailer for them and you can bring the boat back to SLC in the winter to work on. The 460 is land locked at Powell so it takes a little more effort to keep up on it. We have a 2006 SeaDoo Speedster to go with it along with a waverunner and both are nothing but smiles.

What will the next boat be? Who knows. I will run the 460 for a year or two more and will see where life takes me.

First three boats paid cash as the price was right. All others I financed with a good down payment and then if I could paid off early.

The only new boats where the 205 Rinker, and the house boat all others have been good clean used boats.

As you can see my boats grew with the times and how I boated. None of them ever didnt get used or just sat.

One thing I will add to this. When i buy a boat I always look at it as I am selling it. What I mean is buy a boat that is marketable to sell.
All the boats I have owned I have sold in under ten days.

 

[MrHappy]

First boat was a Four Winns Horizon 170. Paid $1,000 cash from a good friend.

Second boat was a 1995 Sea Ray 170. The boat came on the market Labor Day weekend. I worked at a golf course and waited until we had $6,000 in cash. Ran my credit card for $6,000. Did not realize that the golf course owner had to pay fees.

Sold some Walgreens stock to pay off credit card the next week.

 

[Pirate Lady]

Y’all started at the high end. My first boat was a canoe.