What was your first boat? FIRST SEA RAY?

sfergson727 said:
Uh Pack? Not to take anything away from Chris, but he's only had the boat for three years. That's hardly enough time to clap the guy on the back for lifetime ownership. Odds are very likely he'll be in something else within the next five years. I know when I bought my first boat, it was the perfect boat....Seven eight or nine boats later (I've lost track), I've got one that will carry me to the next.

Of course, there is no denying that Chris made an excellent choice for his first boat, but that goes without saying.
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Oh no, I was just saying he was lucky to make a good initial decision compared to my ill informed initial boat buying decision.

I bought a brand new 24' Glastron at about 85K, used it for 6 months, found out I needed a much bigger boat, bought much bigger boat, sold 24' boat at what ended up to be a cost to me of about $5,000.00 per month of use.

My point being, I learned the hard (and expensive) way. If I would have had a friend (like you) who knew boats and boating to guide me when I bought my first boat I'll bet I would have gotten the right boat the first time and saved myself about 30K.
 
fwebster said:
My first boat was a 10 ft hydroplane that I designed and built in my Dad's shop out of 1/4" plywood and 2 X 10's. I was 12.

I learned 3 significant lessons from the experience: 1. A boat needs enough of a bow angle so the bow goes over and not thru or under the waves, 2. You cannot bail all of the lake out of your cockpit when you submarine the bow of a hydroplane, and, 3. Your Dad's 1953 10 hp Johnson will come apart if you over speed it by using the fishing boat prop instead of a speed prop.
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Frank, what was the penalty for #3? MM
 
Pack66Dad said:
Sweet!

I wish I would have talked to some "boat" people and maybe rode on a few before I just bought what I thought I wanted. You were either lucky or had some good friends who steered you into what is obviously a great decision.

Hope your enjoying the boat parade tonight over there is Gig Harbor View attachment 22732
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sfergson727 said:
Uh Pack? Not to take anything away from Chris, but he's only had the boat for three years. That's hardly enough time to clap the guy on the back for lifetime ownership. Odds are very likely he'll be in something else within the next five years. I know when I bought my first boat, it was the perfect boat....Seven eight or nine boats later (I've lost track), I've got one that will carry me to the next.

Of course, there is no denying that Chris made an excellent choice for his first boat, but that goes without saying.
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I had good friends like sfergson727 to make a decision I'm happy with. MM
 
Ha! It was a boat show thing. We decided we wanted a boat, went to the boat show to look around, and bam (!) we owned a brand new boat. Next morning we woke up and asked ourselves, "what have we done?" In the end, it was the right choice for the right reasons. No regrets ever. And, with no information to go on - after looking at many makes and models - the Sea Ray was by far the best built boat we saw.

RE: sfergson's post: We constantly have an eye on the next purchase, but the uncertainty with the economy is holding us back. I''ll be much better educated the next time around, and do much more research that is for sure. Yet, after doing the Yacht Expo last year, touring the factory, and meeting many of the folks that build the bigger boats, we are still die-hard Sea Ray fans. Yet, if we do shy away from Sea Ray, it will be because we decide to go for a different type of boat altogether. Think pilot house (with a planing hull) or something like that. A trawler is appealing, but I'm not sure I can stomach a 8-10 knot cruise very long.
 
MonacoMike said:
Frank, what was the penalty for #3? MM
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My Dad was all about teaching and making sure I learned from mistakes.

He bought the crankshaft, block, head, valve body and reeds, rods, pistons, gaskets and seals then made me tear the engine down and rebuild it by myself. I sent the pistons back and exchanged them for some .060" oversized ones, had the block bored and ended up with the hottest 10 hp Johnson around. Of course Pop knew what I was doing because he was buddies with the Johnson dealer and the owner of the machine shop.
 
fwebster said:
My Dad was all about teaching and making sure I learned from mistakes.

He bought the crankshaft, block, head, valve body and reeds, rods, pistons, gaskets and seals then made me tear the engine down and rebuild it by myself. I sent the pistons back and exchanged them for some .060" oversized ones, had the block bored and ended up with the hottest 10 hp Johnson around. Of course Pop knew what I was doing because he was buddies with the Johnson dealer and the owner of the machine shop.
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Great way to learn and start you on a path that has helped so many others. MM
 
:thumbsup:
fwebster said:
My Dad was all about teaching and making sure I learned from mistakes.

He bought the crankshaft, block, head, valve body and reeds, rods, pistons, gaskets and seals then made me tear the engine down and rebuild it by myself. I sent the pistons back and exchanged them for some .060" oversized ones, had the block bored and ended up with the hottest 10 hp Johnson around. Of course Pop knew what I was doing because he was buddies with the Johnson dealer and the owner of the machine shop.
Click to expand...
:thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
fwebster said:
My first boat was a 10 ft hydroplane that I designed and built in my Dad's shop out of 1/4" plywood and 2 X 10's. I was 12.

I learned 3 significant lessons from the experience: 1. A boat needs enough of a bow angle so the bow goes over and not thru or under the waves, 2. You cannot bail all of the lake out of your cockpit when you submarine the bow of a hydroplane, and, 3. Your Dad's 1953 10 hp Johnson will come apart if you over speed it by using the fishing boat prop instead of a speed prop.
Click to expand...

I pretty much did the same thing with a 50HP Merc on the back of a 10' aluminum Vhull boat till the engine through rods through the side of the engine. Guess we should have done a little more research but it sure was fast for a couple of hours. Had to move to the bow of the boat when we slowed it down so it wouldn'tg swamp from the weight on the back of the boat.
 
My dad and I rebuilt the 2.4 bridgeport mercury on the Stream together, I let him drive it once after we rebuilt it. I'd give a Million bucks to see his face again after he turned that bad boy up to over 85 MPH!! He was grinin' ear to ear!! The light hearted couldn't handle the V-bottom stream, wide open she would do around 94!! I sure do miss him, thurs. will be 3 yrs. since we lost him to cancer. :(
 
My first boat was a 17' sprite w/ a 85hp Evinrude. - I was king of the seas / lake

My first Sea Ray way a '97 370DA - wonderful boat
 
First boat was an inflatable kayak I would use to paddle to Alcatraz and back. First real boat was a 26' Meridian.
 
'87 15' Bayliner.....hey I was 12, we all make mistakes.
'84 21' Checkmate
'86 22' Avanti
'00 26' Velocity
'95 330 Sea Ray
'01 380 Sea Ray
soon to be next - '05 420DB or '06/'07 44DB
 
Chris R said:
Ha! It was a boat show thing. We decided we wanted a boat, went to the boat show to look around, and bam (!) we owned a brand new boat. Next morning we woke up and asked ourselves, "what have we done?" In the end, it was the right choice for the right reasons. No regrets ever. And, with no information to go on - after looking at many makes and models - the Sea Ray was by far the best built boat we saw.

RE: sfergson's post: We constantly have an eye on the next purchase, but the uncertainty with the economy is holding us back. I''ll be much better educated the next time around, and do much more research that is for sure. Yet, after doing the Yacht Expo last year, touring the factory, and meeting many of the folks that build the bigger boats, we are still die-hard Sea Ray fans. Yet, if we do shy away from Sea Ray, it will be because we decide to go for a different type of boat altogether. Think pilot house (with a planing hull) or something like that. A trawler is appealing, but I'm not sure I can stomach a 8-10 knot cruise very long.
Click to expand...

Chris, Back in 83 I went to a boat show with my wife in Milwaukee. She made me leave my check book in the car since she knows I’m a compulsive buyer. I was doing quite a bit of repairs on Skipper Buds negative lift fork truck at the time so I was drawn to their booth right away. Once there I asked if they had any package deals. A few minutes later the rep comes back and offers me a 1 year old 22 ft. Excalibur, 3 months free slip rental, full ski package with 4 PFD, and transport from La Crosse to Milwaukee all for 7,000USD less than trade value.
Man I ran back to the car, got the checkbook and stroked the down payment check before the Admiral knew what was happening. I wasn’t making much money back then so you know I heard it all the way home. The kicker was I had no way to defend making payments on something sitting in the drive, under tarp, for 7-8 months out of the year for the next 3 years.
I called and cancelled the deal the next Monday. Shipper Buds was good about it since they hadn’t processed the paper work yet. Besides I was the only one they knew that was certified to weld the mast on the fork lift.
 
320 sea ray.jpg

My first boat and SeaRay was our 320. I had never been on anything smaller than a car ferry, let alone drive one, so the first driving lesson was that the "pointy end" was forward.
 
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