larson isn’t bad. bayliner is BAD. chaparral is nice though, we have one and love it. that maxum is nice as well.
FYI: The first time you are out on your boat, you will wish you had gotten a bigger one. I had a 27’ for 2 seasons and just got a 32’. Maxum, Chaparral, and Larson are all nice boats. Wellcraft also makes a big heavy boat like Sea Ray. As already stated, don’t but a Bayliner. I have seen one break in half, catch on fire, and sink. True story. Laughed my ass off. If you end up with an inboard/outboard, make sure its not an OMC outdrive. OMC is out of business and can be tough to get parts.
Boating is alot of fun but it is also expensive. Parts and repairs are much more than you think it should cost or it would cost for your car.
don’t go bayliner…
and i’ve never been a fan of open bow…but to each his own.
Fry. Everything Jays said is very true and on the money.
You will be MISERABLE in a shallow hull Jet boat on the river.
I can almost guarantee that. Listen hard to this advice.
The problem is NOT the propulsion system, its the hull.
A shallow bottom hull will pound you to shit on the river and anywhere there is a wake.
Buy a boat with a Deep V hull. It will cut through the wake and be MUCH more stable in the chop you see around Buffalo water ways.
Those little jetboats are shit in anything but reasonably calm water.
A jet drive will not be faster. I know that for a fact. It will accelerate faster out of the hole. Thats about it. If there is any chop the intake sucks air and you dont have shit for speed. A prop is much better suited to rough areas as it takes a lot more to get it out of the water.
Get a Deep V Hull.
I had a shallow hull 17’ and it was so hard to take out. We got beat up in anything but calm water. I second the deep V. If you like Maxim, and I LOVE maxim boats, check out bills boat works. They typically have great pricing, and boats like cars are always negotiable. I would actually say boats are even more negotiable than cars.
EDIT: I am not reviewing what I just typed, but it looks like Bills has gotten into a lot more than what I knew years ago… they have lots of boats available. One of my friends picked up an extra wide Maxim 34’ for 60K, it was listed at ~90 everywhere else that I looked. I know that is WAY out of your range, but it seems that they are covering a full spectrum at this point. http://www.billsboatworks.com/
That’s a great hull. We’ve had the 23 foot version of that hull since 96, extremely solid through chop and tons of room for storage compared to a lot of newer boats.
I hope you have a decent sized budget that extends beyond the purchase price of the boat/trailer because boating as a rule isn’t cheap.
That 180 le Chaparral is what my 180 SSe evolved into. It’s a great hull and Chaparral builds great boats.
Here’s the thing though, it’s the 3.0 motor. The 3.0 is what I have in my boat and it’s a good motor, just not a speed demon. With 2 people I can hit upper 40’s, crack 50 if the conditions are just right, so it’s plenty fast enough on top end for me. With the chop you’re in most of the time around here running top speed is rarely something you do anyway. Where it struggles is with a full load of people. With 6 people it takes a bit longer to get on plane and pulling my fat ass out of the water on the wakeboard with that much weight in the boat is a struggle. Put a couple bigger people in the bow to help get on plane faster and it not that bad though. Doing it again I’d go the 4.3 V6 but at the time I couldn’t afford it. The stupid side of me keeps considering dropping some ridiculous in there like an LS2 as a mad scientist winter project but so far the responsible side has won out.
Out of all the boats you listed I’d go with that 20’ bayliner. Bayliner got a bad rep back in the 80’s when they used Force outboards. Those were probably some of the shittiest most unreliable motors ever made. What a shock they were a Chrysler subsidiary. I lost track of how many times I towed the guy in with a Force who rented a slip next to us when I lived at home. They’re not top of the line even today but they’re not the shit boxes people make them out to be. Looking at the pictures that 20 footer looks like it wasn’t kept in the water which makes all the difference in the world. That 20 will ride better than anything else you’ve posted an the 350 won’t be THAT bad on gas if you’re not romping on it all the time. The great part about having the 350 is you won’t HAVE to romp on it all the time.
My 18 footer is used a lot but it’s always trailered. After a good wash/wax it still looks as good as the day I bought it. For every year you store a boat in the water they seem to age about 10.
Finally, I’m not sure where people get this, “boating is so expensive” thing. Sure, you can make it expensive by renting a $2000 a year slip, paying a marina $300 in the spring and fall to service your boat and dropping big money on oil and lower unit fluid changes you can do yourself but you don’t HAVE to. You can make gas expensive by buying a 30 footer with big twin V8’s but again, you don’t HAVE to.
I bought a $50 oil extractor and can change the oil in my boat in about 10 minutes. A $10 adapter lets you run the boat on a garden hose in the driveway and they make a nice 5 gallon winterizing kit you can use to flush antifreeze into the engine. I spend about $80 winterizing and that includes a full flush with antifreeze (not just the drain they do at the marina), fresh engine oil, gas stabilizer, carb fogging, new lower unit lube, anti-corrosion spray for the exterior of the engine and a couple tubs of damp rid to absorb moisture in the interior.
My boat has a 25 gallon gas tank and even spending a full day on the water mostly cruising around I won’t empty that. Going out for a few hours after work I usually go through about an 1/8th to a 1/4 of a tank. Most of the time on a boat you aren’t constantly cruising. You’re stopped swimming, or fishing or just hanging out in some cove or bay. The best way I found to budget my boat gas is to NOT use national fuel’s balanced billing. Big natural gas bills in winter when I have no gas bills for the boat. Low natural gas bills in summer means more gas money for the boat. 
Those jet boats are nice, but they only perform good in calm waters because they are so small…
Not everyone is small. My 20’ really isn’t bad at all in rough water. And they do make even bigger ones. My next one is the 23’ AR230.
My bad sorry…I’ve never seen ones bigger, sick boats though!
:tup: I guess we’re going to look at that Maxum tomorrow. Maybe I’ll convince the wifey to look at the Bayliner with the 350 this weekend if she doesn’t fall in love with the Maxum.
Funny relationship I’m in. I always have to be the voice of reason while the wife always wants to spend spend spend. Maybe I’ll let her win this time. Why not spend a week in the Dominican, two weeks in Africa, and buy a boat all in the same summer. We’re not going to have two incomes and no kids forever. :eekdance:
2 incomes and no kids forever sounds like my dream future. Hold the Africa and marriage.
-1 for looking at a bayliner. Might as well just tie together some tree trunk and hold a motor off the back.
Thanks. Now that I’m looking to spend over $4-5k jet boats don’t really make sense. I still think it’d be a reasonable way to get a $4k boat, but now that we’re looking at double that I’ll just look at prop boats.
I have heard that the two happiest days of a boat owners life are the day he buys a boat, and the day he sells it.
And you know who constantly tells that joke? People who don’t own boats. I’ve sold two in my life and I’ve never been anything but sad watching them be trailered away. Way cooler memories get made with a boat than a car.
If you don’t have fun boating, you’re doing it wrong.
They use the same joke for swimming pools. If you are on top of maintinence and do not mind the effort its worth it. If you do not get to use it enough to breakeven, it starts wearing on you. Such is life for most hobbies.
another vote against bayliners. they are just cheap and crappy.
you are headed in the right direction. get a nice deep hull i/o (inboard/outboard) with an open bow. open bow is great and allows you to pile plenty more people in on those nice sunny days. make sure you check the floors for rot and mold etc. a big plus is having a nice cover already for the boat, otherwise you will be dropping another 500 or so to keep you boat safe from the elements. check the prop and skeg and make sure the outdrive is not too banged up and beat to shit. that will give you a general idea on how well the boat has been taken care of. check the trailer too to make sure its not going to just fall apart because there is more $$$ coming out of your pocket. Basically any i/o can pull a skiier/wakeboarder out of the water with no problems its more so about the condition of the boat since its going to be your first one. if you get serious into the water sports you can always pick up a nice inboard later on down the road.
i live on boats basically during the summer so if you have any questions let me know.
they say B.O.A.T. stands for Bill Of Another Thousand. they can be a money pit if you buy one thats beat to hell. or if you get lucky and find one thats in good condition they will run great. my nautique has over 1300 hrs and still running strong on the original motor and has good compression and no signs of going anytime soon. and i have 500 lbs of lead and a 1300 lbs automatic ballast system plumbed up in it so it can handle the abuse.
The bayliner hate is pretty funny. It almost feels like GM thread. I bet no one here has been on a bayliner made after 1995, when they had some bad experience with those shitty Capri’s they used to put out held together by termites and bubblegum.