Don't want to start a war but this is the first Crownline I have ever
seriously
considered. I'm impressed so far. Smooth, quiet and seems to be nailed
together
very well. Anybody want to comment on Crownline vs maybe Searay? The other
boat
in contention is a '99 240DA.

Peace,


I actually spent much of yesterday afternoon on a new Crownline. A 21-footer,
with a 350 Mercruiser and a Bravo III.

A business associate of mine is an ex-World Champon Unlimited Class hyrdorplane
racer, and he now sells boats in our community. He just added Crownline
to his lineup, and we didn't have a Crownline dealer previously. His first
boats arrived on Thursday, and I jumped at the invitation to help on the test
runs.

I can't speak to a '95, but the 2004 has some endearing qualities. There are
"vortex generators" just below the waterline at the port and starboard ends of
the transom. Crownline did a lot of research
into the annoying tendency of many outdrive boats to track less than precisely
at displacement speeds, and concluded that the phenomenon was due to water
rushing into the "hole" that develops immediately astern. (As the incoming
water randomly impacts the outdrive more forcefully from one side or the other,
the stern tends to fall off.) The vortex generators literally create swirling
waves at the edge of the wake, with the result that
the greatest inrushing force now comes from below the outdrive rather than from
either side. Displacement speed steering is demonstrably more precise than on
outdrive boats of similar size I have driven in the past.

Crownline uses a notched hull- vented chine, (some other builders do as well),
and that helps to reduce drag underway and get the stern up more quickly when
rising to plane. The trade off, obviously, is that an interrupted chine affects
high speed cornering. Crownline added two vertical "fins" (I think they are
called "Fast Tabs") just aft of the vent to improve the boat's grip in a turn,
and it sticks to the water extremely well. Riding with a hydro racer becomes
slightly predictable- it's full throttle all the time and all he does is turn
left! :-)

Without getting into a point by point comparison with Sea Ray, (and even if I
did that might not tell you much about a ten year old boat), I will say I was
very impressed with Crownline. If I were shopping for a high quality speedboat,
my comparison list would include Crownline, Cobalt, Sea Ray, Donzi, etc.

Fit and finish are as good as anything I've ever seen in this class, for a FRP
production boat. Gelcoat is flawless, everything that is supposed to move does-
smoothly, confidently, and predictably. Anything that is supposed to be rigidly
affixed is. We spent a lot of time "airborne" in the Crownline, and even with
the additional hardware of a wake board tower and a bimini top nothing rattled
on impact.
No creaks, groans, squeaks, or crinkles.
Absolutely rock solid in every regard.

With so many builders using the exact same engines and drives, there isn't much
mechanical difference between propulsion systems so it's the layup schedule,
design, quality of execution, and other aspects of the hull that makes the most
important difference between one boat and another.

It took just over three seconds to get up on plane from a standing start, with
next to zero bow rise. I don't know much about wake boarding, but I'd think
you'd want to slow this boat down a bit if you were tring to make much of a
wake. At WOT there's a mere ripple left behind. This wasn't a "scientific"
excursion, so we relied on the
vessel's own speed log rather than a GPS.
We were achieving speeds of around 60 mph- it was pretty boring I suppose for
Billy Schumacher, but more than fast enough for this 9-knot trawler boater. :-)

If Crownline has improved substantially over the last ten years, then the '95
wasn't ever as nice as the 2004. *If*. Get a survey, (of course), because who
knows what has happened to any boat over the course of ten years.

Best of luck, whatever you decide.