On Mar 26, 12:46*pm, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:
On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:20:44 -0700 (PDT), "Robert M. Gary"

wrote:

Not sure where you live, but the difference in tax between $12K and
$14.5K isn't much considering the total value of the vessel. - like
maybe $100.

I live in a pretty high tax state so generally when you sell something
to someone you write two contracts. One for the state and another for
the actual sale price. Of course the dealer can't do that.

Pre-owned boats can be problematic unless it's always been maintained
by the dealer, the dealer has service records on the boat and that the

What types of things do you see go wrong when boats are not maintained
well? Everyone has told me I should go out with the seller on the
water but other than making sure the engine doesn't die I'm not sure
what I'm suppose to be doing. I'm pretty handy mechanically (I've
rebuilt car motors, etc) so I could do some maintenance myself.

The difference between a 175 and 185 is minimal believe it or not. You
would think the extra foot adds a lot but it doesn't.

One of the things I was thinking was just capacity. The 175 has a
Coast Guard sticker that says "7 people". We're a family of 4 and it
would be cool to invite another family of 4 on board. The 185 says 8
people so I was just thinking it would be better to have the 8. Of
course 1/2 those people will probably have to be little guys (pre-
teens).

First of all, be aware that Bayliner is considered the Yugo of the
boating industry - in some cases deserved and in others not so much.
The more modern Bayliners are good boats - nothing stellar or
outstanding, just a good entry level boat.

The dealer kind of mentioned that. He said they're well built boats
but they they are pretty stripped down.

The boat that you are considering is their entry level boat - it's
meant to be an introduction boat, run for a couple years and then if
you take a fancy to running the boat and the family likes it, trade up
to a larger or more powerful boat inline with your interests. *I've
seen buys go from these small Bayliners to wakeboard/ski boats and in
one case a bass boat because the guy loved fishing and the family
could care less about boating.

I was kind of thinking that. If I bought from the dealer I would have
the warranty and dealer support (which would be good for a newby) but
I would incur the large initial depreciation. If I bought used I could
let the previous owner lose the depreciation and be able to sell it in
a couple years for near what I bought it for.


Lastly, as another member mentioned, you need to see if you are
comfortable with the boat, what exactly you expect from the boat (ski,
wake board, tube, fish), how many people onboard at any time (max),
etc. *You need to get onboard and sit in the seats see if your are
comfortable and can move around sufficiently without restriction. How
much storage will you need - etc. *A secondary consideration is if you
can properly tow the vessel with what ever you are using to tow with.

Hehe, when we bought the plane I took the family over to the service
center and did a "fit test" to see that everyone fit ok. My wife was a
bit offended at the notion that she may not "fit" but it was helpful.
My boys are just so excited about getting a boat I think they'd be
happy to ride in a raft.

Some years back I flew sea planes for an operator in central
California. I loved spending time on the water (sometimes I'd land in
the middle of the lake and just jump in). We just got back from Mexico
where we would often hire local fisherman to take us around nearby
islands for snorkling. That kind of got the fire burning again.
Interestingly there are no inboard motors in Mexico, every single boat
I saw was outboard.


-Robert