Bit of first boat advice please.

Benco

Benco

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Hi all, having just completed my level 2 powerboat course I'm now in the market!
I have seen a 2006 Monterey 218LS cuddy with a mercruiser v6 lump. This seems to fit the bill as a good all rounder (I think).
Other brands that are being suggested are Sea Ray and Bayliner so I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. Budget ceiling is £15k.
So something about 21'. Enough power to have a bit of fun and pull doughnut/wakeboard(possibly!)

Any info will be of great help.
 
We had the 218 lsc as our entry boat. Loved it! It was our 'dip our toe in the water' boat to see if boating was for us. It was. This was about 6 years ago and we've never looked back. They're only really suited to one or two nights sleep over as the accommodation is far too cramped for anything more imo. We had ours for about a year, spending our time buoy hopping on very short day trips, just finding our feet really. Great fun but very quickly found ourselves wanting to further afield so within the year we'd moved onto something a bit bigger (Monterey 250) which allowed us to stay aboard longer.
Very nice looking boats imo. We bought ours in 2009 for 17K and got our money back in px on the next one.
L
:)
 
Cant go wrong with any of the american sports boats at that sort of size really, the monterey would make a decent first boat. Some are more luxuriously finished than others, sea ray and monterey being usually a higher quality of finish than bayliner, but under the skin theyre quite similar. Cobalt boats seem a cut above all of them though. If i was buying again thats where my money would go.

That monterey will pull a wakeboarder/donut no problem, assuming no more than 4/5people on the boat.

I sold my 2006 sea ray 200 select bow rider (5.0v8 mpi engine) in 2013 for £12k.
 
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Thanks for the replies, it's good to have a bit of reassurance. Seastoke - the plan is to dry stack as I'm not sure we'd use it as much if we had to launch/recover. I did think the want for a bigger boat would quickly come but I'd feel happier learning the art on something that size.
Is there anything I need to look out for when viewing I.e. Any common problems?
Really appreciate the input by the way.
 
Regal

Benco said:
Thanks for the replies, it's good to have a bit of reassurance. Seastoke - the plan is to dry stack as I'm not sure we'd use it as much if we had to launch/recover. I did think the want for a bigger boat would quickly come but I'd feel happier learning the art on something that size.
Is there anything I need to look out for when viewing I.e. Any common problems?
Really appreciate the input by the way.
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Regal also build some very nice craft Regal 225 our first boat as said a lot of the american boats come with a good spec.

Get the leg checked ,bellows rams etc

Good luck with your search
 
The engines are pretty robust, check if it has dry joint exhaust manifolds or wet joint, if wet joint then dependng on use ( if lots of saltwater use) then these should have been replaced in the last 3/4 years otherwise budget £1000 or so for new ones. If dry joint then replacement is less critical.

Check that the engine pulls to max rpm ok, if not it probably needs a new dist cap and plug leads.



See when the batteries were last replaced, youdrobably get 5 years out of the batteries.

Check the drive trims up and down ok, and the guage works ok, not anbig deal if not, but something to use to barter the price down.

See if the speedo works, again no big deal if not, but can be used as a negotiating point.

Also see if the fuel level guage sticks, again no big deal, but another negotiating point.

Checkthe trim tabs work if fitted.

If it has a windlass, check this works.

Check navigation lights.

Check any fitted nav/comms gear works ok.
 
Don't ignore Four Winns as well; We had a 1999 225 Sundowner (LOA just over 21") and a 2004 245 one ( LOA around 24"). Both with a fuel injected VP 5.7 V8. Lovely reliable engines with a lovely exhaust note. My current VP D4 engined boat sounds very crude in comparison.

The quality level isn't as high as Cobalt, but there's not much you need to worry about and they are considerably cheaper.
 
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We went through this scenario last year, one of may main 'wants' was low engine hours and complete service history.

We ended up going for a Bayliner 192 Cuddy with 105 hours. She was in immaculate condition, very well looked after, and a full service history with all receipts present.

We kept up the main dealer service history so she should be good to sell later this year when we also upgrade to something larger.
 
Thanks for the info.
Sprocker what engine has you bayliner got? I've seen a 192 with a 3l petrol 135hp but didn't think it would have enough go for what I want?
 
Mine is a 3.0L with Alpha1 Gen2. Plenty of power for what we have ever needed, gets on the plane very easily with 4 adults & 2 kids aboard, a full tank of fuel, and a days worth of food & drink. Economical to run and cheap to maintain.

Although I personally have never pulled anything with this boat, my brother has the same boat/engine, 2 years newer than mine, and he skis/wakeboards etc with the kids/family.
He thought about holding out for a 4.3L, but is perfectly happy with his choice of the 3.0L, and he does a lot more boating than I do.
 
sprocker said:
Mine is a 3.0L with Alpha1 Gen2. Plenty of power for what we have ever needed, gets on the plane very easily with 4 adults & 2 kids aboard, a full tank of fuel, and a days worth of food & drink. Economical to run and cheap to maintain.

Although I personally have never pulled anything with this boat, my brother has the same boat/engine, 2 years newer than mine, and he skis/wakeboards etc with the kids/family.
He thought about holding out for a 4.3L, but is perfectly happy with his choice of the 3.0L, and he does a lot more boating than I do.
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I am a little surprised that is really adequate at 3.0l, unless the kids are pretty small. Main advantage is the fuel consumption is of course lower. Still, 5.0l may break your wallet apart but it will be huge fun too. I think on 21/22 ft, you will need 5.0l. Agreed at 18/19 you can get away with less.
 
I have a Sea Ray 19 cuddy with a old 3.0GL that will happily do 30 mph with two adults, 2 kids and all the accoutrements that make it a heavy boat. It doesn't go any faster with just one adult on, just takes a few seconds more to get out of the hole. 3.0 litres is plenty for that boat. The difference in hole shot might make a difference to a skier as will the drag from a skier or wakeboarder to get out of the hole. Then I imagine a 3.0 liter will be at a disadvantage unless you underprop her. We don't ski or wakeboard so this is just and observation, and the hull form may not be suitable for a wake boarder, again from observation the wakeboarding boats seem to deliberately make a lot of wake and need large engines to sustain that, whereas once we are on the plane in the Sea Ray there is very little wake. Basically I think that unless you have a specific activity you want to enjoy your boat may be a compromise and boat hull design will play a major part, and if you do want to enjoy water sports I would go for the v6 4.3 litre and above for a 20 or less size boat.
 
BruceK said:
I have a Sea Ray 19 cuddy with a old 3.0GL that will happily do 30 mph with two adults, 2 kids and all the accoutrements that make it a heavy boat. It doesn't go any faster with just one adult on, just takes a few seconds more to get out of the hole. 3.0 litres is plenty for that boat. The difference in hole shot might make a difference to a skier as will the drag from a skier or wakeboarder to get out of the hole. Then I imagine a 3.0 liter will be at a disadvantage unless you underprop her. We don't ski or wakeboard so this is just and observation, and the hull form may not be suitable for a wake boarder, again from observation the wakeboarding boats seem to deliberately make a lot of wake and need large engines to sustain that, whereas once we are on the plane in the Sea Ray there is very little wake. Basically I think that unless you have a specific activity you want to enjoy your boat may be a compromise and boat hull design will play a major part, and if you do want to enjoy water sports I would go for the v6 4.3 litre and above for a 20 or less size boat.
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Hell, get the 5.7l !
 
Ok, so we went and had a look at a Monterey 218lsc on the weekend. Seemed like a tidy boat apart from a bit of damage to the leg. About a 3" piece has been snapped off the corner of the anti cavitation plate. Does anyone have any experience of this i.e. does it affect the boat handling and can it be repaired?
 
Do bear in mind that it is quite common to upgrade after your first boat. This costs you in time, selling commission, depreciation etc.

Money is money - but if you can do consider trading up now as opposed to later - it will save you in the long run
 
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