Sea Rays

[jabro]

Hi,

On searching around there doesn't seem to be a lot of Sea Rays for sale in Europe apart from fairly old ones. Do you think there would be a market for the newer(2005 to 2007) and larger 34 to 40 foot Sea Ray Sundancers in the Med and do you think they are as good/better/worse than Fairline Targas - just trying to get a feel for their reputation.
They seem to have a similar price in the states as the targas do here if you assumed that $1 = GBP1!

Thanks
Jeff

 

[Whitelighter]

Dont forget that the price you see advertised in the states wont include VAT (each state has diffeent sales taxes, so prices are always ex-tax) and the CE certification and shipping cost will add another 5%.

There are big SeaRay dealers already in the UK and med, so buyers have the choice already. Sea Ray make good boats, but hey are typically American in that they tnd to be very beamy, have open plan cabins and some of the bigger boats have very shallow hulls (lots of lakes in the states see).

I think their problem with the bigger stuff (35ft plus) is by the time they get over here they are the same, i not more than EU models and the local boats (unsuprisingly) suit our boating habits better

 

[Sundays_Child]

Very diplomatically put.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I have a soft spot for Searays since our first boat was a Searay. They sell plenty of sub 30ft sports boats in the European market but they have never sold as many 30ft+ boats in Europe as they might have done, given the size of the company which is much larger than most Brit builders. Their boats look and feel very American which is not a problem for their sports boats because most of their competitors in that area of the market are American but in the same way as US cars don't look as cutting edge as their Euro rivals, neither do Searay boats. Like most US boats, their hulls are optimised for accomodation rather the seakeeping or speed and their prices are not as cheap in the Euro market as the $ exchange rate would suggest