millhouse961

LA boat show is next month and I am planning on buying an Advantage Victory 27BR. As I'm working out my budget, my question is how much do any of you with similar boats spend a year on maintenance? I don't need to worry about storage as I have ample space on my property and have all the insurance, fuel costs, and financing worked out. Aside from the annual winterizing service, anything else I should be aware of? (no, this is not my first boat but the first of this size and performance)
Thanks!

Chris Sunkin

Buying a new boat pretty much offsets most of the big-hit stuff for at least a few years or so. You do take that massive hit up-front though. Since alot of it is under warranty for a while your out-of-pocket should be minimal. If you fastidiously maintain the boat (above & beyond mfg. req's.) you'll get good service.

There are two areas where you're probably going to have issues. First, the boat you're buying is not an offshore race boat. It just looks like one. If you take it in big water and run it hard, you will break it. The second one is 5MPH disease. You'll probably want it to go 5MPH faster every time someone blows past you. You'll find that 5MPH is expensive. You'll then find that the next 5MPH is really expensive and you'll probably have to sell the stuff that got you the last 5MPH for 20 or 30 cents on the dollar. As you can imagine, it's less expensive to buy it in the initial purchase- but rarely does that happen.

Welcome to performance boating.

TexomaPowerboater

For a brand new boat I would follow the operating manual to the teeth for the first year, which I think would be around $1,500 for that boat, but you could probobly hold off until the beginning of next summer if your a seasonal boater.

millhouse961

What does that $1500 entail?

MOBILEMERCMAN

Oil changes, drive services, and filter changes are the only things you should have to do with a new boat for the first maybe 3 seasons. Be careful about what Chris Sunkin mentioned if there are other expenses they are usually brought about be the operator and not the boats fault or regular maintenance.

Buy the boat you plan to use as you buy it. Very often it gets changed in attempt to make it faster.

TexomaPowerboater

Assuming you rack up 100hrs on the first summer. The $1500 would entail what mobilemercman mentioned. Thoroughly servicing the outdrive will make up a lot of it. I don't know what engine or outdrive package you have, but we dropped $1,000 on just the first year on a 6.2 with bravo III. Keep in mind thats going by the book, which most poeple do not do. So I say budget $1500 to spend $1000. I don't know how many new boats you've had, but something like 1/2 of all new boats break down on their maiden voyage. There always seems to be some bugs to work out in a new boat, but most all will come at the expense of the dealer warranty. Just something to think about.

Chris Sunkin

Tex,

Your numbers are having the Merc dealer do it for you, correct?

TexomaPowerboater

Certified merc mechanic, not dealer. Boat was a 04 sea ray sundeck. I just took the operating manual to the mechanic and told him to do it all. Obvioulsy that is the most expensive route, but it was new and I didn't want any warranty excuses.

Chris Sunkin

No doubt. A big chunk of tha giant price tag that you get with Merc products is for that nice, juicy warranty. No sense jeopardizing it.

millhouse961

How hard is it to do this annual service yourself? I read an article on how to winterize your boat and it didn't sound that hard, just tedious. Are there warranty issues if you service it yourself?