I had the opportunity to talk to a Merc New Lake X engineer and a NMMA structural engineer.

The concencus among them:

- Baja is preceived as an entry level offshore boat...however their designs are good. The preception is incorrect.

- Baja knows what they are doing in the design department.

- Best quality/performance/price ratio in the market (they both said this)

- The new 23 and 30 designs extremely solid designs and have very little variance between boat in weight and quality. The Merc engineer was well versed in these to designs and was preaching this to another empolyee! I overheard the conversation and he gave me a good del of his time.

I have a renewed interest in stepping up to another baja!!! A 30' with my motors sounds right

I just bought my third one. Alot of boat for the money. Maybe not always the fastest, but I have outrun many other boats in the rough stuff. All Baja's need is a horsepower upgrade

IF I ever sell B-Nauti, I plan on staying with a Baja. She has been good to me so far. I LOVE THAT BOAT!!!!!

Always been proud I'm on my 4th,people can say what they want they are very good boats.

Loved my baja,,, the styling, handling, had a lot of features found on boats costing a lot more,, had I bought a 275 instead of a 232 I would still have it..

Bajalion, you seem to know all the right people in the business!

I have owned my baja since 1990 its a88 240 sport with a fairing in 94 up graded to 94 502 390hp ,96 502 585hp, 509 647hp in 2000 ,marine machine steering 2001and hp gimbel ,offshoreperformance bolsters 2002 and its still in one piece I AM putting in two bulkheads this spring in front where the plaxiglass was and the back seat full height. to stiffen the hull, and back before stepped hulls I use to blow away a lot of bigger boats in the cape waters 95 to 98and this year I hope to get a 2''shortie get a little more speed.

I have had some problems with mine ( they have been taken care of) but I don't think I would buy another brand, dollar for dollar you just can't beat them. Plus I like their layouts much better than any other manufacturer I have seen.

Look at the new 30 ol w/ 496hos, for 130K or less you can have an out of the box 75-80 mph boat (going by what has been said on here). At the Cleveland boat show I saw a 30 CIG Vice, 496 ho's no front berth in the cabin and essentially no amenities, for the boat show special price of 209K. This boat was tested and it is said to hit 80 mph, and it is "dialed" in form the factory. I would take the 30ol put 25K more into it and smash every 30 vice on the water. I just can't see spending amost 80K more for a boat that doesn't get you any more.

my .02

PS. I know there are other advantages to buying a Cig, but I don't think it is worth the money.

Nope :d

Don't you have some homework to do?