TexomaPowerboater

Well............ I can't say that I could find something wrong in any boat either if there were tits like that flying all over the place.

Evaluating a boat takes longer than a short joy ride with a bunch of hot chics. You have to be in and out of one for atleast a year and you need to evaluate the boat and its condition 5-10 years down the road.

AIR TIME

bang for the buck yeah if you could buy a new 26 with 525 for 80.000 they are priced as the others now at 130,000 for a 525 before stepped hulls came out my lil 240ol would kick azz with 600hp back in the 90s I shocked the chit out of a lot of big boats to. still pass my long time friend with his 575 hp 24 SB IN MY 650HP BOAT BY 6MPH. OH he has stresss cracks, Ive seen them in every boat built just about over the last 18yrs. I'm doing a little extra this fall and winter going for 700hp high 80s only 83 right now well before my chit was stolen in march. so saving for so more goodies besides the stuff that was stolen. hate to miss 07 but thats life my next boat will be a sutphen that a friend might sell in the spring that needs motors or a new joker 28 with my baja parts and sell the baja as a hull and trailer set up. well got to go having surgery in the morning artie

BajaFresh

I agree completely. Car magazines like Car & Driver, Automobile and Autoweek get long term test vehicles from manufacturers and do long term testing. I don't think many performance boat manufacturers would give up a boat for a year. I'm sure Hot Boat ( or powerboat) would love to do a long term test.

I would like to see less tests per issue and more indepth testing and write up of each boat. It would be nice if they could spend more time with each boat to get more "owner" type usage reports. Unfortunately, testing is costly so they test a bunch at a time and then spread the articles over several issues.

haulinvols

I think you just illustrated the point most here are trying to make. I doubt by your bias you have ever owned a Baja, you base your opinion on other boats you have seen or tied up to.

I do like the Fountain brand of boats, as well as just about any go-fast. Every once in a while I tie up to a guy with an older 32 Fountain that looks like the only thing holding it together is the rub rail. But you have seen this type of owner before, the kind that is in and out of his boat with his dirty street shoes, launching off every big cruiser wake without knowing at all how to set the boat up right so it does not come crashing down on the stern etc.

What I am saying here is, should I base my opinion of Fountain off this one guy who has no idea how to take care of the boat or even drive it correctly? No, I base my opinion on the folks that enjoy their Fountain and are repeat buyers. Repeat buyers is the best endorsement any brand can have. People who are truly not happy will not buy another of the same brand.

Baja builds a chit ton of boats. You hear about more problems simply because there are more of them. I am on Baja number three and outside of two Merc related problems they have been trouble free. The real problem with Baja is the dealer network. There are a few gems but I have found the majority to be chit.


By the way, what ever happend to the old saying that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. Regardless of what someone is driving (even a Bayliner) they spent their hard earned money on it and they are having fun.

I have never understood why folks feel they need to bash something to make themselves feel better.



End of rant, back to your regular scheduled programming. .

Dd24skater

couldn't you say the same thing about Formula?

excursion

I had one and yes, there were two more on the water just like it, Baja is sort of the "GENERIC" powerboat. Alot of people that are just getting into a performance boat, buy a Baja because of PRICE, seems like alot for less money, but when it comes time two step up to anther performance boat most never buy another Baja.

BillR

Baja's are a good value.

Hey as long as your not sittin' on the dock. . . . . . . .

mlitefan2

My first boat was a Baja Sunsport. Very fun boat with a 150 outboard. I have always loved the lines of the outlaws.

Truthfully, there really aren't many go fasts that I don't admire. We can't all own a $200,000.00 + go fast and Baja hits a wide market of boaters. As an owner of a Sunsation, you will see no disrespect from me towards Baja's...or any other brands for that matter. Be proud of what you have and run it like you stole it!

Chris Sunkin

Hot boat is no different than any other publisher. They have ad pages to sell. They aren't going to get a new advertiser into the book by telling the cold, hard truth about their product. You're also not going to keep big-page-volume advertisers like Reggie in your book by showing photos of hull/deck separations and sinking hulls. It isn't just the boat biz- this is universal everywhere in the publishing business. Unless you're 100% reader-supported, like Consumer Reports

Maybe Havasu isn't the best place to test OFFSHORE boats. Everything works pretty well on a pond. Your opinion might be different if you were to see a motor mount torn out of a stringer off of a 6' roller.

There's Bayliners and then there's Apaches. In between is an enormous gulf of difference in materials and construction quality. Of the boats you named, there are certainly differences, although not as dramatic as the one's I used in my example. Because you aren't identifying them, that doesn't mean they don't exist. Maybe you're either not looking very hard or you lack the long-term experience to know what to look for. Maybe you were a little star-struck too.

New boats, hand-prepped for a magazine, test driven on a small lake does not make for the best real-world examination of what you're going to be living with a few years down the road.


No, they're not all "great" boats. They're "OK" boats. That would be like comparing a Kia, a Chevy, an Audi and a Porsche. They're not all "great" cars. Not everyone can tell you why, though.

I've owner one of just about everything, from old wooden Lymans, a Bayliner or two, a couple Bajas, 3 Cigs, 2 Velocities and 2 Apaches- and a bunch more. Every one of them was lots of fun- much better than watching from shore. Some were constructed exceptionally well and some weren't. If you come on a site like this and say "my XYZ is a great boat- as good as anything else made" you have to expect to get some feedback from more than a couple of folks.

Stormrider

btw, what's a 24 baja w/ a 496ho cost these days?

how about a 32/33 w/ 525s?