mr.boat

chaps are craps! teleflex instruments crap, tin wire in the gunwales crap, loose wood layed over gas tank crap, low luster gelcoat crap, poor stiching crap, resale crap, talking stool sample dealer at grand lake....priceless

those of you who compare these crap bags with Cobalt and Sea Ray are bozos! every award they ever won was from mag advert $.

make sure you get the 5.0 motor in your chap bag.

stillcrazy26

This is an old thread but just incase someone found it as I did, I wanted to make a comment.
I have owned many boats. I have also built many boats and I find the Chaparral sorely lacking in their construction. I own a 2004 Chaparral 234 Sunesta . Their design and use of space is good and their bottom is fast. I think for use on a fresh water lake, putzing around is OK. Forget Salt Water.BUT lets go below deck and really see what she is all about. Careless construction on all levels bothers me and I question what philosophy permiates the factory floor. Poor glass layup with voids and dry glass, hacked out bulkheads and then shot with foam to fit.Wiring left hanging without support, electrical crimps poorly made and not sealed.Aft storage compartment drain directly on top of motor and trim pump. Did they miss a hose ? Thru hull fittings that never had hoses attached. Decks with Raw plywood on under side. Bilge blower hoses installed to low in bilge so that they suck water.faulty bilge pump switches that either run down the battery or allow the bilge to fill and rust the oil pan.Winshields that do not fit and evidence of several self tapping screw holes where adjustments were made to try and make it fit. Then there is the issue of not sealing anything that they attach above deck. Swim platform drive trim station out in the open for access and no sealant used on plate. Wires behind were corroded. I stop now, but I wonder what these people see that they can call this boat, a quality boat. Sure they are pretty to the eye and their advertisement says they are the best but what else would they say ?

RBT

Www.dare2compare.info

I live between a sea ray dealer, a cobalt dealer, a chaparral, and a crownline dealer on my lake. I have driven them all, and was utterly SHOKED at the quality of the cobalt, rather lack there of. Somehow they have marketed themselves brilliantly. The new, and I stress that new sea rays blow them away.
What really shocked me was this isn't sea ray marketing bs, this dealer bought a new cobalt a25 and put it right beside the sea ray. You can test drive both and craw all over them. I feel like I am a marketing guy typing this but really could not believe it. The cobalt is perceived quality that up until this year believed.

ImaPoser

Dang. I was surprised to see this thread pop up on this forum. I am currently shopping for a bow rider, and every manufacturer mentioned has been on my list. I guess every manufacturer has their good boats and bad. I had a crownline before, and the longer I owned it, and the more I worked on it, the shoddier I thought it was built. I went and looked at a chaparral yesterday. It seemed built well and well kept on the surface. I'll have to do some more research, and dig deeper in to it before I make a decision.

Good reading at that link. My only problem is the layout of the cobalt is much better than the sea ray to me. It's a bow rider. I don't need a sink in the boat, and don't like the center walkthrough. I'll have to keep looking for that illusive perfect combination of quality and style that meets my needs.

BUP

iTrader: (9)

Sea Ray family runabouts 23 ft & their deckboats 23 ft and under are poor quality. Their seat bottom bases are from cheap composites in which all split down the middle after some use, their rest of their lay up is weak in all of areas. The rest of their rigging is sub par at the very least. If you really want to see a Sea Ray with junk Bayliner quality start digging into Sea Ray models 175, 185, 195, 205. very poor quality.

Back in 2001, Sea Ray 210 BR and even better was the Cobalt 220 BR from 1998 to 2002 was great running boats and better quality than most of the family rec boats of today. I am talking family rec boats only. Chaparral boats is very over rated especially when you talk to their salesmen as they all will tell you how great the whole line up is and then a year or 2 later really start climbing around in one to see really how not great they are. Another junk builder was all of the Genmar brands except Ranger bass boats.

E Colby

I owned a 2000 Chaparral 230 SSi bowrider and it was a great boat. After working in sales at a couple of dealerships, the rankings breakdown is as follows. Top shelf, Cobalt, Regal and Monterey. Good overall quality, Chaparral, Sea Ray and Four Winns. Budget/entry level, Glastron, Bayliner, Larson. Just my 2 cents.

Knot 4 Me

Going on my 10th season and 400 hours on my 2004 Chaparral 260 SSi. No major problems. As Eric says above, a good quality boat. Just keep your expectations realistic in that it is a mass produced product. Nothing has quit working, nothing has broken or fallen off, the vinyl still shows as new, the gel still shines as new, and there are no stress cracks or structural issues with the hull.

liquidlounge

iTrader: (1)

I've owned 2, one of them for 12 years. Great boats. The hulls and upholstery are tops for production boats. Never had any quality issues with either. Also, the resale was very good.

ActiveFun

+1

cigdriver1

I was looking at the new SSX series for a family boat at the lake, any opinions on those?

http://www.texasmarine.com/Page.aspx...ral-Boats.aspx