First boat was at 19 with a 87 26' Wellcraft Nova with twin small blocks- cant tell you how much fun that was!!

Then a 211 Liberator at 21, at 22 a 25' Sunsation, and then at 24 found my baby- the 1st 28' Saber made and have restored it (along with some nice upgrades) over the last 5 years:drink:

Very glad to see a younger crowd enjoying and being able to be a part of this awesome sport/addiction:ernaehrung004:

Gotta say, props and utmost respect to all the young guys working hard and making smart decisions to achieve their goals.

From the old guy who's been working hard all his life. 44 times around the sun this year :)

You get back what you put in. Good for you guys.

At 23 i rolled out of College with a Civil Engineering degree and essentially no debt, (just college loans).

at 24 i bought a 1987 formula 357 (before i even bought a house), fixed it up, ran it, sold it, made a little money

25 i bought a 2001 F1 29' fountain, fixed it up, ran it, sold it, made a little money

27 i bought a 2000 Cigarette Mystique 30', dream boat, love it, and have it to this day (now 30).

i literally spent every day of college on boattrader and OSO classified telling myself that one day if i stick with this college thing i will have one of these. I swear its what got me through it all. Now its all about work hard play hard.

LOL. Sounds familier. While everyone else in the engineering computer lab was working on solving problems I was surfing OSO. Probably would have had better grades if the school would have blocked it. :drink:

As a teenager, in the late 80's, I had an Aquasport 196 powered by an Evinrude 140.

I replaced it with a used 1984 22 Velocity powered by a Merc 3.4 lit that I kept for about 10 years.

I now have a 2004 velocity powered by a Merc 250 EFI that I intend to keep for a long time. I don't believe in taking out a loan to purchase toys.

x2

Agreed 100 percent
-Mike

Definitely cash is the way to go! No worries about boat payments when your filling the gas tanks. And you own it outright!

Funny how a thread about guys in their 20's buying boats is about how you should only pay cash to some guys?

Pay cash, finance, have fun who cares. You may die tomorrow or you may retire broke.........but either way I'll make my own decisions, not base my decisions from a 1 sentence post of a "finance expert" on the board haha.

That said, I wish I had never bought a house and sunk that into a big ass boat payment, couldn't have lost as much money.:evilb:

24yr - 2002 23' Crownline LPX

I'm 27 and still floating around in the same ship. Been looking the last year for a 288 Sunny or 29 Scarab

Found out on New Years I'm going to be a daddy, which is exciting. However, at the time I'm ready to finally pull the trigger on a new boat, all the reservations in the world have stood up and are telling me to, WAIT....

Oh well. All in its own time. The money is there but got to put la familia first.

I will NOT be selling the Crownline. But... Maybe I'll add some 150s K-planes to feel like a bigger boy.