First boat debate. 25' single or 29' with twins
 

Im looking into picking up a new (to me) boat in the near future and I am having a hard time deciding between two boats right now. Locally there is for sale the following 2 boats:

2001 Baja Outlaw 29'
-(2) 454s one with 126 hours and one with 205 hours

2007 Baja Outlaw 26'
-single 502 with 96hrs

Both boats can be had for the same price right now, and I cant get myself to pull the trigger on either one. All things equal between the boats, except engines, year and hours.

I absolutely want the larger boat, but am perfectly fine with a single engine. Having a hard time convincing myself on twice the maintenance and an increase in fuel consumption is worth two motors to get the extra 3'

If Both can be had for the same price, Go for the Twins and the Larger Boat..just make sure you have them surveyed. There aren't many cases where Twin vs. Single where the Twin is the same price. It may have issues..or the owner didn't take care of the outside of the Boat..a real headache to replace seats/gel coat/hardware...but even worse if one of the motors is tore up. IMHO. You apparently have your heart set on a Baja Outlaw. I learned very quickly to have patience. I found everything I wanted/needed for my first boat..just couldn't find one in Red/White so I purchased the one that's Green and white and in a week, everything will be finished and I'll have EXACTLY what I wanted to start with. Ins5ead of planning to spend your entire Budget, maybe shop just a little Lower and save some $ for the Inevitable Repairs/Changes you're bound to encounter or desire?

Went through the same thing when I was looking. Decided on a 25', but already have an itch to go bigger. My future will be a ~35'. I also wanted a Baja at first, but after being on this site and actually looking around and reading up on a lot of threads, learned about all differences in makes, quality, etc... You may end up wanting something completely different. Like stickman said, be patient, look everything over and get a survey.

Go for 29' with twins. There are few items that will happen knocking both engines out. You can limp back on one. Those 4 additional feet make a big difference in most seas you experience.

You have to be honest with the amount of money you're willing to budget for boating and that'll help steer you. Without question the bigger boat is what most would go with and from my perspective I'll never go back to another single after owning twins.

However they are more expensive to maintain unless you're mechanically inclined and do the work yourself, even so you'll be spending more of your time wrenching, winterizing, maintaining if you're doing it yourself not to mention the added gas, props, drives and on and on. Boats break, that's their job and they do it well, you'll definitely be investing more time and money with twins.

Agreed.
 

Most people that have a 24' - 26' w/a single are soon shopping for a 28' - 32' w/twins but you never hear of the opposite.
Pretty interesting comparison too. 6 yrs older to get more boat and twins. Yeah doing double the maintenance sucks but if they are solid now it's not bad.
I wish someone had taken me aside (not that I's have listened) and educated me on "PREVENTIVE" maintenance. I repowered w/two new in the box motors and then assumed because they were both under warranty that I could beat the bajesus out of them w/o taking care of them. They both lasted one yr out of warranty and then I started fixing/replacing everything and it got very expensive.
Establish that motors/drives are solid now and then start a religious preventive maintenance schedule. Faster/harder you run it the closer together those sessions will be.
At that level it's not much work and is way cheaper than corrective maintenance. Once you do it a few times it gets way easier/faster too. You'll be able to pull a drive, check for leaks and grease u-joints in 15 mins per.

Good luck and have fun!

If you plan on overnighting, running out on the big lake, have the money (to maintain and fuel) and have a truck that can tow it...twins are the way to go. my $.02

100% agreed.
 

If you're going to run Lake Michigan you'll be way happier w/the extra size and weight. Will be many times that you'd stay at dock in the smaller boat but could get away w/it in the bigger one.
Trust me on that one as I have a 24' ;).

Great 1st thread by the way.

Very Very True. I'm on the bay in RI and have had my Outlaw 24 one season and i'm starting to look now for a 28-29 with twins. The extra 5' makes all the difference if it starts getting choppy and the extra room is well worth it. If you can do your own maint and dont mind getting dirty go for the twins, as your just paying for double the parts and not double the labor.

Hence my post as proof OP. I have fun on the 25', but am wanting bigger already

Went from a single to twins. I will not have another single engine boat. Picked up a 28zx twin 350 mag. Will top out at 72. Couldn't be happier.

Only reason I'm not wanting to go bigger because I've got twins in my 25'7 boat. Go bigger [ 29 Baja] with the twins. When those 454's die ,you could repower with smaller strokers with equal power and less weight resulting better fuel economy. .My buddy had a 1998 29 OL and it handled the rough in the ocean very well. One caution with the Baja OL's is the balsa core hull ,so you have to have a survey on the hull and stringers. Don't ask why, just spend the money on the survey.

get the 29 you will appreciate the extra couple of feet when it gets rough!

X2.

I've met people who've looked at the purchase price and concluded that they can make that monthly payment. Then they figure out how much they are spending just on fuel, and all they do is float all day.

Only you know your budget.

In my case, the kids have really gotten into "tubing," and it sucks the gas right out of the tank. I'm not getting rid of the boat, though. I'm just gonna buy an 18' open bow "beater" with a V-6. I had one in a Sea-Ray and we could tube for a weekend with that thing.

Very true on this part and I would highly suggest paying cash and saving if you can. For me its like the smaller boat first is a stepping stone. Bought that one cash, now I'll save up 15k or so and then sell the old boat and have 35-40k to get the next step up and in the mean time enjoy what I have. No payments makes a big difference, just pay for fuel and maint and your not making payments while she sits in the winter. Instead you can think about upgrades!

Baja is an excellent boat! I have had two of them. One thing you need to remember however, Baja is now out of business and some of the parts are getting really hard to find and they are getting really expensive because there are not a lot of parts around---unless XT has them. I also would vote for the twins--We liked the 30OL a lot better than our 275 although as others have said, the maintance is twice as much on twins.
Jay

+1. Need to be able to pay 10% of purchase price toward repairs annually for a boat in above average condition. A bad year can be as much as 15%. If you can swing that plus have room for gas, insurance, and storage I say go for the twin engine boat.

Single engine is great too, really depends on your boating conditions. I see the poster is in Chicago so I'd go with a bigger twin engine boat if you can afford it. You'll get more use out of it because it will handle rough water better.

Is this your first boat overall? Do you have boating experience?

If the answer is no to both of those questions get something smaller and resellable that you can learn with. Even if it is a one season deal you will get over the hump quickly with something like an 18 Donzi or 23 Baja outlaw (if you like Baja).

I have been boating my whole life and there is a LOT to learn if you haven't been there, done that yet.

From trailers (maintenance, trailering tactics, tow vehicle) to drive maintenance, engine maintenance, taking care of everything, storage, etc. there is just a lot to think about.

+1, A first time buyer will keep their boat for 2 years on average before realizing what they really want. Good to buy something you can sell and don't need to pour a lot of money into.

I'll play devil's advocate here. Not knowing much about your boating experience and the boats in question....here goes:

1) You will be able to maintain the single much easier than the twin. On your budget, you have twice as much $/engine that you will want to sink into the engine/drive every year.

2) Working on twin BBC's can be a real pain in the a**.....well, it is a pain in the a**. You can't walk around the engines and you wind up laying on top of them to get to the transom. Single engine in an 8' wide boat will be a LOT easier to get around. Think of it this way...on your pre-launch inspections of the boat, you should look around for leaks and swelled/damaged hoses, etc. With a single, you will actually see much more of that then with twins.

3) Learning to maneuver with twins is like learning how to play guitar on an electric. It's easier, but you will learn to handle a boat better if you can figure out how to dock/handle with a single. Then when you move up to twins, you'll have one more "tool" to use at the dock. If you learn on twins, then get stuck with a single one day, you won't be as nimble.

4) Sure, 4' of boat makes a difference, but practicing good boaters judgement in terms of where and when you launch and in what kind of conditions makes a bigger difference. Loks of people out safely plying the lakes and bays and sounds in 16, 18', 20', etc boats, knowledge is better than 4'.

5) The 2007 is 6 years newer, more than 50% newer. Every little hose, fitting, electrical crimp, etc, is 6 years newer than the 2001. Both boats having similar maintenance, you should see less failures in the newer boat. Resale will be better too.

Randy

i have a 27' baja right now and i REALLY want to go to a bigger boat, mainly for cabin space. a few things keep playing a huge part in me stepping up, gas usage goes up, maintenance double, upgrading perforamce parts double, how often the extra length will actually benifit me both space and handleing wise, bigger boat means bigger truck, higher insurance, more storage space, may limit you to where you can actually go... last 2 years the river has been flooded and we got stuck on local lakes that are not very big, my 27 was big on that lake but not too big. it was either that or stare at the boat in the drive way lol

I was in a hurry to run out the door to work this morning when I posted, here is a bit more on my situation:

-This will be the first boat that I have owned myself. I spent most of my summers growing up on a 23' bowrider and drove it for roughly 5 years until my family got rid of it, but have been on and around boats quite often since then as well. Im not 100% green though not experienced with anything that has twins or over 27'
-I own an F250 SuperDuty with the V10 for towing.The boat will be kept in the water all year except for winter storage, maintenance and when it's broken and needs to be pulled.
-Im a bit of gear head and more than know my way around a motor, have the capability and equipment to do anything short of machine work.
-Access to free indoor storage for the boat and trailer all year

Really what id like is a formula 28-33 Sun sport, i have yet to see one that i thought was a decent deal though.

What is the budget? And what body of water will it be used on? If I was to do it again I would buy the biggest nicest boat I wanted from the get go. Once you go twins it's hard going back to a single.

I'd probably rather have twins if I was going to pay someone to do all the maintenance. I really wouldn't want to be in my bilge w/ twins haha.

However, I'd never want something longer than my 28 w/ a single, docking gets very tricky especially w/ wind. Both boats have plus's and minus's, most important is what you want and that you survey it.

$45k is my budget, using it in lake michigan primarily. I may pull it out and bring it to some smaller lakes or the IL river once or twice a year.

Sometimes when you are looking at more than one boat, the survey will make up your mind for you----
Jay

I've owned both of those boats. I bought a brand new 25 Outlaw in 2005, 496HO, Bravo X drive. It was great and brand new!

But I sold it and bought a low hours 1998 29 Outlaw with 7.4 MPI motors. I had that boat for five years and never had any problems with it. It handled the Pacific with ease and kept up with the fast guys (when they were cruising) and sometimes would pass them as their high power boats would break.

There would be no question for me which boat to get as I would make the same choice again.

The maintenance on the 29 was not much more than the 25. If you had blue motors in a bigger boat the maintenance cost would be more. But the package in my 29 was bullet proof and super reliable with reasonable operating costs.

the factory didn't seal the raw edges with resin to seal or paint it. a few other boat companys didn't do this also. you would be surprised .as in hatch cut outs bulkheads under the floors, railings so on. go for the 29.

AIR TIME, you made some good points in this post! Didn't want to scare the OP with deeper details about Bajas, but a proper [ not by someone the seller knows! ] survey is a must .