If you want single I would definatly consider the superboats. They are very narrow but man do they handle the rough stuff well.

Jon

Apache
Nuff said

Thanks for the replys and the votes.

Candyman35 is that a 28' Cigarette, those HP-500's look like they have ProChargers on them. Looks like a nice ride.

BuzzinBye thats a beautiful Saber, I've checked it out in the classifieds. I look at Sabers to, great boats, just forgot to put it on the poll. I'd love to take your boat off your hands. Send me a PM on what your bottom line on your boat is.

Kirk

Regarding project boats:
One that's listed in your banks blue book or Buc book, so you can easily sell it and insure it.
One that's not painted, it will blister and paint can be used to hide repairs.
One that has good stringers/transom and a non cored hull. These repairs will wear you out quickly.
One with no gelcoat cracks. They almost always point to structural defects.
One with good access to under deck space and the engine compartment. Makes rerigging of electrical/hydraulics easier. Full inner liners suck.
One that has not seen salt water. Just try to rebuild a saltwater gimbal and you'll know what I'm talking about.
One with bravos. I know the uppers are weak and the gimbal rings wear out. But a rebuilt TRS will cost about $4K, a new bravo is around $3500, and merc has doubled the prices on TRS stuff.
If you get frustrated during the project, dont burn it, sink it. The penalties for arson are much greater than for simple insurance fraud.
Gary

and I repeat
APACHE
NUFF SAID
Jason

I made my choice as follows. I think you should get the biggest one you can afford... you'll use it longer before feeling the need to upgrade. The ride between 24 & 28 feet is noticibly different. And it doesn't cost all that much more to fix up a larger single than it does a smaller single.

I voted for the 28' pantera. My other choice was the 28 cig. I know people with both (and somebody that's thinkin about selling their 28' cig) The pantera seems to have more cockpit space and more freeboard. The 28' cig back ends sit real low in the water. They're very heavy. But resale wise, you'd probably get more of your money back out of the cig.

Good luck, have fun.

Thanks for the advise Gary, I would prefer to find a boat without power and drive. Most of the boats I've looked at are early 70's through mid to late 80's. I know what your saying about cored hulls. So let me ask you guys this, what boats in my list have cored hulls in the years I mentioned.

Thanks, Kirk

A boatin buddy of mine has a 1973 27 magnum, mint as the day it was born. This boat is a real clasic, awsome lines great ride, what a killer looking boat.

AC is selling his 28 cig and it has twin small blocks backed with brand new not rebuilt TRS drives on them
Nice ride but still the 28 range that your looking in is a tough situation
some 28's handle and ride like a small boat and other 28's like mine handle and ride like a tank
I chose my 28 Baja for a few reasons
first it is really 30 feet with swim platform (moulded in)
it was inexpensive
It has stock twin big blocks with bravo drives
HIGH HIGH freeboard
good looking boat
perfect size to weekend on
has a huge cabin for its size
and potential was there to do just about anything I wanted to do.
Now for hull designs
apache and cig are probably the 2 best up there in my opinion.
but for that your going to pay for it too.
what is your budget?
the prices of the boats you put up are litereally all over the place
a newer solid 28 apache could run you 60 grand plus depending on what was done to it
cigs are as a guess 35 to 50 ish depending on year and power.
the rest are probably 25-45 thou ish depending on power.
I am in no way saying the other hull designs are bad or they are a poor choice by any means but 28 ft hulls are rough to make
because of the size, when you take off and before you get on plane that is about the size that for about a few seconds your not going to be able to see jack squat until you plane out.
you get into 38-40-42-45 ft boats, they dont bow rise that much due to lenth and weight up front
28 will really suprise you that all you see is the freakin MOON until you get up on plane and trim out.
28's are very deceiving in size
they look big on trailers you drop them in the water andyour like wtf is it? and then you pull up to a 24 footer and your like damn my hooptie is huge
alot of manufacturers had tough times starting out with this size boat cause of its characteristics, runs mid range like a bigger boat, but is light enough to handle mid range like a smaller one. I believe that is why Baja put alot of hook in their hull to get the 280 to calm down a bit and not chine walk, the earlier 280 sports were HORRIBLE
the ES version came out with more hook in the hull and calmed it down about 80% but with that came reduced speeds with same power.
I have seen 28 cigs and apaches run with the big boys and not shutter an inch in the presence of big monster 38 + boats but have to handle the rough stuff in a different manner than the larger brothers.
but like Mach1 Shorty said
get the biggest boat you can possibly afford so you dont have to upgrade in 6 months (has happened to a few here)
You always want something bigger until you have something in the 38 range on up
Try to get the biggest you can and it will lengthen your satisfiedness of your present ride
Good luck
Jason

They did make a 28' Cig single. A guy who worked for me had one. With a 454 it may have run mid 60's.