bruce, we are heading out of croyden also on sunday in the morning at some point. will give you a call on the water.. mark

gonna leave around noon or so.

Where was everybody yesterday. Went to the Octo bar for lunch and rode around after and didn't see anybody......

hello there, just taking the time to introduce my self.
I live in downtown Philly and looking to get a nice, fast boat for this summer, could use some advice from some more experienced local folk.

Looking to spend +/- 50k, mid-nineties +, +/- 30ft, sleeps 2-3, 65mph +. Fountain or Baja style boat. I'm sticking to that since I don't like to finance toys and that's what I'm comfortable with the first time around.

I'm a car guy without a lot of boating experience so I don't want to go too big or very high maintenance at first until I get my feet wet the first year or two. Unlike my two favorite toys, my BMW 850 and the ACURA NSX which take enough of my time due to being rare, I'd like to get a boat that preferably uses somewhat easier to get parts and a local mechanic can maintain without much complication.

Any suggestions? Wheres good place to check out some boats in action?

Thanks
-Patricio

jdub whats the octo bar and where's it at, didn't make it out today, made it to the ramp paid my 10 bucks and ended up leaving because of a bad starter. gotta go get one tomorrow. coudn't find one today.

Hey, great day up in the Tully cove. Thanks to Mooky for letting me and the bride ride with him and his. Day got better as it went along. Demag, we looked for you, didn't have your number with us. Sorry to hear about the starter. At least an easy fix. Planning a trip down to the bay for the 10th. Have to work the fireworks on the 3rd. Hope to be testing props end of next week on mine. FINGERS CROSSED. Way behind on the schedule. This was not the plan.

Welcome Tiggs, tons of boats out there for that kind of loot. Do your homework, know what your looking for and pay the bucks and have a survey done once you have narrowed it down to your 2 best choices. Cash is king but shop around. The boats that have been taken care of will stand out above the rest. Something about 30' is a great size IMO. BBC engines are the most common. Not too sure your gonna find a low maintenence boat? Don't think there is such an animal. The better care that is taken the less chance of breakdowns. Try to find a fresh water boat. I wouldn't buy a Florida boat on a bet, IMO. Lower the hours the better, single engine saves on costs but 28' would be pushing it to keep speed up unless it's modified for HP. I think also that stock engines would take less working on but since I never had a stock engine I wouldn't know. This is a great place for info, opinions and help. Do you have a tow vehicle? So a trailer might be needed, truck etc. This would also limit your purchase. Can't buy it if you can't move it. I wouldn't keep mine in a slip personally. Just my 2cts worth.

i will catch up next time, im guessing things happened for a reason, i wasn't feeling that great, guess that was my key to stay home. gonna keep the trip to the chesapeake in mind, i usually have to work one day on the weekend but i'll see what happens. mook i have your number will give you a call for next weekend. probably gonna take out my family and my buddies family for the day and fireworks. how long of a tow is it to where you guys put in at on the chesapeake.

For me in NE Philly the tow is about an hour and 15 minutes tops to Northest MD Holiday Inn. 5 minutes from the Goose and the ramp. Fireworks the 26th where great and the 3rd should be better yet. Lots of boats anchored up off of the battleship and just north of the Ben Franklin Bridge. Come up early, the Coasties shut down the river at around 8pm maybe even a little earlier on the third. For the forth they can be seen from the Skuylkil River up near the Art Museum but I wouldn't take my boat up there with all the idiots at night. We usually only go down for one night. Leave here early, go boating and check in after we're back in. Out to dinner or whatever, sleep and maybe out the next day and back home when finished.

Thanks for the advice fireboat, my current DD which I would prefer to be my tow vehicle would be a 4runner with an off road suspension that moved less than 2 inches when I had to put a 1000lbs 36" excavator bucket in the trunk, so I'm not sure what the capacity is on that, should tow 4K maybe 5K lbs. I could go buy a f350 or something if needed, but I do have a 2000 Freightliner tri-axle 73,000 gvw dump truck if I want to get nuts and tow the whole dock....

As far as maintenance goes I'm looking for relative low maintenance, as much reliability as I can find, I think a stock engine would be enough for me for now, and eliminate most of my concerns.

Since I may want to take my time looking for the right boat, if anyone comes across a nice +/- 20ft boat 2000 or newer for under 10k I can jump into real quick, like next weekend quick... let me know... Jet, cuddy, sundeck, I'm open minded.

Another option to keep in mind I may be willing to maybe share someone's running expenses until I find my own? That would also get me more in tune with the common issues.

Regards
-Patricio