A budy of mine is looking at a 95 38 Scarab with blown 502 merc about 600hp. How well are these boats built back then? The owner claims he can do 90. What would be a fair price for this boat without a trailer. Also how well do these boats handle the rough?

Boat was still built tough!! I think around 60 to 75 for a price. You can buy a 96 for around 75 to 85. I'm not sure about the 90's for speed. Its a heavy boat. I would say some where around 78 to 86 for speed. I may be quoting just a tad low on the speed. I would minus about 7 to 10 grand without trailer.

I'm sure you'll get some more input on this one!!

Thanks 29 Scarab. Anyone else with info????????/

Great rough water boats!
And if they were built like they were in the 80's you shouldn't have any problems with build quality!
90 seems a little fast for that power. I have an almost bare cabin 500's and it's right at 70.

Good luck they ARE quality boats.

I've got a 31.......great rough water boats.

There is a 38 around here that does gos in the 80's all day, and goes 90 when you crank up the boost. It has 540's with blowers, and the are most likely making 800 plus HP. So I think the speed is a bit high, but take a look at it.

Great boat, but not for going 90 with bravo's....it eats drives.

I OWEN A 89/2000 38' SCARAB. WENE WE DID THE RE-RIG WE SET THE BOAT UP TO RUN IN THE ROUGH, IT DOES VERY WELL. 800HP S/C, IMCO EXTREM'S WITH 2'' SHORTER LOWERS, ON STELLINGS BOXES,(1" OF RAISE IN THE BOX) 380S K-PLANES. WE JUST GOT DONE SORTING IT OUT AT THE END OF THE SEASON SO I AM NOT SURE OF A TOP SPEED BUT I EXPECT TO BE KNOCKING ON 90 ON THE GPS WITH A SET OF LABBED BLADES. IF YOU WANT ANY OF THE DETAILS E-MAIL ME YOUR PHONE #.

NO way that boat is going 90. I am knocking on 80 with my 34 and I am running 600HP 502's.

Tink- What are you running for drives? Is your x dimension stock?

I am running stock Bravo drives with IMCO 2" shorties. I am spinning labbed 26 Bravo 4 blades at 5600 rpm or 28 unlabbed Bravo 4 blades at 5150. Both props got me a top speed of 77 gps last spring. I planned on labbing the 28's. That should have gotten me very close to 80 gps if not exceed it. I was planning on doing more work to the engines this winter but decided I needed to save the money to live on while I was building up my customer base for my new company.