Hello. My name is Forrest, and I live in Kennesaw, GA. I have been around boats my whole life, and I am finally ready to buy a boat of my own. I have found what appears to be a nice 1984 Scarab 21 for sale near me. The boat has a clean hull and gel coat, excellent interior, and a 350 with thru hull exhaust.

I am going to look at this boat Friday. It is a one owner boat and seems to have been well kept. What particular areas should I pay special attention to? Any problem areas this boat is known for?

Also, what speed should this boat run top end if it is in good running order. I will be able to do a lake test on the boat.

If I decide to buy it, what kind of performance potential does this boat have?

Sorry for such a long first post.

Thanks for the help.

Congrats on your interest in owning a floating money-pit!!! Just Kidding. My Buddy has an 86' 21 Scarab with a 260 and 3" Thru hull. Bone stock he runs mid 50's with a 20 pitch prop. Fun little boat, great for skiing and tubing. This weekend he offered to trade me strait-up, but my little 185 PowerPlay is going nowhere! Hopefully some of the Scarab guys will chime in on the performance aspect. There's some "healthy" ones out there. Nick

welcome to the club dude, i would agree mid to upper 50's performance-wise. i would just check the normal stuff, how many hours on motor, outdrive etc.... anyway good luck

Great Boats, Check the transom for rot, if you can get the tips off. I have a 86 with 540 hp small block that goes 84 and is pretty stable at that speed. Good luck.

That is good to hear. I am going to check it out Friday and I will post up what I find out when I get back from the lake.

That is one thing I was curious about was the performance potential of the boat. I know that 350's are fairly easy to make more power with.

If the boat runs mid 50's factory, how much more power am I looking at to hit high 60's?

about 350-400hp I would think. go easy on the alfa though, I upgraded to a Bravo One and External steering, much more safe. I went through two alfas before the upgrade.