Hello, i recently join this forum to possible find alittle advice. I am currently looking to purchase a Boat for Family recreation, but noone i know has much experience with such, I am looking for a craft the will seat about 7 -10 people that can with enough space to comfortable releax without everyone being on top of each other, but still have the power to ski , tubing Etc, my price Range is about 12k-20k and wanted to get opinions on what i should look for

a deck boat

Sea ray 240 sundeck with bravo 3 duo prop.

You should be looking at a used one about 2-3 years old. Fuel injected v8, have it inspected by a certified surveyor.

Wannabe

7 - 10 people on a boat is quite a passenger load. In a runabout, you are going to need an open bow and it will have to be a fairly big boat to seat that many people comfortably and safely. I have a 26' bow rider and I am comfortable with 6 people max. Any more than that is just too crowded. If I was to carry that many passengers all the time I would want a pontoon boat.

Out neighbor (retired) at LOTO had a '99 open bow Rinker 272 and would regularly put that many people on it and use it for everything. I believe it had a 350 with a duo-prop drive. He takes it down the channel on every weekend of the year.

He moved up to a Rinker 296 open bow and enjoys it as well.

An older 272 Rinker OB would not be a bad choice. These boats are abundant and fairly inexpensive. Most had a single 7.4 MPI/Bravo III. They have lounge seating in the cockpit and are a 9' or 9' 2" beam.

For the price you are talking about I would consider looking at 22 Nordic Sprints..

The older ones are wood construction and damn near nothing is through bolted, but having owned one, it's a Deep Vee boat that will run smooth through just about anything at 35 mph, with a top speed of around 68 mph.. (454 Mag / 385HP)

You can put 10 people in them easily, and it's a walk through open bow. Not sure if you're a partier or not, but my old boat had one of the loudest stereos on the strip when I owned it and we had many good times in it before I sold it.

http://www.boattrader.com/search-res...rt-Length:DESC

You will see them 1998 - 2003 all the time for 15 - 20K.

RD

We regularly have 8 people on our Celebrity 24 foot open bow and it's not too crowded, we ski, tube, wakeboard all the time with that many people. It has a 454 and Bravo 3

I put 10 in my little 232 Cobalt and it's not too bad... With the 7.4 Volvo it always gets up and has no problem with skis and wakeboards. Bowrider or deck boat is going to be your best bet, however a Deck Boat to me is like a mini van, you can make the inside as nice and comfortable as you want but you still showed up in a minivan...