I want to by a bowrider for my wife and 16 yr old
son,we need something for water skiing & putting
around on. Any suggetions ? Cant spend a ton of
money. Cobalts are out of the question. I saw a
new 210 Four Winns that looked nice,tons of features.
I know the are built by Genmar. What do you think ?
Decent or are they junk. I know Genmers stuff used to be crap.

I know I'll probably get shot for saying this, but I would seriously look at Bayliners. And Four Winns and anything Genmar for that matter. You seem to be looking for a no-frills, decent and sound product which will be reliable and above all excellent value for money. And economic theory says that if that's the case, you're looking for a mass-produced item. And a prime example of a mass boat producer is Genmar. Whenever my family needed a no BS product for water skiing and just hanging out, it was a Bayliner. I can't tell you it filled me with pride at any given point but we did waterski a lot and it never let me down either... which is what you're looking for.

Four Winns is a good boat in their market. BUT, they don't use merc drive packages. Volvo Penta on the newer ones ... the older ones have *gasp* OMC drive packages. They are build in Michigan by the way, Cadilac to be exact. Been by the plant many times, never been inside.

Yes,the one I was looking at has a Volvo,305 Chev
package,but you can get them with mercs. Whats
your take on the Volvo ? I have to admit, I had a
1985 bayliner with A 305 Volvo. Although the boat
fell apart, the power package was excellent.

No problem with Volvos. Service coverage not as good as Merc which is why people are reluctant but otherwise, the product is just as good...

... or bad, depending on how you look at it

I must say,it has been a long time since I've had
anything to do with one of these style boats. Boy,
they have come along way, really nice features,walk
thru to the swim platform,u-seating,little flip ups
on the front seats so you can see over the windshield
tons of stowage, rear seats fold out to swim deck,
folding ladder out of the anchor locker on the bow,
am-fm cd,satilitte radio,pop out cleats. I was really
impressed. They also said 4-winns uses plates behind
all the bolt ins,no screws rammed thru glass. ( I dont
know how true that is). I was going to go used,but
there is nothing but old junk on the market, and they
all want 15-20k for them anyway.

I'm not saying anything bad about Volvo. Good drives. Not sure why they don't publish their prop specs though.... they just give them designations.

I have never heard anything bad about fourwinns. From all the magazines they seem to be the perfect family boat I do see alot of them out on the water..

If I was in the market for a bowrider it would be a Regal. They are very well made and they go really well too. A buddy of mine is a dealer and I had the chance to play with a new one last summer, I was very impressed.

Kurt.

The Regal's have steps though, right?? There is one in this months Boating magazine.... 20 footer.... full step boat. Fast for it's hp rating. BUT, do you want your 16 year old son running a stepped boat?? The article even mentions that you must not trim down when turning. Just thinking out loud here.