Pros/Cons of these Two Boats?

[Kevin22]

19 minutes ago, Kevin22 said:

No, the small lakes are the ones around here, 10-15 acres. Lake size doesn't have anything to do with safety though. A boat full of ribs and benches is not something I would want a youngster crawling around on. I've been in plenty of these SEMI-V and jons being suggested here, if you fart they rock side to side. 

 

 

I would like to clarify one point I tried to make here. I said "lake size doesn't have anything to do with safety"... Well obviously it does when you think big water means bigger waves. I meant it in terms of moving around inside the boat, and obstacles within that could be a tripping hazard. 

Just wanted to clarify that!

[thomas15]

1 hour ago, Kevin22 said:

 

I would like to clarify one point I tried to make here. I said "lake size doesn't have anything to do with safety"... Well obviously it does when you think big water means bigger waves. I meant it in terms of moving around inside the boat, and obstacles within that could be a tripping hazard. 

Just wanted to clarify that!

Kevin at first I didn't agree with you but on second thought I think your post has considerable merit. I come to this discussion as an individual who was the son of a commercial fisherman. I knew from a very young age how to operate a small pleasure boat. Since this is not the case with the OP perhaps a larger boat is a better choice. I had my BIL out for an afternoon in the SS Minnow and he not being an outdoors type had no real feel for being in a small boat. This is just something I have always taken for granted.

[Brett's_daddy]

The boat sold...just before we got there. yup, you heard right, just before we got there after a 2hr 45 minute drive. We contacted the seller just before we left as we knew he had another person supposedly coming to look at the boat and said look, according to our GPS we'll be down there just about the time of the other guy...we don't want an awkward situation, are you sure we should still come or should we wait until the next day. The seller told us to come. So the whole family continued on the road trip. My son had an upset tummy half way down so we had to stop so he could go to the bathroom but we finally make it down and when we pull in the yard there's another truck there with a couple of guys in it. We meet the seller and he shows us the boat anyway which we thought was kind of weird with the other guys right there but he went all through testing out the boat and showing us the features etc. and then he speaks with the other guys and gets a piece of paper and writes out a bill of sale. He then comes over to us and says well, these other guys came just before you did and they're buying the boat but I thank you for coming down...and this guy knew how far it was for us and we even asked if we should still come down noting we'd be there about the same time as the other perspective buyer and he told us to come anyway. Regardless, once seeing the boat in person I wasn't going to pay what he wanted. The seats were filthy (cosmetic which could be cleaned) and needed re-stapled, the trolling motor had the paint chipped completely off the bottom around the dome by the propeller, carpet was filthy (again, cosmetic so not that big of a deal) and when he ran the engine it didn't "pee" well, at idle there was no water coming out even though the hose was to it and he had to throttle up to get the water stream to go but the engine sounded like there was a skip. A blessing in disguise that we weren't the ones that bought it but a complete waste of an almost 3 hour drive down and back. Oh well, the search continues!!!

[thomas15]

37 minutes ago, Brett's_daddy said:

.... A blessing in disguise that we weren't the ones that bought it but a complete waste of an almost 3 hour drive down and back. Oh well, the search continues!!!

Amen Brother, well said.

ON EDIT:

Your story reminded me of when I was looking for my boat. We took a trip to look at one about 2 hours away at a dealer. He had several in my price range but all of them were in disrepair and most had been moored with all the water stains, etc. BTW, it's not that easy to clean those stains. I took a pass on all of them and on the way home I hit a piece of sheet metal on the interstate and ended up doing almost $1000.00 worth of damage to my car.

In the end I purchased my boat locally after many months of searching. Boats are a luxury item, always keep this in mind.

[gulfcaptain]

Odds are the seller wanted both of you there as so it looked like it was in high demand.  The other guy probably jumped to get it and since you took everyone's advice you saw things that caught your eye and were red flags.  The water issue would have been a HUGE red flag.  And I bet if you asked him to go take it for a test run he would have come up with an excuse why he couldn't.  Take that trip as a learning experience and apply it to your "quest" to find the boat you're wanting.