According to my brother who owned a boat for a few years...

The two happiest days of his life were the day he got the boat and the day he got rid of it.

All the in between was a combination of happy and misery.

YMMV

Another vote here to avoid Bayliner. Even on our lake here, that is usually the advice. They just do not hold up even in our mild conditions...would be very questionable in the environment you will be operating in.
I agree with the suggestion of finding diesel or one with two or three outboards.

I have about 40 years experience pleasure boating in saltwater. My take on Bayliner is that they're not a great open water boat. Like others have said, there are better choices.

I had 2000 hrs on my 1987 Aquasport with gas engines. Good maintenance and running the boat contributed to longevity. I learned that disuse contributes to failures, you gotta run those engines.

2 rules of buying a boat:

1- Don't buy the first boat you see

2- Never buy a Bayliner!

Only way I'd own a bayliner is if it was given to me and I had plans to strip the deck and turn the hull into a yard pond liner

Thank you all.

I knew that I should know better, bayliner boats really don't do well outside of lakes.

As for the "jobs", we really are able to pick our days for those. So seeing rough seas for a job is not likely. 1-2 week long hunts in the fall, the other primary purpose of the boat, is where potential rough seas come in. With that said, I do pretty regularly plan on being 100 miles from the boat ramp. Not from protected waters, there's very little need to be far from land for fishing in Alaska. Most of the best halibut and salmon holes are within 1/2 mile from a shoreline.

I'd really prefer an aluminum boat with a twin outboard setup. It's hard for us to reach that price point right now.

Orcas, seasports, ospreys....those are recognized and regular boats up here. Priced accordingly. Searunners, though I've not been impressed with them, I think they're pretty good in the 26-27' size range with an off-shore engine platform.

Perhaps I need to expand my search to the Seattle area, as suggested. The Orca posted on page one would be quite perfect. A 3K mile trip up the alcan with it, doesn't sound like a good time... Also, the price point is about double what I can do without financing through a bank. I'm not sure that's an option at all with our economy and business numbers. For the money spent/invested, I could make more money with a $55K airplane. In fact, at the $50k price point some 2-place floatplanes start to enter the market, which would work for this job.

I think I'll retract my interest in the boat, so they aren't counting on me. I haven't made any offers, only talked about allowing a surveyor to do an inspection. I may as well save my money.

Thanks guys. The input I was getting from friends and family wasn't very well educated (boat wise), and wasn't pointing out the practical like I needed. They all want us to have an ocean boat again, they miss the halibut and shrimp.

Hopefully some more boats will hit the local market. I could see a 20' klamath center console working for this job package. I'd have little use for the boat after that, I hate running rivers.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:

quote:

Diesel inboard would be the way to go, outboards would be my second choice....

I guess I don't follow your logic in this case. I've run a series of boats of ever kind of power for 50 years. I live and work in a fishing community where everyone (mostly) needs a boat to make a living and everyone discusses costs of operation. I fully agree the optimum choice for almost any purpose is a diesel inboard. But that's also the totally max initial cost. Here we are talking about buying a low cost boat for a project. I've seen no evidence that new gas I/O's have anything like the kind of reliability problems you mention. Modern ones simply don't have any issues that are material to your list when maintained properly. Diesels have bad fuel, bad fuel filters, raw water pumps, impellers that suck junk, manifolds etc. And newer ones have all kinds of electronic issues. Everyone I know who runs a gas I/O for a serious money making purpose pulls the whole thing out every 5-7 years and replaces it. And what I said is completely true, you can do that for the least capital cost. For sure you ultimately lose the savings in fuel cost and life cycle costs, but this is a short term project. If you buy a boat with a pair of outboards, or a decent 300hp diesel and have issues it will cost you at least 2-10 times the cost of just installing a new Mercruiser which will work fine.

Inboard gas engines lifespan average is 1200 hours. It's a lot of labor hours to change one out at $90hr. But there are a lot of components on them to go wrong. Raw water pumps (just like diesel), 2 fuel pumps, spark plug wires, coil, distributor, exhaust manifolds and risers every 5-7 years, cooling system (heat exchanger, oil cooler, fuel cooler). They were never designed to push a heavy boat at 3500 rpms all day long. Their cooling systems are marginal. All of the accessories were never designed for the marine environment, they are all converted steel car parts that turn into rust in 5-7 years in a saltwater environment. Not to mention they're almost always crammed into a tight engine room and a bear to work on. Every single gas inboard boat I have ever managed it seemed like there was always something wrong with one of the 2 motors. NOW, in freshwater with a limited season (up North) they do ok and that is where I'm guessing you location is. Yeah it's $10k for a new motor, but a ton of hours at $75-115 an hour to pay someone to change one. PLUS the safety issue of an explosion from having a gas inboard, outboards at least not an issue nearly as much.

Stern Drives- They're aluminum and in saltwater where the OP is they don't last. The saltwater eats them alive and in a few short years you're replacing the entire drive. Not to mention you have to haul the boat out of the water to change the gear lube (every 100 hours) and impellor if it goes bad or every 200 hours. Most all new boats are now being built with outboards instead of stern drives.

4 stroke outboards have come a VERY long way. They're quiet, fuel efficient, and reliable. Average lifespan is 2000 hours in saltwater, but commercial guys here (seatow, towboat US, dive boats) are seeing 5,000 hours out of them. They're very easy to swap out, easy to work on as they're outside of the boat. A buddy of mine can do a full service on a pair of 300hp yamaha's, including dropping the gear cases and changing impellors, gear lube, oil/filter, fuel filters, zincs, etc. in 6 hours total or less. Plus they're quiet, fuel efficient and easy.

Diesels- on a high performance marine diesel, they'll go a minimum of 5,000 hours most are rated at 10,000 hours. Rarely is there ever an issue with electronics on them. Fuel filters are cheap and very easy to change and biggest issue. All of the components are heavy duty and designed for rough service, maintenance is pretty easy on them, they're fuel efficient, very reliable, rugged and just last.....plus diesel fuel is a lot cheaper on the water than gasoline. I'm getting it for less than $2 a gallon right now, I think $1.76 is what I paid a gallon last time I ordered it, meanwhile gas on the water is $3.56 a gallon right now.

Some more boats are hitting the market today.

I am a mechanic, but I'm not looking for a mechanic special. Diesel is definitely preferred for an inboard. Modern 4 stroke outboards are preferred over that. Being able to trailer it is definitely an advantage. Having a closed coolant system is preferred as you can tie a heating system into it, and keep saltwater out of the loop. It's going to spend a lot of time, nearly all of its time in saltwater.
Going to keep looking....

Friends don't let friends buy Bayliners, much like Taurus.

Not to pile on, but $22,000 for a close to 30 year old boat seems pretty high to me.

quote:

Originally posted by jayhalsey:
Not to pile on, but $22,000 for a close to 30 year old boat seems pretty high to me.

We planned to offer appraised value. I've since found a better equipped bayliner, same model, less hours, and local...for the same price. But it's still a bayliner.

https://anchorage.craigslist.org/boa/6051548225.html
Here's another bayliner. Not ideal, but the trophy boats are popular here.

https://anchorage.craigslist.org/boa/6050963673.html

And another bayliner...
https://anchorage.craigslist.org/boa/6064642997.html

For non-bayliners....just as cheap, and perhaps worse....a Renken...

https://kenai.craigslist.org/boa/5984226133.html

This is a bit on the small side, and a bit over our current budget...and doesn't quite check the boxes it needs to for family weekend trips.

https://anchorage.craigslist.org/boa/6038378634.html

This one may be worth checking into. There isn't much information on the boat, but it's close. I've heard really good things about tollycraft. The size is good, a bit on the large side for towing across the state, but we'd really just go between kenai (home), homer, seward, & whittier. a 10' beam going through the whittier tunnel is expensive ($120 every time). I certainly could keep it on the trailer in whittier for the season and just drive there.

https://anchorage.craigslist.org/boa/6062228050.html

Too bad this engine is so high timed, I could see converting this to our use. Also the trip from Kodiak to Homer is a serious off-shore trip for a boat of this size, but it looks up to it. Trailering is probably out of the question.

https://anchorage.craigslist.org/boa/6061257243.html

I wouldn't touch a renkin, tollycraft, or bayliner.

That bristol bay looks like a good candidate, the good thing about cummins is you can buy a remanufactured 6 BTA from Cummins for like $12k and it's a direct swap with a warranty.

I also wouldn't worry about buying a trailerable boat outside of your area, shipping is not as bad as you think. One boat I'd heavily consider would be a Parker 25' pilothouse with a single 4 stroke.....(or twins). Something along the lines of these
http://www.boattrader.com/list...ort-cabin-102876378/

http://www.boattrader.com/list...ilothouse-102958709/

Here's one with a diesel stern drive (read my previous comments on stern drives)
http://www.boattrader.com/list...ort-cabin-102995561/

They make bigger ones, smaller ones. I would tend to look at what the commercial fishing and other guys are using in your area and what's working for them......You want more of a commercial boat.....not a recreational brand......

quote:

shipping is not as bad as you think.

?!?!?

The going rate to have my 28' sailboat trucked from Chicago to Florida in 2000 was $3,000. I shudder to think what it would cost to truck a boat from New Jersey to Alaska today.

The comments and advice on this prove once again that this forum is the place to be and we are lucky to be part of it!

quote:

Originally posted by mikeyspizza:
The comments and advice on this prove once again that this forum is the place to be and we are lucky to be part of it!

indeed.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

shipping is not as bad as you think.

?!?!?

The going rate to have my 28' sailboat trucked from Chicago to Florida in 2000 was $3,000. I shudder to think what it would cost to truck a boat from New Jersey to Alaska today.

They can be put on the railroad and picked up in Anchorage. Also a barge, to whittier, Homer, or Anchorage.

A friend bought a new trophy about 10 years ago in Washington, and had it barged to anchorage, on the trailer. It was about $2500 then. That's cheaper than fuel and expenses to drive the Alcan.

For the currently bid job, I have to have a boat in the water and seaworthy by 1 June.

Those parkers look well designed.

They don't check all the boxes we're looking for, but they check a lot.

I like lenco electric trim tabs. I had those on my last boat (installed them myself). Superior to hydraulic. I looked for boats for sale within 500 miles on that site, only 2...nothing to mention here. Perhaps I'll expand to seattle now in the search. It'd have to be the right deal on the right boat though... I really hate canada.

Lenco trim tabs work great in operation, fast to respond and very predictable to where they end up. However, they don't fare as well in a boat that sits in saltwater and get eaten up fairly quick from what I've seen. The 3 center consoles I manage with them sit out of the water either on a lift or high and dry. One went almost 10 years before having to replace any parts on it....first the push button pad, then one actuator just now at 11 years. That being said, Lenco is excellent on warranty and even well after the warranty expires if you call them. My biggest gripe is the dash mounted push button display has been changed to a new style that is like 12" deep and won't fit on many center consoles where the old one was due to depth.

I would write down what's important to you on a list in order of importance (seakeeping, speed, cabin, etc.) and then see what the locals use that would work. Never been to Alaska, but have seen those locals love to use local built Aluminum boats for various commercial purposes in the area you're in. Also another thing to do, might be to buy a good hull/boat that is solid and drop a brand new 4 stroke on the transom with a warranty after you buy it.

Never buy a boat unless you intend to live on it. You're MUCH better off renting one when you need it.

I was in the CG, my career started out at a lifesaving station....

You could not give me a bayliner.

We called them bottomliners....They are entry level boats only because they don't make viking longboats anymore...

If what you are looking for is a work boat...look at what the oil rig guys uses to haul stuff back and forth.

Aluminum, well built, two OB motors (if one breaks down another can get you home)