new member and new to boats all together

[senile32nd]

I am in oahu well I will be redeploying in two weeks from iraq yay. anyway me and the lady want a boat. something to spend the weekend on at the sand bar maybe wake boarding or tubing in the ocean etc... would like to fish as well. found alot of early 90's - 2003 bayliners for sale with either 3.0 merc I/O and a couple wake boats on craigslist, but a buddy said bayliners are crap, other say that inboard for ocean are bigger head ache then theyre worth. one guy said wake boats are fun but motors in salt wont last long.

I am very mechanicaly inclined as i have built motors when i was younger but i never worked or even driven a boat before. I need some insight on what i want or think i want. i am thinking 12k is my limit. what are your opinions?

 

[Sinbad's Mom]

Welcome aboard and glad your safe and sound. I'm sure you'll get lots of opinions from the experts.

 

[Chris]

Welcome to the forums - thanks for joining up.

Also, thanks for keeping us all safe.

Once you start running in salt water, there are some extra considerations, as you have already figured out.

The main issue is that the salt is hard on a boat. So one consideration is that your boat will depreciate a lot faster, value wise if you run it in salt water.

Some of the outboard manufacturers make ocean models, intended for salt water use. And those models use some different components intended to hold up better in salt water.

With I/O's, there are also some similar options, one of the key differences being that most if not all use a closed cooling system, versus a lake or sea water cooling system.

-Chris

 

[senile32nd]

All i am finding is inboards direct and I/O so i guess that is the route i am gonna go. Found two wake boarding boats and a couple bay liner types. i guess i am just gonna have to wait till i get home and check out the boats and figure out what is gonna be best for me. can a bayliner type do much more than a wake boarding type boat as far as random recreational type stuff?

 

[Chris]

All i am finding is inboards direct and I/O so i guess that is the route i am gonna go. Found two wake boarding boats and a couple bay liner types. i guess i am just gonna have to wait till i get home and check out the boats and figure out what is gonna be best for me. can a bayliner type do much more than a wake boarding type boat as far as random recreational type stuff?

Well, if you can find one, try to find a boat with a closed cooling system if you want to run in salt-water.

As far as wakeboarding goes, you can wakeboard behind almost anything. But if you're a serious type, then what you get in a wakeboard boat is things like ballast tanks, a true inboard drive system and a .wakeboard tower.

If you just want to have some fun, you can really use any boat that makes decent enough power and throws a bit of wake.

What you'll most likely want to do though, is add a wakeboard tower to whatever you buy, that is assuming it doesn't already have one.

-Chris