1979 model salt fishing boat, please advise...

[blazingReel]

Hello all, new member would like to get some opinion on purchasing older model boats.

Boat I am looking at:
Model: Mako 251 (yr. 1979)
25 feet
Johnson's two stroke twin engines.
new electrical wiring, and new batteries.
new bottom paint (not sure if that means hull damage, photo I see no issues).
Bait tank, Raytheon fish finder, Garmin GPS, deck lights, new batteries, and all coast guard approved safety gear.


Above is a brief description of the boat.

Boat photo looks good, but I can see oil from hydraulics that push the engine to the out of water position, stain's the back portion of the boat. (to me that looks like a problem). But if can be fixed cheep, I can probably look past this.

My idea by asking the "iboats" community is to pick up friendly information on this style model boat.

Is there pros and cons about older Mako model. I sure new model have much cooler features. Sadly I can not afford new boat price, and the end user selling this boat sorta feels like to good to be true.. asking price is around $8,000.00 US

I will try and post up photos of the boat.

Thank you all for any help.

 

[Don S]

Re: 1979 model salt fishing boat, please advise...

Welcome to iboats blazingReel, I deleted your other post. In the future, you can edit a mistake, just click on the

button at the bottom right of your post.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1979 model salt fishing boat, please advise...

Year and horsepower of the engines?

 

[dingbat]

Re: 1979 model salt fishing boat, please advise...

Fishing boat gets worked hard and take a lot of abuse over time. My last boat was 1/2 that age and was in great shape to the untrained eye. Once you got digging around things looked a whole lot different. Spent almost as much putting it back into ship shape as I paid for. Check out the cost of a transom rebuild one time.

Personally, I would not consider a SW fishing boat anywhere that old unless it had been completed refitted from the ground up. You also have to consider the cost of running a 25? twin outboard boat. The sucking noise from the back will be deafening. Plan on getting @ 1 miles per gallon at cruise speed.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: 1979 model salt fishing boat, please advise...

Mako's are good boats; durable and well designed. The condition of yours is driven not by age but how it was maintained.
At $8,000 you are really buying engines. I assume they are each 150+ HP. If they are also 1979's, consider them gone and budget repowering the day after you buy the boat--unless the previous owner was a mechanic and a die-hard maintenance guy.
That's a lot of boat if it's your first. Serious fishing machine. You will spend a lot of money after you buy it, just to own it and run it some. Good that you have new wiring and bottom paint--the paint job is a grand right there. But a boat of that size and age is a lot of work and down time--that's why it's only $8,000.

 

[capt sam]

Re: 1979 model salt fishing boat, please advise...

^^^^^everything he said^^^^^

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: 1979 model salt fishing boat, please advise...

Get a survey

 

[blazingReel]

Re: 1979 model salt fishing boat, please advise...

Was small delay getting pictures of the boat I am looking at. please review what you all think? for the price....

 

[DukesFin]

Re: 1979 model salt fishing boat, please advise...

Given the age of the Mako, if the pictures don't show the core samples of the transom and stringers or show soft spots in the floor, they really don't help. The first thing I'd do is make SURE all of the issues above are good (if you can't check them, hire someone that can to do it for you). It's amazing how "pretty" we can make a pile of junk look (not that old Makos with rot are junk, but you get the idea). I can show you new wiring, batteries and a pretty gelcoat job, but if what it's mounted on is rotten and you can't see it, it's still near worthless. Paying someone else to put in a new transom AND stringers will cost you close to or over what the asking price is. That being said...

Mako boats, especially those older ones, are AWESOME boats. There is quite a cult following for them as well. Those motors are going to EAT some gasoline, but they are really good workhorses for sure. If they are older motors, I'd think about how/when I could put some new power on there. I had a 24' HydraSport (kevlar hull, cuddy cabin fising boat) with twin Johnsons on it and I was lucky to get 1mpg out of her, but she ran very well. It was a very heavy boat (as is this Mako) so the ride was fantastic, but the gas stations LOVED ME!

Good luck and keep us informed!

 

[blazingReel]

Re: 1979 model salt fishing boat, please advise...

Boat owner states:
Fuel is 120 gal.
engines are in great running order.
fuel tanks are solid
we've gotten the boat up to 30 knots not sure what this calculate to MPH .
fuel efficiency is .65 mpg can anyone help out on this part too?
1979 hull with RUNNING Twin 1982 150 Johnsons two strokes.

Thanks for the support guys,

 

[capt sam]

Re: 1979 model salt fishing boat, please advise...

30 knots is around 34.5 miles per hour. Their stated fuel burn ain't great but they're old motors.