Help newbie choose between Four winns or Searay

[salmonee]

Hi All,

Complete newbie here looking for a first boat. Second if you count the 10' aluminum i had 10yrs ago. I was really looking for a Maxum because of the removable carpet. It rains alot in Seattle and I plan to use the boat for fishing. But I need a family outing boat as well. Got 2 kids, 2 and 10, as well as 20 brothers/sisters n law. Anyhow, I'm looking at two boats right now. One is a 1995 Four Winns with a 5.0 190hp. The guy says it's a Ford engine?? The second is a 1997 SeaRay 4.3 with 210hp with a "NEW" engine put in last year. This one scares me a little, as who would put in a new engine and then sell the boat? I guess, it beats selling a boat with a bad engine. The ad says this is a new engine and not a rebuilt one. Any downside to the new engine?
I hear that four winns is top notch and that sea ray aren't bad either. Like I said, I really want a maxum but someone snatch up a deal I was to look at tonight last night! I kicked myself all day today for that setup. The Four Winns is going to 10k and the Searay 9k. Their both 19' and it looks like the four winns is in better shape cosmetically than the searay. I have not seen the boat in person. Going to see the searay in an hour as it is like 10 minutes from my house. The four winns is the one with the top on white/blue. The searay is white/green.

Now, I'm wondering if he meant Force instead of Ford? Anyhow, I got a picture of the engine and it says cobra. This is confusing...

 

[Dakota47]

Re: Help newbie choose between Four winns or Searay

Get a Mercruiser or Volvo Penta Drive.. NOT Omc .

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Help newbie choose between Four winns or Searay

I could see someone putting a new engine in a boat in order to sell it. It would be almost completely worthless with a blown motor. Anyway, as Dakota47 said, stick with Mercruiser or Volvo. OMC got out of the stern drive business a couple years ago and unfortunately repair parts may be difficult to find as are mechanics willing to work on them.

 

[Dakota47]

Re: Help newbie choose between Four winns or Searay

OMC has been gone for 12 years. nobody likes to work on them.. i know,, i have a 18ft runabout with a OMC 4.3 V-6 Cobra outdrive..

 

[RotaryRacer]

Re: Help newbie choose between Four winns or Searay

Wait for the right deal. I would imagine in Washington it is like the rest of the country...the used boat market is flooded right now.

If you like that style boat there literally too many to choose from.

What body of water will you be using the boat on? The Sound? The Lake? Both? I guess I'm curious to know if it will be salt or fresh water that you will be using it in.

I am a fan of Four Winns. However, I have to agree with the posters above. Don't pay as much or more for a boat that has an OMC compared to a Mercruiser. The only reason I say this is because of the service issue as mentioned above. The OMC is in many ways better...it is just not as easy to fix when things do go wrong. However, if you like that boat find one that is 1-2 years newer and it will likely have the Volvo SX drive that can still get serviced relatively easily. You won't find any Volvo's until after 96 on Four Winns. Four Winns was owned by OMC from the late 80s until OMC went out of business in the mid 90s. Volvo took over some of the designs after that. You can also find a few newer Four Winns with Mercruisers.

Four Winns and Sea Ray are probably on the same rung of the build quality Ladder.

Sea Ray is owned by Brunswick...the same company that owns Mercury/Mercruiser. You can only buy Sea Rays with Mercury engines/drives.

 

[salmonee]

Re: Help newbie choose between Four winns or Searay

Wait for the right deal. I would imagine in Washington it is like the rest of the country...the used boat market is flooded right now.

If you like that style boat there literally too many to choose from.

What body of water will you be using the boat on? The Sound? The Lake? Both? I guess I'm curious to know if it will be salt or fresh water that you will be using it in.

I am a fan of Four Winns. However, I have to agree with the posters above. Don't pay as much or more for a boat that has an OMC compared to a Mercruiser. The only reason I say this is because of the service issue as mentioned above. The OMC is in many ways better...it is just not as easy to fix when things do go wrong. However, if you like that boat find one that is 1-2 years newer and it will likely have the Volvo SX drive that can still get serviced relatively easily. You won't find any Volvo's until after 96 on Four Winns. Four Winns was owned by OMC from the late 80s until OMC went out of business in the mid 90s. Volvo took over some of the designs after that. You can also find a few newer Four Winns with Mercruisers.

Four Winns and Sea Ray are probably on the same rung of the build quality Ladder.

Sea Ray is owned by Brunswick...the same company that owns Mercury/Mercruiser. You can only buy Sea Rays with Mercury engines/drives.

I plan on using it 90% freshwater, 10% salt. I'm going to take my time, for some reason, I'm getting skiddish buying used with all these problems the people on this site is reporting on. The searay was junk, I haven't looked at the four winns base on the comments.