Is anyone an expert on the 1989 Sylvan 188 Barritz? Good boat - yea or ney?

[CaptainDinghy]

Hello,

A 1989 Sylvan 188 Barritz caught my eye on craigslist. Owned by the same family for 20 years, so it seems to have been taken care of. Is anyone an expert on this model of boat and willing to let me pick their brain a little?

Is there any rot that I should worry about? Transom, stringers (are they wood or fiberglass) etc?

Any known issues with these - you don't see many of them on the water. Is that because they weren't a popular boat or are they all in the junk yard?

The boat has the 4.3L V6, so I'm happy with that.

Anyone who could shed some light on this model would be appreciated!

Thanks,
CD

 

[Starcraft5834]

Welcome Capt... you will hear this a lot here,,, condition, condition, condition... a well maintained average boat vs say a "Crownline" left in a farmers field uncovered for 10 years... it's all about condition, the Sylvan is a fine boat.. what do they want for it? if your serious, check of the engine, get compression test, have it accessed by a marine shop if you like,, $100 bucks assessment for piece of mind?? happy hunting...

 

[wahlejim]

At a very minimum, compression test, thorough transom inspection, check the floor for any soft spots. A boat older than 25 years has to have some repair work done to it. Ask them what they have repaired and check for the quality of the repair. If their workmanship is up to par, odds are they have taken very good care of the boat. If they have cut corners on repairs, run.

I agree with getting a survey done of the boat. You can pay the money now or later in repairs.

 

[garbageguy]

1989 - yep it's all about condition. The pic looks pretty good, but it needs eyes, hands, and ears on it. Unless you know what you're looking for in a boat of that type, that vintage - I strongly second the suggestion to get a surveyor.

We had a few Sylvan's of that era (aluminum), and they were good boats. I think, unless you're at the either end of the low/high build quality (I'd say Sylvan probably mid-range), that it's condition, condition, condition, then style/layout of the boat you're interested in - depending on what you want to do with it.

 

[CaptainDinghy]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your replies. Yeah, I will certainly take a very close look at everything hands on and run it as well. Generally, I know what I'm looking for in regards to maintenance, in fact I have gone so far as to replace the transom in my current 1984 Sylvan (go figure) 16ft aluminum boat. So a little work doesn't scare me either.

However, the types of things that worry me are wooden stringers that would require splitting the whole entire fiberglass cap - I don't want to have anything to do with that. Or even a transom on a fiberglass I/O doesn't look very easy. I've been searching for a while on the google machine and can't find any information of how these Barritz boats are constructed. I was hoping someone might have personal experience with the construction methods on this particular boat.

Also, this boat is listed at $4250, but considering the time of year, I would hope I could bring that down a bit if I show some greens.

Thanks,
CD