Re: Vote for a boat please
Magster, tough choice but take the Tolly if it surveys well. Both have deservedly good reputations and inflated resale value / demand so don't do it for those reasons. I think Commander also has a deserved high reputation for quality (Tollys I would think of as only maybe a little above average), but this offsets against the different reliability of the power options in your case, so don't do it for that reason either. Probably most of the quality problems with these boats will already have worked themselves out anyway.<br /><br />Do it because you won't notice the extra speed/handling from the Commander half as much as you will notice the extra room in the Tolly. Do it because you'll save big $ on maintenance with a single inboard. Don't hesitate over docking. If I could dock a 41' president with a single screw (although I'm pretty rusty
), you can park your tolly -- it will just be a workout for your wife on the bow with the big fender and boathook for a while
but then you can heap scorn on those fancy twin prop boaters who still can't dock. <br /><br />Do it so you can slow down and enjoy your coffee when boating instead of running a boat that needs to run at speed all the time. Do it because I will bet the Tolly will ride much better than a Commander in the chops you will generally get in the strait and in among the islands and you will be able to stay on the gas in comfort more often. But don't mistake the Tolly for a trawler either. It planes so it is only a half decent bad weather boat, but it's good for the inner coast waters and it stacks up well against other 26' unless you are in really big swells where you need to power your way out. Unless you plan to go out on the west coast, you should be able to quarter any sea you find and I wouldn't worry about broaching the tolly so long as you know when to stay at anchor (I doubt you'd be comfortable in the commander out there either).<br /><br />Do it because, as good as a Commander is, it is an average sized 26' which means you will still feel a little like you're in a VW van (with nicer trim). The Tolly is a real cabin cruiser. That's its mystique. There is no other 26' boat that feels like it is 34'. Do it because you can play scrabble and make dinner at the same time.<br /><br />There, I am expecting to split the commission with the broker selling the Tolly.
<br />It's a 1974 26' Tolly w/7.4 merc. straight shaft.<br /><br />
<br />It's a 1978 Commander w/twin 470's / alpha.<br /><br />They are very different boats with thier own appeal. We're on Vancouver Island, we like to cruise around slow mainly, the weather is usually calm, we have a baby, economy is a concern and so is value as an investment (we're not rich). My Christmas question to you is which one would you buy?<br />ho ho ho folks!
