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Our survey model was a 1987 boat with a single Mercruiser
330/sterndrive which, judging from the lack of fading on the red
gel coat had been kept in undercover dry storage most of its life.
This boat was being brokered by a dealer and it was quite obvious
that a lot of "make-ready" had gone into it, everything
from polishing the gel coat to the spray can overhaul of the engine.
We'll start with the point that there were only
280 hours showing on the meter (no, it wasn't broken) but the single
engine was kaput. Sea water cooled and 10 years and that was about
it. First, it had one new exhaust manifold but two new risers.
Typical of the way things are done, why replace both of them when
you can risk the other one going bad soon and wrecking your engine?
Well, that's just what happened.
A compression test brought in readings around 90
psi. Yet in looking at the head gaskets, we could see that they
were leaking - in fact water was streaming out of the rear of one
of the heads on sea trial, which was cut short because of this.
The boat was in decent shape otherwise and we advised the client
that he should renegotiate for a rebuild, which he did. Which brings
us to the point that we inspected the rebuild in progress for the
client (smart move by him) to make sure that it was done right.
Once torn down, we found out that the cam shaft was bad and that
had to be replaced too. In addition, it was found that the after
market gaskets for the exhaust risers weren't sized right so that
the risers were leaking water back into the engine, even though
they had just been replaced.
We've never cared much for the way Sea Ray builds
their hulls because they basically box in their stringers - making
a shelf between the outboard stringer and the chine - and generally
close off the rest of the interior so that you can't see what's
going on with the internal hull. Thus, if something is breaking
apart, you're not likely to see it. In this instance, we found some
light stress cracking on the port side bottom amidships along the
strake, but on the inside there was no access at all.
The hull sides are poorly supported -- if at all
-- and there was some crazing on the sides as well. The worst structural
weakness was showing up at the hull/deck joint where the slamming
stresses are transferred to the screwed together joint, breaking
the screws loose and loosening the rails. All along the port side
they were loose. The bow pulpit apparently had been impacted
and the deck was fractured around it, particularly at the deck joint.
This is just plain lousy engineering and the intention of the builder
to save on labor costs. In fact, we've seen other 27's considerably
worse than this one.
The interior is your basic fur-lined glove with
carpet glued all over everything, including the inside of the hull.
This one's also got the 8' long windows in the side which are the
only thing that holds up the deck. Jump on it and you bend
the window frames and they start leaking with no hope of stopping
it. The owner of this one had caulked the windows shut to try to
stop the leaks.
There was a water line 6" above the cabin
sole aft. That's because the cabin sole is literally on the
bottom of the hull. The owner had built some kind of coffer dam
into which he installed one of those Rule aquarium pumps (which
is about all they're good for) to try to solve the problem of there
only being one bilge pump in the boat, and that being located under
the engine. Of course, when you slow down suddenly, all that water
in the bilge which the pump won't remove runs forward and . . .
.well, you know. Messes up the carpet a bit, among other things.
We weren't too amused at an engine hatch that was
so big that it takes up the entire cockpit space. What's wrong with
that? Well, try lifting up a hatch when you're standing on it! There's
no other place to stand. More good design. Would have been more
amusing if we weren't trying to do a survey on it.
To make matters worse, the hatch has a gutter on
it that is too shallow. Blast it with a hose while washing down,
or get some heavy rain, and water goes all over everything in the
engine compartment. The battery charger was rusted out and
most everything else down there looked pretty shabby, including
some pretty sloppy original installations with hoses poorly routed,
things generally hard to reach, and wiring that was less than neat.
Beware that when you're looking at boats with engines under a cockpit
deck, if that hatch is not designed to keep water out, there's no
end to the problems and damage that can result. The hatch gutters
should be deep and have large drains that won't easily plug up with
debris. If the gutter overflows, guess where the water goes?
Downright absurd was the fact that, while underway,
the cockpit scuppers on the side of the hull were catching water
and jetting it right up the drain hoses and onto the engine hatch.
Now we know why the battery charger was completely rusted out.
The performance was generally good. Unfortunately,
we had a dead flat calm day out on the Gulf Stream, but the shape
of this hull guarantees that its not going to ride well in a chop.
For some reason, it isn't as squirrely as many stern drive boats
can be. And those awful Mercruiser controls? What gear are we in?
Well, throttle up to find out! Is the handle going to break off?
Sure feels like it.
This is a pretty good example of why we said in
the introduction that we were rather ambivalent about SeaRay. With
only a bit more forethought and effort, this could have been a decent
boat. It certainly looks good, and makes good use of the space,
but there's just too much corner cutting and obvious cost cutting
on these boats to really give it a thumbs up. The original price
tag was over $40k and was selling for well under twenty. This, for
a boat that does not look clapped out. Sea Rays don't come with
an entry level price tag, nor do they aspire to that. Instead, it
falls somewhere between the good and the ugly. Its fair value
at what she's selling for at today's prices, but you have to put
up with a lot of stupid design problems that will eventually cost
you more.
Oh, yes. We might add that when you launch
this boat from a trailer . . . . the engine fills up with water
through the exhaust. That's a danger you'll face with launching
any boat this size from a trailer. Not a good idea.
Rating:  |
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are "reviews", not surveys, and bear no resemblance
to our survey reports.
We do not publish the results of the surveys that we perform.
Please note that the purpose of these reviews is educational,
to help you discern the differences in quality among boats generally.
They are not offered as a means to help you evaluate any particular
boat builder. We have no other reviews than those posted. |
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