Do you think I got a good deal? (2015 242 Limited S)

[Laminar Flow]

Hi everyone --

I just purchased a new-to-me 2015 242 Limited S boat -- will be upgrading from a 2004 Chaparral Sunesta 236, so I'm very excited and the robust community on these forums was a small part in my decision to take the plunge.

I had been scouring the classifieds on this forum, craigslist, yachtworld, boattrader, etc for about a month and saw this one pop up and jumped on it fairly quickly. I'm pretty eyes open about taking a little bit of a risk -- I purchased it sight unseen.

I'm seeking y'all's opinion on whether I got a good deal or not.

This is the link to the listing. I paid $35,500 for the boat, plus $395 in fees.

It's got 1 year left on the warranty, was not sold with a trailer, and has 30 hours on the engines -- fairly low, I'd say. No other modifications -- the boat's fairly stock.

Assuming that there are no major mechanical or cosmetic issues that I find, what's your opinion of that price, halfway through this year's season?

 

[Cambo]

Welcome aboard ... The low hours make it a good deal post up some pictures with all the money you saved it’s time for mods

 

[captainhook]

Seems like a very good deal to me. Even when you add the cost of a trailer, I think you did well.

 

[Ilmmct]

Low hours, 1-year of Warranty left ... seams like a good price to me.

 

[seanmclean]

Seems like a steal. You can get yourself a nice aluminum i-beam trailer and still be under 40K (still a hell of a price for an LTD-S).

 

[AboveTheBest]

That’s an awesome deal!

Half-way through the season....

Maybe, but the best half is yet to come
I enjoy September far better than July or August.

 

[swatski]

Hi everyone --

I just purchased a new-to-me 2015 242 Limited S boat -- will be upgrading from a 2004 Chaparral Sunesta 236, so I'm very excited and the robust community on these forums was a small part in my decision to take the plunge.

I had been scouring the classifieds on this forum, craigslist, yachtworld, boattrader, etc for about a month and saw this one pop up and jumped on it fairly quickly. I'm pretty eyes open about taking a little bit of a risk -- I purchased it sight unseen.

I'm seeking y'all's opinion on whether I got a good deal or not.

This is the link to the listing. I paid $35,500 for the boat, plus $395 in fees.

It's got 1 year left on the warranty, was not sold with a trailer, and has 30 hours on the engines -- fairly low, I'd say. No other modifications -- the boat's fairly stock.

Assuming that there are no major mechanical or cosmetic issues that I find, what's your opinion of that price, halfway through this year's season?

Sounds like a STEAL (great deal).
You do have the boat in your possession, right? If any specific concerns, post pics, that always helps.

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[Laminar Flow]

Okay -- hope everyone had a great 4th and weekend that followed.

I got the boat I asked about in this thread into my possession on Saturday and want to get y'all's thoughts on a few things.

Had a great delivery company by the way, and a great price. Found them on uShip.com but you can just work with them directly to save money: Enterprise Marine and RV LLC.. They drove the boat pretty much straight here immediately after I wrapped up the paperwork online from Savannah, GA to Washington, DC for $1250 (and they said they only get about $1,000 of that from uShip).

So I inspected the boat and as I suspected it would be for the $35,500 price: it's not perfect, for sure. For only having 38 hours on it, the hull definitely got roughed up a little bit in its first four years of life. So y'all don't have to feel toooooo bad about my great deal....

Here are the things that are small annoyances that weren't disclosed to me (although I probably would've still done the deal, even knowing what I know now)

-- The first thing I noticed was some impact damage to the gelcoat under the swim platform. How concerned should I be about any water intrusion from this? I'm not too worried about the cosmetic appearance, as it's completely out of view. See the photo below.

-- It's bottom painted -- and it's definitely been a salt water boat (see my sleuthing on the owner's address -- you can see the boat docked on a saltwater waterway in the satellite photo). But that said, this boat is going to live in the water for the full season here in DC and perhaps the bottom paint will be a good thing for avoiding some growth accumulation.

-- something seems to be wrong with the Connext touchscreen -- buttons I want to push only get activated if I press about 1" above where they are displayed. I guess I can get this fixed under warranty. I haven't looked for other threads on this on here yet but there must be other people with this issue.

-- there's a good bit of rust spots on some of the exposed stainless, like the cupholder rings and the swim ladders. The rear swim ladder rubber band holder thingy was broken so I had to ziptie it (the whole ladder deployed on its own during the maiden voyage, that wasn't awesome)

-- the bimini top's fabric is totally trashed from sun damage, but the broker is actually supposed to send me a new one -- I think they knew that one was definitely on them.

-- a whole chunk of the sound-deadening foam in the engine compartment is loose and just sort of folds down onto the engines...that can't be good, right? Is the foam fairly temperature resistant? I don't have a good photo of this.

-- one of the bimini top receptacle plates got partially pulled out of the arch -- I'm not even sure how I'd go about getting this fixed. See the photo below.

-- and finally, it's a "california emissions" version of the boat. No big deal as I was able to hit 46 mph and that's plenty fast for me, but still, ugh...

So...in Googling the prior owner's address from the title yields this view of the boat at his home in Hilton Head, SC -- so it looks like it was on a lift/floating dock, at least:



Here are some photos of the boat, please let me know if anything jumps out at you about them:







What's the lower hole in this below photo?

 

[tabbibus]

You should've bought his house!

 

[seanmclean]

I would repair all damaged gelcoat where you can see fiberglass promptly. Get the spectrum kit and DIY, if you don’t mind the current appearance you certainly wont mind it after you repair, even if not perfect.

I would not wet slip it, assuming the water in DC is salt. If it’s fresh that way, no biggie.

That hole looks like it might be from the shower fill overflow.

As for the Bimini mount, I might wait until you get the new bimini, and then pop into a dealer and play dumb.

 

[Laminar Flow]

Thanks for your response.

not much option for avoiding the wetslip in DC -- nevermind that I don't have a trailer yet, there aren't any marinas with lifts etc. here; most people leave their boats in the water. The good news is that all the way up here, the Potomac is very much fresh water. I put a pink dot on the below map showing where my marina is:

 

[seanmclean]

Ah, that's good. I was trying to find a salinity map and failed - that's not bad at all.

One thing that you can look to do, is install towing shutoff valves that will enable you to flush with freshwater back in the slip. The risk with salinity is growth/corrosion in your cooling passages, though quite a bit less with that low level.

 

[Neutron]

Boy that boat was not cared for very much.
Cosmetically its beat up. Hopefully mechanically and electronically its ok. But if they neglected a nice boat cosmetically, i wonder what the condition of the inside of all those cooling passages. I doubt they flushed it properly after every use.

 

[rrmidden]

I was going to say you got a better deal than this guy (https://jetboaters.net/threads/picked-up-a-2014-212x-today.23172/) but looks like both of you have similar issues, but a 24' boat with few hours, you still probably got the better deal.

That being said, I don't understand people that buy these boats, and don't take care of them, I feel much better about the condition and thus value of my 2015 212X!

 

[Laminar Flow]

the guy that sold it is older, and per the internet, his house is worth about $1.6 million bucks -- so I just don't think he gave a shit -- just used the boat to go down to the club down the water.

honestly -- i use boatsetter.com to rent out my current boat and plan to do the same thing with this boat, so that the boat is a little roughed up around the edges is not a huge problem, but I hope the major mechanicals etc are all in good shape...

 

[Cambo]

Those are all repairable items if your handy do them yourself I have always been bothered more by interior vinyl damage then dings and nicks that have been filled on the hull . The grey with white tower is a nice color combo enjoy the boat it should give you hundreds of hours of reliability. Google how to clean rust stains some elbow grease and it will look almost new get an assortment of of scotch brite pads and you can get the jet pumps to look great.

 

[Ilmmct]

When you bring the boat to the local dealer for the Yamaha YES Warranty transfer. Make sure the dealer looks at/replaces the fogged gauges and runs the boat to evaluate for the potentially failed thermostats often found in salt-water vessels. I've had both replaced under YES Warranty service. The loose bimini clamp and the damage this caused to the fiberglass might also be covered. Another JB forum member recommended the use of Bar Keepers friend for the removal of rust stains. Bar Keepers Friend will make reasonably quick work for removing rust stains on some of your stainless bright-work (ladder, bimini poles, table bracket etc.).