Looking at Buying a Scarab

[Mike Little]

My wife and I are building a house on the water in Gulfbreeze, FL and are looking at buying a Scarab. We wanted something to get on the water that was inexpensive. We are planning on building a dock, but not in the near future. I have a number of questions about these boats and wanted to see if someone could point me in the right direction if not here. A lot of the questions I have are the depth of water they require to operate, cost in fuel, mx costs, etc.

 

[ScarabMike]

If you are looking for a low cost to operate, and inexpensive "out of the box" boat to operate, Scarab is not your boat. The Scarab boats are expensive compared to their Yamaha brothers, and the maintenance can get expensive if you don't know how to operate a wrench. They are beautiful boats, they are getting better and more reliable, but they are still not at the "cost=what you get" of a Yamaha.

Im telling you as a Scarab owner/rotax enthusiast.

Welcome to the community!

 

[Mike Little]

If you are looking for a low cost to operate, and inexpensive "out of the box" boat to operate, Scarab is not your boat. The Scarab boats are expensive compared to their Yamaha brothers, and the maintenance can get expensive if you don't know how to operate a wrench. They are beautiful boats, they are getting better and more reliable, but they are still not at the "cost=what you get" of a Yamaha.

Im telling you as a Scarab owner/rotax enthusiast.

Welcome to the community!

Thanks! Expensive as far as maintaining? Or initial cost? Yamaha 190 looks to start at $28k while the Scarab 165 is at about $18k. I've built cars and have no issues with tools... why do the Scarabs require so much work?

 

[ScarabMike]

If you do your own maintenance, then yea, it will be a good boat to own.

The 165 and the 190 are completely different boats. The 165 is basically a large jetski. It is fast, nimble, and should be easy to keep. The 190 is a traditional boat with windshields, and in line more with the Scarab 195.

The rotax power plant is bullet proof. You will never have issues with it. It's the quality control of the manufacturer that you may run into problems, and may have to diagnose on your own.

 

[Ron@Scarab]

Thanks! Expensive as far as maintaining? Or initial cost? Yamaha 190 looks to start at $28k while the Scarab 165 is at about $18k. I've built cars and have no issues with tools... why do the Scarabs require so much work?

They don't in my opinion, but that's only if you do your regular services that are required. As we have all learned over the years, everybody has an opinion based on their experiences. Without going into detail there I will just stay on topic. The Scarab Ghost 165 is your least expensive, easy to maintain, easy to use boat Scarab has in their the line-up. Go to Scarabjetboats.com and build any boat you like to see price differences. Scarab has the best Standard warranty in the business. The boat itself is warrantied for 1 year, and the engine and drive-line is warrantied for 3 years (480) hours. And, right now, they're giving you an additional (2) years on top of that! That' 5 years of warranty for FREE.

 

[subysti]

I would say to spend a couple weeks reading through all the forum posts here and that may push you one way or the other. I ain't saying nuttin else.

 

[Scott E]

The supercharged boats do require extra maintenance every couple of years. The 155hp motors would require the same maintenance of a Yamaha, an oil change every year. Yamaha does have the clean out ports, the rotax has better reverse gates.

But hey it's a boat, don't think I've ever had an inexpensive one...

 

[jdonalds]

For sure jet boats are less costly to maintain than an I/O so you're going in the right direction.

In my experience it's hard to beat the reliability of Yamaha boats. Just sayn'

The only way I'd have a boat on a lake like that is if I could hoist it out of the water at the end of the day.

I get about 3 mpg at 30 mph. Draft of jet boats is somewhere around 18" when not on plane, more like 6" when on plane.

If your lake has a lot of weeds a jet boat might be more trouble than it's worth.

 

[Slugger55]

My wife and I are building a house on the water in Gulfbreeze, FL and are looking at buying a Scarab. We wanted something to get on the water that was inexpensive. We are planning on building a dock, but not in the near future. I have a number of questions about these boats and wanted to see if someone could point me in the right direction if not here. A lot of the questions I have are the depth of water they require to operate, cost in fuel, mx costs, etc.

I'm in Crestview, FL and have had my boat in the classified section all spring. PM me if you are interested..