38 replies to this topic

[FLKeysBound]

HELP...sorry to barge in......I thought you all could help me out with this......I have the chance to buy a year 2000 speedster that has never been in the water.... never had gas or oil. It has the Mercury V6 EFI engine. 240 HP. Is this a good buy for $8999? Comes with full one year factory warranty. I want to take it down to the bay side of the keys. I don't know anything about boats but think this sounds like a deal. I love fast cars - I have a Corvette and a 500SL Mercedes. The boat has weather wear/ One seat is cracked and there is some mildew...... it has been in the sun with no TLC for 4 years. Is this a deal or stay away. They will sell me a 4 year warranty for the motor for about $1000. The trailer is $400. Should I run or grab it? THANKS... Julie

[cAn'T sWim]

HELP...sorry to barge in......I thought you all could help me out with this......I have the chance to buy a year 2000 speedster that has never been in the water.... never had gas or oil. It has the Mercury VE EFI engine. 240 HP. Is this a good buy for $8999? Comes with full one year factory warranty. I want to take it down to the bay side of the keys. I don't know anything about boats but think this sounds like a deal. I love fast cars - I have a Corvette and a 500SL Mercedes. The boat has weather wear/ One seat is cracked and there is some mildew...... it has been in the sun with no TLC for 4 years. Is this a deal or stay away. They will sell me a 4 year warranty for the motor for about $1000. The trailer is $400. Should I run or grab it? THANKS... Julie

Thats a tough one ..!! I am not sure whether I would buy it or not but they are offering a warranty..... The $$$ sounds like a good deal...do you have any pics or other online info that can be looked at?

[cAn'T sWim]

See if you can get into the Live Chat at the top right hand side of the home page. That would make going back and fourth easier.

If not....how much $$$ are you looking to spend?

[cAn'T sWim]

Ebay

Here is one for $10k but it states that it has been maitained. Thats only another 1k and I'll bet you can water test this one with no problems.

[FLKeysBound]

HELP...sorry to barge in......I thought you all could help me out with this......I have the chance to buy a year 2000 speedster that has never been in the water.... never had gas or oil. It has the Mercury VE EFI engine. 240 HP. Is this a good buy for $8999? Comes with full one year factory warranty. I want to take it down to the bay side of the keys. I don't know anything about boats but think this sounds like a deal. I love fast cars - I have a Corvette and a 500SL Mercedes. The boat has weather wear/ One seat is cracked and there is some mildew...... it has been in the sun with no TLC for 4 years. Is this a deal or stay away. They will sell me a 4 year warranty for the motor for about $1000. The trailer is $400. Should I run or grab it?  THANKS...  Julie

Thats a tough one ..!! I am not sure whether I would buy it or not but they are offering a warranty..... The $$$ sounds like a good deal...do you have any pics or other online info that can be looked at?

I do have some pictures I took this AM... The boat is from a Sea Doo Dealer... It was never prepped. SO they say it should be OK.... It still has a plastic shield on the top of the engine. It looks perfect!

[Bob86ZZ4]

That sounds like a pretty good deal to me. That one on Ebay is starting at 10k and there have been no bids as of right now and it hasn't met reserve, and that doesn't include the trailer either. Since it's your money (and not mine) I say "go for it." I just love spending other people's money, hahahaha.

[cAn'T sWim]

Well I looked at the pictures you sent.... those are very small repairs to the seats and coverings. Might cost $100 at most....as far as I know. I cannot understand how a Jetboat could sit for 4 years and never be used??? You said that it has NEVER been in the water??? If thats true then as long as you have the engine checked over and it water tested......you've got a damn fine deal!!!


Cheers!!

[smorgan]

Sounds like a deal.. Also the one on ebay has no trailer...

[Kevin Leclair]

FLKeysBound can you post the pics so we all can inspect the boat too?

Kevin

[tiggerman]

I'd love to see it too...... Has it been a display for 4 years? I'm with cAn'T sWim--
get it checked over thoroughly.... especially all the rubber parts. Sounds like a heck of a deal to me. I once bought a 4 wheeler from a Yamaha dealer that was 3 years old, but had been on the showroom floor those entire 3 years. I did get a bargain as well, and it STILL runs (it was a 1988 model, I bought it in 1991).

[FLKeysBound]

Wow... thanks for all the messages.... I was in Key Largo today cruising on the bay side in the speedster....I am just getting home now.... it was a bit windy but sunny and HOT! There is a guy selling a 1998 and a 2002 Speedster.... they both had twin engines... we took the 98 for a spin. It was a RED one... the 02 was a black one. He wanted $8800 for the red one and 14,900 for the black one. NO warranty.... Then I went to the dealer selling the 2000 one. they have 10 boats for sale from 99 to 01 All brand new never been in the water. there is a real nice 2000 Yamaha 1800 limited edition for $10,500....this one has twin engines....guess a 310 HP... IT is mint. They also have a 2001 1800 challenger for a pretty good price at 11,400. As for posting the photo...I am having a blonde moment... I have the photos on a diskette What is the best way to post it... THANKS Julie

[FLKeysBound]

Oh... someone asked why do they have the old boats.... guess the past dealer refused to sell anything below invoice.... so he held them. Now he is out of business and the new owner wants them out of there ASAP..... Hey Kevin... Thanks for posting the recall info. I will need to chat with them about the wheel barrings on the trailer. Hey I checked out the fancy boat you all mentioned on your site... the tricked out one that posted on 1/20. They guy was from Alabama. It looked real nice. THANKS for all your help! I will probably decide tomorrow. I have the deposit on the boat now... I am debating the little bigger boat....the challenger 1800. THANKS

[FLKeysBound]

OK guys... Do you name these type boats?? The finish on the boat is extremely dull.... In hot sun for 4 years. What product should I use on the hull and what product on the seats...I may have all the seats recovered... They thought about $500 for non Sea Doo materials and over $1,000 for Sea Doo Seats... How about the large piece of black plastic on the rear of the boat...it is pretty stained.... looks like it has been abandon for 4 years.... I am not expecting perfect.... just to get it looking better. The sun in FL is extremely HOT! At this point, I have 4 cars so the boat will be out. If I do buy the boat... I will need the cover... Is there some place on the net to buy it cheaper. so sorry for all the questions!!! I have a lot to learn and you all have already.... been there and done it!! Thanks again....Julie

[cAn'T sWim]

Have not named my boat......yet....but was not planning on it.

The dealer should be able to recommend a good oxidation remover and then a good marine wax to try and bring it all back. I didn't see the stains in your pictures??
As for the seats.... I only saw a few rips/tears so I am assuming this is on all or most of them if you are getting quoted $500?? Can they not be repaired as opposed to completely recovering? Check into this and it does not have to be a marina guy doing this either. Try a repolstering place in the yellow pages. You can unbolt the seats yourself and take them in, which I would think this should save some $$$.
The cover is not cheap and I have not seen many on the net either but keep looking. I think there is someone on here that can get you a discount???

The 98 and 02 Speedster came with twins??? Or is this the Sportster?

Sounds like there is an abudnace of boats down there....I should buy a couple and bring them up here!!

[FLKeysBound]

Can't swim... There is only one seat split...just a bit. I am sure it could be fixed.... I was just looking at the worst case...... If reasonable, I would just recover all of them to make it look real nice..... there is a guy who is excellent in Key Largo...

As for the twins on the speedster... Yes, it was the smaller of the speedsters....not sportster. I drove one of them.... it had a tach for both engines...... We had to choke both of them then hit the starter on both... He showed me how to turn the boat with speeding up one of the engines.... So I am Postitive it was a speedster with twin engines.... Maybe 110HP each? I am not sure. I am calling the dealer today and asking them to hold until Tuesday!!! I am having a heart attach thinking of getting this boat in and out of the water.

There are SO many boats down here... remember we can use them year-around.... everyone is always wanting a new one. Bigger and Faster.... For the boat I am considering, set-up, trailer, frieght and tax... The total is about $10,700. This is with the one year warranty from the manufacturer. Yesterday, I jumped in the new RED 2004 speedster the 200 one. That one had the twin 4 cycle engines.... It was super nice... but they wanted $24,000....plus plus...........Thanks Julie

[cAn'T sWim]

Ya, I forgot they made with twins....then went to the single 240 Merc. Not sure if they still have the twins available in the 160??

Sounds like you enjoyed it and I hope you have no problems. You will need to learn how to properly launch the boat and stuff. I actually took a couple days off when I first bought mine and it seemed through the week was the best time to launch and learn! Hardly no one around and the ones that were around, very helpful.

I will be checking into getting one of those boats shipped up here! I'll bet I could keep it under my Cousins name in the US and drive it here with no problems...?? That would certainly make it cheaper as I wouldn't have to pay taxes etc..

Cheers!

[tiggerman]

The finish on the boat is extremely dull.... In hot sun for 4 years. What product should I use on the hull and what product on the seats...I may have all the seats recovered... They thought about $500 for non Sea Doo materials and over $1,000 for Sea Doo Seats...

Personally, I use 3M Marine Products on my boat, and never had a problem with them. Applied by hand, it takes a while to get the entire boat done (at least for me it does because NOONE wants to help) but looks nice when finished.
As for the seat covers, I've priced Seadoo replacements and they weren't cheap(seems to be a trend). I did this: took my seats off and took them to an automotive upholstery shop, let them reDOO the covers, and put them back on myself.
Less painful than paying the SeaDoo price for the material. The only difference is the seats don't have the Seadoo name on them anymore. Oh well.... One last note, be careful with what you try to clean the seats with. Especially with them as weathered as they seem to be. 409 is not the cleaner of choice on that old vinyl- unless you want sticky seats.

[FLKeysBound]

Thanks for the info.... I have a guy who comes to my home and details my cars...He is pretty reasonable....I know he cleans planes too....Maybe I can see if he will detail the boat.... I am going to the dealer today to see what we can work out. As Can't Swim has mentioned....I need to have the boat water tested before the deal is final... I also have to have the recalls addressed.

Thanks to everyone for the help.

Julie

[cAn'T sWim]

Thanks for the info.... I have a guy who comes to my home and details my cars...He is pretty reasonable....I know he cleans planes too....Maybe I can see if he will detail the boat.... I am going to the dealer today to see what we can work out. As Can't Swim has mentioned....I need to have the boat water tested before the deal is final... I also have to have the recalls addressed.

Thanks to everyone for the help.

Julie

Must be nice!! I wish I had someone come to my house and clean my truck! Oh ya....what are you towing with if you have 4 cars?? Not that a car couldn't tow the boat but just curious?

I would be glad to wash your cars if you buy me a ticket to Florida!! Its still cold here and I don't mind working for a nice warm vacation!



I know how to clean Pools too!

Ciao

[cAn'T sWim]

Personally, I use 3M Marine Products on my boat, and never had a problem with them. Applied by hand, it takes a while to get the entire boat done (at least for me it does because NOONE wants to help) but looks nice when finished.

Tiggerman.....is there a reason you do this by hand and not an orbital polisher? I am planning on doing the hull as soon as I get it out of storage.