Happy Wife... And a shotgun boat purchase.

**gotboostedvr6** · 05-11-2020, 09:39 PM

The admiral (and my 7 year old Autistic kid)* will not set foot on my Grady White. It's "too fishy, smoky, not comfortable" . We also had an unfortunate experience on it involving a summer storm and us *almost* outrunning a bad storm. Calling gps coordinates to CG is serious pucker factor.... anyway I digress.

We've been home working for about 65 days (covid) now and have been without a family oriented boat for about a year. Out of nowhere the wife said she wants a nice boat, now.

I've narrowed my search down to two boutique, 2007, 25 foot pocket cruisers. They are both Azure Az259, They are absolutely top of the line for this style boat. I have no idea which I should choose as I never thought I'd own a IO boat with a car motor... yuck.

One has a 300hp 5.7 magnum and bravo 3 with 270 hours. It was a fresh water boat until 2017. In 18 and 19 it sat in a salt slip and was only used a total of 4 times. It's lack of use shows. Its been maintained by a dealer. When I went to look at it I found the zincs are almost gone. Mechanic said they replace the anodes during the spring prep. Outdrive shows some surface corrosion and 2" skeg chunk missing. Sinks, hardware and vinyl show minor corrosion and the early stages of UV deterioration. Bellows and gimbal were done recently. Manifolds and risers never touched. Bilge and engne are super clean.*

Second boat is a bunk trailer queen and had only been in fresh. Never bottom painted. 249 hours. It has a 8.1 Gi 375hp with duo prop. Manifold and risers never touched. Bellows and gimbal new. I think its the better Volvo outdrive but I have no idea. Picture included. Based on pictures this boat is super clean. 5 hour drive I plan on making this week.

There only thing I know about Volvo drives stem from the composite nightmare. The drive on this boat seems to be aluminum.*

Thoughts on each?

**Capt.Insane-o** · 05-11-2020, 10:01 PM

The one with the 496 and volvo. The other is underpowered and sat in cancer. Nothing wrong with those volvo drives.

**RSWORDS** · 05-12-2020, 08:06 AM

The volvo is a nice setup. Maintain ot well though because it WILL get expensive (more expensive then A bravo) to repair when it starts to rot.

**282** · 05-12-2020, 09:17 AM

I sold an Azure 298 bow rider 2 seasons ago with a 496mag, it moved well and was a nice quality boat. Its the same as a crownline. I moved into a Donzi Center Console to fish more or I would still have it. Mine came from a freshwater lake in North Jersey. Go with the trailer queen and the 496.. in my opinion. Also, when I put it up for sale it sold in less than a week. Its an off brand and the price should reflect that but its certainly not an inferior quality boat. The 25 should move well with that power. I would expect mid 50's easy. You will pay for a Formula/sea ray, I always look at off brand like Bryant, Azure, Hurricaine when I looked at BR's, less known and you can get a better deal.

**Dave Strong** · 05-12-2020, 11:09 AM

Originally Posted by Capt.Insane-o

The one with the 496 and volvo. The other is underpowered and sat in cancer. Nothing wrong with those volvo drives.

Other than that first gen external trim pump that has not been updated, but some never fail, its lasted this long might be Ok.

Dave

**gotboostedvr6** · 05-12-2020, 05:39 PM

Thank you for the replies so far. Dave, can you get into more detail on this external pump?

Originally Posted by Dave Strong

Other than that first gen external trim pump that has not been updated, but some never fail, its lasted this long might be Ok.

Dave

**Dave Strong** · 05-12-2020, 05:49 PM

The trim pump is located on the outside on the stbd side of transome plate. They had issues with them leaking around the white plastic plugs at the bottom of the pump. They were updated multiple times, yours has the old design but could be fine not all failed. If its gone this long it's probably fine.

Dave

**gotboostedvr6** · 05-23-2020, 08:15 PM

Its home safe.

**Instigator** · 05-24-2020, 07:22 AM

My old man used to say, “if the first mate ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy”.

Love your new boat.

I worked a boat show for a Azure dealer yrs ago and they had 3 deck boats at the show.
I wanted all three!
Not a deck boat guy but they are my response to a pontoon boat.
I spent 3 days going over those boats and liked everything I saw.

I also worked at a Volvo dealer when the DuoProp came out and we/customers loved them.
I demo’d several.

Most memorable was a 20’ open bow Sportcraft (hate them) w/a 205 hp GM V-6.
Sold it to a family w/3 teen age sons wanting a solid ski boat w/o but a flat bottom inboard.
I slalomed behind it on their demo. Ins wouldn’t let them.
We were all blown away by how well that boat, accelerated, tracked etc.
That boat ran 50 w/a V-6!
They skied w/it 3 times a wk and we saw them regular that first couple yrs and had zero issues.

#2 was a 25’ Sportcraft aft cabin cruiser (great design but still crap) w/a 350 GM V-8 and a DuoProp.
Customers show for demo and wind was blowing and raining.
We gambled and went out anyhow.
We put up its full camper canvas for them, me knowing it was now a sail boat for going sideways.
I backed it off the trailer w/zero issue,(first time I’d driven it), it popped on plane, was plenty fast, and put it back on the trailer first attempt.
That would take a 454 and a Bravo to get that performance but would not match handling.

I was only there a couple yrs but we sold a ton of them and never had a problem.

Funniest part was also being a Merc dealer at same time.
Volvo totally caught Merc w/their pants down.
Their only response was to bash them.

”Twice the parts, two props to replace on a grounding, more expensive to maintain etc.”
This went on for a couple yrs while I cashed my commission cks.
They then came out w/the Bravo II to compete w/it.
They dropped the prop shaft deeper below cavitation plate allowing use of bigger diameter props.
We thought it was hilarious, and never sold a boat w/one.

Then Volvo’s patten expired and presto!
The Bravo III is born ��

Enjoy your new boat and the smiles it will put on your wife’s and sons face!

**gotboostedvr6** · 05-24-2020, 11:47 PM

I'm having trouble keeping the new boat balanced at lower speeds. Between 27 and 35 mph it primarily lists starboard but will lean hard port if any left turn is introduced. This balancing continues until 43mph where it largely evens out. Tabs were recommended to me by a fellow that has experience with this hull. He said the crappy low speed mannerisms are due to the combination of 5300 pound weight, hull step, very large lifting strakes, and 22* deadrise. The hull length is actually 23 feet.

**Merc 2.5** · 05-25-2020, 07:16 AM

I bet a hydrofoil would help it , my cousin in his big cabin cruiser , retard put hydrofoil on wrong , but its was very stable a slow speeds , then he lost the foil and now it leans hard at slower speeds

**282** · 05-25-2020, 08:14 AM

I had tabs on my 298 Azure, I don't think i ever adjusted them. My boat ran well, never any issues. Hydrofoil would be cheaper option but I never used one of those. We loaded that boat with 10 people pretty regularly and still no leaning.