Best smallcraft for diving

[Hank49]

Boaters who pay triple for their boat compared to other brands --Matt

Hi Matt, The Classic 24 you sited isn't exactly cheap. Base price of US$46,000? I can get a brand new, 26 foot center console, made in Belize with a new Yamaha 200 2 stroke for US$28,000. The 24 Bayliner is a nice looking boat but looks like the padded seats and car like interior would get beat up pretty quick tossing tanks and gear around on it.....not to mention fish guts and knives... But, it's all preference and where you use it. I dont need any protection from 80 degee air and water.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

"Good value for the money" is a phrase that makes me run like the wind the other way.
To each their own boat, but I'll spend my money on quality.

I dive Monterey, which is not exactly a tropical dive site, about 60 days a year off my
Boston Whaler center console, and about 10 days a year off a buddy's. He's about the
only Monterey boat diver who dives more than I do. There are NO Bayliners that are
used nearly that much here. There was one (Narcosis), but the owner sold it and bought a
bigger boat, not a Bayliner. He got tired of stuff busting. I have another friend with
Bayliner, the cleats are crumbling because they were made of Zamak, which has no
business on a salt water boat.

My whaler works just fine in Monterey. I don't need a cabin, I'm wearing a drysuit.
So's my GF, Adm. Linda who dives almost as much as I do. It works fine. Rain, fog,
or shine.

The cut in half whaler is a measure of the level floatation. I've had some idiot cut
close behind me in a big boat, and wash 100 gallons of water into my boat. No big
deal, it took about 10 minutes for the bilge pump to handle it. And I could have just
pulled the plug, and all but about the last five gallons would have left the boat through
the drain hole. It's also a measure of what happens if you hit something hard. There
are a fair number of storys of whalers hitting submerged pilings and driving home.
I know of one that came off the trailer on the ramp (yes, DUH) and they went fishing
anyway.

I don't go out in 20' swells, but conditions here can turn really snotty in a hurry. I've
come back from Carmel in 6' breaking windchop. We didn't go very fast (4 knots),
but it came home, even though the boat got airborne at 4 knots (all of a sudden there
was no hull noise, the engine revved up another thousand RPM, and the boat dropped
two feet and belly flopped into the trough.

 

[Nemrod]

Matt, with all that molding carpet and mildewed nuagahyde on your party barge it is a wonder you ever make it to a dive site. Kinda of more like a floating (for now)Winnebago. You know nothing about a CC boat as can be determined by your statements. It is kinda funny that 90% of the boats I see OFFSHORE are center consoles. I rarely see a pointy naugahyde Bayliner boat anywhere except on lakes where they are quite common among the gold chain and beer gut crowd. I like those carpet covered plywood engine decks and wooden engine mounts for the converted car engine. I bet that works out well with saltwater up to your knees. LOL. N

 

[matt_unique]

Matt, with all that molding carpet and mildewed nuagahyde on your party barge it is a wonder you ever make it to a dive site. Kinda of more like a floating (for now)Winnebago. You know nothing about a CC boat as can be determined by your statements. It is kinda funny that 90% of the boats I see OFFSHORE are center consoles. I rarely see a pointy naugahyde Bayliner boat anywhere except on lakes where they are quite common among the gold chain and beer gut crowd. I like those carpet covered plywood engine decks and wooden engine mounts for the converted car engine. I bet that works out well with saltwater up to your knees. LOL. N

Ha ha ha, you wish......7 seasons on a mooring, 7 seasons of a wet interior
(from boarding divers with dripping gear) and no damage, 7 seasons of doubles on my seats with only normal wear (no rips), and 4 seasons of Near Coastal dive sites between Block Island and Montauk NY. My cuddy cabin has carpet, none of the cruisers do. The 24' I will be buying has no carpet. Your information and your argument is old Nemrod.

I can see from your reply I have rattled your cage. You brought it on chief, speak about what you know about and you will not be hammered. I'm not going to point out your idiocy for paying too much for a boat if you keep your mouth shut about a brand you don't know about. Our threads will show that history in fact. I have never said the Whaler is anything but a tank. The problem I have is they are as comfortable as tanks, have as much use as a tank, and cost as much as a tank. I enjoy more than one aspect of boating, as the majority of boat buyers do, which is why more Bayliners (as one brand example) are sold compared to Whalers 100 fold. 3 times the cost, to enjoy one aspect of boating, does not make sense to most boat owners.

Lastly, your captain skills may need some work if you ever have water pouring over your gunwales such that you have salt water up to your knees. The only water that has come into my boat was from rain. Well there was that one instance of a pitch pole...my passenger was seasick and I looked over for a moment to ask if he was OK and whammo...bow into the next swell and nothing but water could be seen for a few moments. I had my canvas top open and it was a hell of a shower. Short of that, no water but rain and wet divers.

--Matt

 

[Marlinspike]

I rarely see a pointy naugahyde Bayliner boat anywhere except on lakes where they are quite common among the gold chain and beer gut crowd. I like those carpet covered plywood engine decks and wooden engine mounts for the converted car engine. I bet that works out well with saltwater up to your knees. LOL. N

Your arguments are inconsistent and come accross as trollish. MercuryMarine makes Mercruiser engines which makes the "converted car engine" you are now bashing (also a winner of the irrelevant and meaningless JD Power survey). In earlier posts you were all about mercurymarine products.

Boston Whaler makes plain boats with few creature comforts. Bayliner makes a poorly built cracker of a boat with lots of creature comforts (same goes for SeaRay).

Most people that go offshore in pleasure boats go there to fish. That is probably why you see mostly center consoles offshore, not because they are superior to other designs for all uses.

~Marlinspike

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Boston Whaler makes plain boats with few creature comforts.

Depends on the Whaler. The Montauk/Outrage line is simple and designed to get
dirty fishing. The Conquest line is quite nice (but wouldn't make a great dive boat:
high gunwales, less deckspace, more cabin.

My whaler works for a living -- it goes WHERE I want to go, WHEN I want to go, with
WHO I want to go with.


Chuck

 

[Marlinspike]

My whaler works for a living -- it goes WHERE I want to go, WHEN I want to go, with
WHO I want to go with.


Chuck

"I'm having a party and you're not invited?"

~Marlinspike

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

"I'm having a party and you're not invited?"

The "with WHO" just means I don't have to take potluck for company like on a charter
dive boat. No potluck dive skills (meaning the boat goes someplace uninteresting),
no potluck personalities (there's one in every crowd).

 

[Nemrod]

"Your arguments are inconsistent and come accross as trollish."

You and Matt just want to argue about nothing. No serious offshore users prefer Bayliners or for that matter I/O engine arrangments, pretend all you want, say it over and over, maybe you can convince yourself because your wasteing your time with me. As to I/O be it Merc or Volvo they are rare on offshore boats in the size range this thread began with as they have some serious disadvantages that are considered significant among expeienced offshore boaters---let's review.


"Hello,
I have recently been looking for a small boat to use for offshore dives. It must be able to endure light to medium chop well and have easy exit/entrance points, preferably with a swim/dive platform. Would you offer some suggestions by make and model of boats you prefer or would recommend?"

He specificlly asked for a small boat for OFFSHORE use with easy exit and entrance. Does that really sound like a Bayliner to you?

You both seem to fixate on a center console because that is what Chuck and I use, there are many cuddy cabin boats designed for offshore use. Of course, your Bayliner pointy carpet and naughyde boat thing is not one of them that is very highly regarded.

I hope he found what he was looking for regardless of what it might be.


"I'm having a party and you're not invited?"


Is that with a nana, nana, boo, boo ?

N

 

[Marlinspike]

---let's revue. N

Thanks for the revue. I enjoyed it.

Revue: a theatrical production consisting typically of brief loosely connected often satirical skits, songs, and dances

~Marlinspike