Great Lakes Diving Boat

[pcarlson1911]

Cobalt - teach me!

Here is my worry. Its a wonderful day, blue skies, 1' chop, 20% chance of T storms. I go with my wife for the dive, we come up and here are the lake erie three footers. If you were to guess which boat would be safer in those conditions. Is the safety margin worth a $7000 investment.

I never plan on going out in bad weather, but someday it will find me. It is estimated that there are 3000 shipwrecks in the great lakes. 3001 is too many!

If you were to list the top 5 best buys (high quality at realatively low cost) in 20-23' fishing boats what would they be?

In all the searching I can only find two ofthese Bahacruiser 200 Fisherman forsale. Is it that good of a boat that no one ever sells them, or are there only 2 ten yearold boats left in the us?

thanks,
pc

 

[moneysavr]

Well CB I was the skip on my boat swimjim was talking about 6'footers and he can judge them fairly well living on lake Michigan his whole life-not up the street or in a town near by he knows the Great Lakes.
And I respect your comments, but must disagree that big boats are for big water, you may get that comfy feeling cutting thru a chop at cruise speed in your 40 footer, but pal I will tell you most of the time they are dock ornaments and then heck you don't see any action any way next to the guy puking drunk falling in the drink cause he cant make the next months boat payment and his trophy wife just served him with papers at the marina!
Big boats can get washed and sunk too! its all in equipment,operation & Training,and proper understanding of weather conditions now and in the near future and locations of safe harbors and navigational skills.
That said a dive boat is up to what you would like to haul and how much you are going to pay for the tow unit as bigger the boat same for the tow unit and this get into the braking systems,electric brakes,trans coolers,fuel cost's boat and tow unit.
I am sure your not getting rich on a teaching salary so first consider a (used rig) as this can bring the price down big time,look for a unit from a dealer / marina that sells this type of boat as a good dealer will have a inspection - survey done and most times back it up with a warranty bow to stern as you will not get from a private sale,
Get a boat in a size you can handle by yourself as I found this out with my first boat a 23' Dolphin it was hard to trailer by myself.
A 17' to 19' is all you need if you keep a eye on the weather and you must and mariner will tell you this, And Erie can roll as she is one of the shallower great lakes
Get a multi use boat if you have a family,something you can fish from,cruise on and maybe tube/ ski and if some one says you cant get a boat to do all of this tell them they are wet!
Oh by the way late winter boats are cheap,walk in with CASH!!!!! In Spring get ready to pull your shorts off and bend over!
I must say as my boat is a work horse logging tons of hours each week running to wreck sites 20 and 30 miles out and I must say the high gas prices did not hurt me as that 4 Cyl Merc stern dive was just sipping the gas as I blasted to the next dive!
And with wave height I think on smaller boats you need to look at the weather and know the lake don't go out on a Nor Easter with winds starting at 10-15 Knots reaching 20 to 30KNTs as you will see some scary water!
Dive safe!
Brad

And by the way the first year I paid my used boat off with about 50 dives that year vs charters so go figure why they call me moneysaver! and I have 40 years plying the waters of Lake Michigan,My father had over 60 and he taught me you must have respect for that lake,as she can turn real quick!
Dream Boat 26' Grady White With some Smokin Merc SaltWater series engines.

 

[RPanick]

A couple of other things to keep in mind:

• Sounds like you plan to trailer the boat a lot. Keep in mind where you will store it when not in use. I don't know if you have a garage, if you do that will generally limit the size you can store.
• Most boats can handle a fair amount of wave action if they are handled well. The catch is how fast can they go while doing it. My Chapperal 19' will do well over 40 in smooth water. But I end up throttling back a lot in anything over a foot or so. That or its beat my kidneys up. The longer boats handle the waves much better at speed.
• Smaller boats are much easier on gas than the big boats, both for operation and for towing. Also, you unless you have a full size vehicle you may be surprised at the limits on what you can pull. The RIBs are nice for that.
• Look at the plate on the boat to see what the rating for people and gear is. Smaller boats have much lower limits, and if you are carrying a fair amount of gear that can weigh as much as another person.
• If you do end up with a small boat, one trick I saw that worked real nice was a thing called Rocker Stoppers that you hung over the side. They were like upside down mushrooms made out of plastic with some weight on them. As the boat rocked over they would cause drag on the side going up, which dampered out the motion.

 

[Notso_Ken]

I need some help with a decision on a boat. I'll try to give you the background as simply as possible.
.

What is the wave height on a decent day on the other Great Lakes. Erie seems to have a good number of 2 feet or less days in the summer. Are the other 4 the same, or are michigan and Superior typically bigger?

Finally, am I going to see that much of a div=fference between the 20 foot and the 17.5 foot. Is the hull design going to work that much better?
Let me know what you think!
pc

Paul, I agree with the idea of low 20s on size for the reasons you put in a later post. As for waves, you can get some big ones, but you want to sit those out. Ber, Bruce and I were recently out on Huron, when the waves were 10 feet or larger all the boats stayed in port. We did go out with about 4 to 6 foot waves and dive successfully. But, it was best when they were only 1 to 3, and that was with a bigger boat.

Good luck! Maybe you can bring that boat up to Tobermory next year!

Ken

 

[pcarlson1911]

notsoken -
I think we will have a boat in at tobermory whether it is the little one or a new used boat next year.

 

[DudleyNMU]

I just picked up a 24' Sport Craft and it has plenty of room for diving and fishing. I would say for a good boat you need good engine's. If you plan on running 20 off shore you prolly want Twin Engines so if one dies you can make it back in. Take a look at sea-ray sport craft bayline ect also graddy white are sweet designed for rough weather.they all make some nice boats and they handel very well. Used one's are priced nice also. I guess for any dive boat you would want alot of deck space and a swim platform. most boats over 20' handel waves good. Also if there is 5 + foot waves there is no reason to be out there diving anyways.

 

[cobaltblue]

I would have to agree with many of the things said here. If you want to trailer, weight is much more of a concern than length. Althought these do usually go hand in hand, it's not always the case. Unless you are running a 3/4 ton diesel, I would recommend staying under 5000 lbs. When you look at the weights, remember that the boat weight plus the trailer weight is the number you're concerned about. If you can't find trailer weights, plan on 1200 to 1500 for a steel tandem for boats up to 25 and 1000 to 1200 for the same aluminum.

Now on to boats. What has been said here is a lot. Forget about anything over 23 feet. I almost purchased a 24 Scout at the start of the year and even it was well over 5000 lbs by the time it was said and done. I use Scout as an example because they are light for the size.

So that really puts you in the 22 range. Is there a big difference in safety and comfort between a 17.5 and a 21 or 22, you bet. Even more so if the 17.5 is an open bow which most of them are. Open bows are bad if you get caught in weather.

So what 22' boats to look at. The "walkaround" style fishing boats are great compromises for diving. (remember every boat is a compromise) They have useable cuddies, most have heads, mamma needs a head, and they have open backs without much interior to get ruined by dive gear. I would start by looking at two brands, Wellcraft and Trophy. Both are middle of the road boats but offer a lot of boat for the buck. The fit and finish isn't the greatest but after a year of diving it doesn't matter. Both of those can be had for less than 10k with trailer if you look around.

side note: I know Trophy's are actually Bayliners but they have huge owner satisfaction. People who own them, love them. Wellcraft has been in business a long time, has a decent name, and are easy to get stuff for.

Some of the other names people have mentioned would be great if you want to spend the money. Grady's are great but they don't come cheap. Whalers are great too but same deal.

The other thing to remember if you are thinking of buying a boat is power. Most outboards are OK but in the price range you're looking, you'll end up with an older two stroke. They'll run forever and stink the whole time. You're other option will be an I/O. Stay with a Merc or a Volvo Penta, NO OMC. I was at a marina earlier today and heard the same old story, 93 OMC I/O, needs $75 part that's no longer made, owners are going to have to put $2000 into "updating" ignition system to make it serviceable. Once again, NO OMC. I/O, stick with a Merc. they're common and easy to get parts for. A lot of the stuff you can do yourself.

Other than that, have fun with you're purchasing. Too many people try to get too much information before doing something and end up missing either good deals or talk themselves out of a good boat due to something they've heard. Every boat has owners with horror stories so I wouldn't worry too much what you hear. The only other thing to remember, there's a reason boat manufacturers go under. If it's not being made today, I'd probably stay away from it.

 

[pcarlson1911]

I agree that a Trophy seems like a good boat for the money.

I have been looking at the 20' baha cruisers there are two, one a 95 in good shape for 8500. The other in very good condition a 96 with no rot construction for 10900. I like the idea of the no rot floor stringers and transom. They both have a volvo penta 135hp. Avg retail in NADA is 7200 for both boats, so I don't think I have found my deal yet.....