[Proline Boats]

Didn't meant to quote Ludi in my reply. Hope they are having a great cruise.

Mike, do you have any pictures of a subwoofer install in a 26SS?

No, I dont.

Maybe, Jim Kogler, at (800) 344-1281, Customer Service, Monday thru Thursday.

I dont think he will, but it's worth a try.

[Proline Boats]

Proline? Who would want to own one of those?

THANKS LUDDY!

Your always a great asset to the site.

Your hard work is really appreciated.

Now, how come your not on that cruise with your very lovely wife?

You'd rather hang out with us?

Well, there's no accounting for taste.

His wife is very beautiful, a lovely lady, and he'd rather post pictures of boats?

Go figure, huh?

[Proline Boats]

Proline? Who would want to own one of those?

THANKS LUDDY!

Your always a great asset to the site.

Your hard work is really appreciated.

Now, how come your not on that cruise with your very lovely wife?

You'd rather hang out with us?

[Proline Boats]

THANKS LUDDY!

Your always a great asset to the site.

Your hard work is really appreciated.

Now, how come your not on that cruise with your very lovely wife?

You'd rather hang out with us?

[HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUDICROUS!]

Thanks everyone! Celebrating by taking the wife on a 7 day cruise.

HAPPY B'DAY LUDDY!

BTW:

As lovely as your wife is, your a very lucky man.

Enjoy your cruise.

[Are Boat Shows a Thing of the Past?]

Just looking for opinions here. Are you still attending shows? Are they still viable? Do they still have something to offer the buying public; or is the internet the best way to gather information? As a long time industry person; I'm curious as to the input we might get from dealers and buyers alike. Let's hear it!!

Good topic and question Jim.

Last few years, a dealer attending a show, spending $20,000-$30,000 and more for the space, not to mention the logistics, all the realted expenses, vs. the boats sold at the show, makes for a very valid question.

For the last few years, an often spoken about issue.

You know what I'm saying without my saying all of it to you, of course.

I think shows are very good for the consumer.

An opportunity to see all under one roof, with all of us trying to earn the business.

On the other hand, how much longer can the expense of the major shows be justified?

I've just spent over two weeks moving boats, setting up the Miami display, working in the display every day, then breaking it down and transporting boats again. You dont need me to tell you as to the costs of it all. And, for the last two years we've scaled down our display and expenses substantially, both Miami and Lauderdale. Also, as you well know, the $20,000-$30,000 that I mentioned has nothing to do with the costs of shows like Miami, Lauderdale, and yours.

Very good question you posted.

[Seven Marine 557 HP Outboard Video]

4 people actually spoke during the Press Conference. I edited it down to just include the engine announcement.

I'm sure they read the script to be sure of the accuracy of the information with all the media around.

I was so involved with my own issues and problems re Miami, I missed the presentation.

Mike Collins, the new hero at CONTENDER walked me over to the display.

I'm pretty impressed.

No, it's not a new idea at all, but,I think, done well.

I wish them luck and the financial backing required.

The former we all live.

The latter is a little harder to come by in todays world.

I hope they do well.

[Seven Marine 557 HP Outboard Video]

So what is with Ken Clinton and his stupid mustache? Love to see what the motor can do, hate that POS!

I was so involved with my own issues, didn't even know about it.

Collins told me about it and we walked over to look at them.

Pretty impressive stuff.

[Miami Boat Show Pictures]

Sending you the pix's tomorrow! Gotta get Dan's photos on my card. Still going through mine and deleting any bad photos. Good show this year. Little smaller than in years past but in my opinion better than last year. Only got one video, 32 Contender with twin 300's that did 66mph. It was pretty funny because a "pontoon boat" almost blew past us at about 50 mph but Dan yelled to the driver, "dude your gonna get passed by a pontoon!" Driver did the right thing and pegged the throttles for the checkered flag!

Your efforts are always appreciated and a great service to us all.

THANKS!

[MIAMI BOAT SHOW - SIGN IN]

I'll be there on the 17th, 18th and 19th. Me and my buddy Dan will shoot photos, lots of photos. Think I'll handle the sorting and posting this year too. Hope to shoot some high definition 1080p videos on some sea trials.

I am hoping the Miss Geico Team will let me be the throttleman on a sea trial too...

You've always been a great service to all of us.

Thanks for your efforts.

[WILEY]

Thanks... what'd I do?

The issue from the THT site.

[WILEY]

You've demonstrated to all that your a gentleman.

THANK YOU!

[Demo Boat Rides]

thtmod4 ,

You sir have way over stepped your bounds and have been reported to the Admin.

It takes a lot of balls or a very stupid person to join another forum and make threats , you might want to get with Wiley and talk about this.

You dont really think it was Mod 4 posting, do you?

[Demo Boat Rides]

thtmod4 ,

You sir have way over stepped your bounds and have been reported to the Admin.

It takes a lot of balls or a very stupid person to join another forum and make threats , you might want to get with Wiley and talk about this.

[Anyone Tried to Buy a Boat Lately?]

Mike,

Glad to see you over here. I enjoyed reading your posts over there and I have learned a lot from them. Doubt I could have showed your restraint sometimes though.

Butch

Too Reel,

Apologize for going O/T on you.

Butch

"Restraint"? Not a big deal.

I expect a heckler now and then, it goe's with the territory.

Fot the most part I'm not beat up very much.

After all, God invented a sense of humor, and alchohol, for such occasions.

She anticipated that for me.

[Anyone Tried to Buy a Boat Lately?]

This was not the case. This was a repo boat and the electronics and a few other things had been striped. They were asking 40K for the boat and 2500 for the trailer. I just asked for the trailer to be inclued in the deal. By the time I put 5 or 6 thousand more in the boat it would have been similar to what they were selling in boat tader etc.

Too bad about the 24SS.

If I priced a boat at say 10% to 20% below dealer cost to turn it, and you offered me 10% below that, I would decline. Politely, but none the less, could not do it.

strange thing going on with new and used boats, usually 24' and below.

In the case of new, business being as it is, dealer inventories of small new boats has never been lower.

The lenders, the floorplan folks have for a large part made it very difficult for a dealer to inventory in any quanity, and for a very large part, the dealer doesn't want to anyway.

We, PRO-LINE, have just introduced an internal floorplan arrangement with selected dealers to overcome, we hope, the problem. If the dealer doe's not stock the product, our people cant work. If the dealer stocks the product, with our money, not his, then we anticipate the product turning, and our people working.

As to used, also business being as it is, the lack of new boats being sold in any kind of numbers has greatly limited the trades, the used boat selection. It's been a topic lately. The used boat market is far less of a buyers market than some think. Sure, plenty of used boats out there. Problem is, desireable used boats at a reasonable price, not neccessarily a "steal", a fair price, are not there in any quanity at all. My dealers are trying to buy all they can get.

Repo's are a seperate issue altogeather. In the case of a new boat repo, sometimes it's the same price as I would sell one, sometimes it's less. Lots of variables there. With me, missing parts, broken something or other, wrong props, undisclosed hours, the customer is 100% covered by my company. With a liquidator you'll be signing an "as is". Sometimes that's ok, sometimes not so good.

The price on a repo is determined by the lendor, the owner of the boat. It is not determined by the liquidator. I sold two this week, both 29'S. In both cases the product sat long enough that the bank took the offers I submitted to them. A few months ago, they would not have. BTW, in both cases the two buyers are 100% bullitproof as to condition, being complete, everything there, everything in sound working condition, and certified that no hours exsist on the product. The buyer is the first user.

Small boats in general, the "deals" have for a large part gone away. There's some, but not nearly the quanity that exsisted six months ago. I'm sold out of some of my most popular models.

I truly anticipate, by spring, the best deals will have gone away.

Maybe I'm right, maybe not, lets see.

[Anyone Tried to Buy a Boat Lately?]

15 calls/emails over the last couple of months and only 3 reply's. It's not like I was making low ball offers or anything. I just wanted to know things like hours/maintenance/more pictures etc. These are both dealers and individuals from Miami to Destin.

The one offer I made was within 10% of the asking price and I got a stone cold no.

Anybody had the same experience? It is getting kind of frustrating.

Looking for a good family friendly fishing boat 23-25 feet, preferably with twins. Shortlist is Sailfish 2360, ProLine 24SS, Donzi 23 ZF and SeaChaser 2400.

The PRO-LINE 24SS has been discontined for "2010".

The 23 SPORT that was introduced a few years back hurt the sales of the 24SS to the extent the model has been discontinued.

It's a guess, only a guess, that an offer of 10% below the asking price would then go to what the asking price was.

I do all the factory pricing for PRO-LINE.

The goal was to liquidate all non current product prior to the winter months.

In doing so my priceing was below dealer cost.

Made more sense to do that than pay interest on the product all winter.

My internal inventory, and field inventory is quite low with small boats.

We were quite succesful accomplishing what our plan was.

If I priced a boat at say 10% to 20% below dealer cost to turn it, and you offered me 10% below that, I would decline. Politely, but none the less, could not do it.

[Anyone Tried to Buy a Boat Lately?]

15 calls/emails over the last couple of months and only 3 reply's. It's not like I was making low ball offers or anything. I just wanted to know things like hours/maintenance/more pictures etc. These are both dealers and individuals from Miami to Destin.

The one offer I made was within 10% of the asking price and I got a stone cold no.

Anybody had the same experience? It is getting kind of frustrating.

Looking for a good family friendly fishing boat 23-25 feet, preferably with twins. Shortlist is Sailfish 2360, ProLine 24SS, Donzi 23 ZF and SeaChaser 2400.

[Formula 233 update]

I believe the foam cut away for the tank custom fit will be considerably more porous with the surface skin removed unless those surfaces are somehow carefully completely resealed. It looks like you are doing a great job and I applaud the care to allow drainage under the tanks, but I too have some inexpert concern about the foam . If any foam is supporting the tank underneath , consider also it will eventually crush to some degree.

BLY published photo's on the other forum of his "233" project.

His fuel tank installation looks to me to be textbook perfect.

His explanation of the tanks installation is right on the money to my belief.

[Formula 233 update]

The U.S.C.G. publishes THE BOAT BUILDERS HANDBOOK.

Fuel tank installations are well covered.

If it were me, and it's only one man's opinion, I think I'd go there and take a look.

N.M.M.A and A.B.Y.C. also.

Info is probobly easier obtained the the C.G. though.

Surroundong a tank with foam, proper installation of the tank, how it's held in place, movement acceptable, perhaps a lot of information that is free, very instructive, and maybe good to know in your situation, at the stage your at.

It's only a suggestion.

[Formula 233 update]

Nice workmanship, but you are making a mistake foaming in the tank. The above comments are correct about the foam and water. It's not good to set a metal tank in foam, but many manufacturers do it. The coal tar epoxy will help some, but water will eventually corrode the aluminum. The tank needs to be mounted in a manner that water cannot get trapped next to it. Also, the tank should not rest on the bottom of the boat, it should be supported by the stringers. The hull bottom is not made to support that much weight.

Here is the correct way to do it http://www.yachtsurvey.com/fueltank.htm

Also, USCG regulations require that the tank cannot move more than 1/4" in any direction, including up. I'd weld 4 aluminum tabs to the top of the tank and secure them to the stringers.

Very good.

As a manufactuter I dont wish to advise as to fuel tank installations where I'm not involved.

U.S.C.G. is very clear as to the subject.

It would be a shame to see all the work he's put into it and remain with the tank installtion he shows.

[Formula 233 update]

BLY is correct.

Dont allow water to collect in or around or on top of the foam you used around your fuel tank.

Your photo shows quite a large area for water to collect and stand.

If it were me, I wouldn't allow that.

[New boat question]

I just purchased a new 2009 boat. Origin doc includes engine, but the engine serial number is not listed. I noticed when I got home with the boat that the outboard has a manufacture date of 2007. Is this unusual?

First YAMAHA, then followed by MERCURY, HONDA and just now, SUZUKI have "born dates" instead of year model. At first a little confusuing, but not a big deal.

[Hours on a Proline]

Mike,

I believe when we were building the 19 Sport, the Merc power options included a 135, not a 125. The 135 is of course standard Mercury fare, nothing to do with anything "Classic" or Force.

Bob,

Actually, early "2000"'S we did offer the 125.

It's in the PIG.

I, for sure, dont remember it though?????

Someone said, The mind is a terrible thing to waste"

I think that's me.

[Hours on a Proline]

Mike,

I believe when we were building the 19 Sport, the Merc power options included a 135, not a 125. The 135 is of course standard Mercury fare, nothing to do with anything "Classic" or Force.

Bob, I'm going to correct myself again.

In his year range, we did offer the 125.

90 both carb and four stroke

115 four stroke

125 carb

135 "Opti"

150 EFI and "Opti.

Later on discontinued the 125.

The power selection changed some over the years.

Man, I'm tellin ya, this is making my brain hurt.