Interesting, now elitist Land Rover clubs have entered the tread. :lol:
No worries. We have both a Land Rover and a Range Rover but I'm not going to talk about them.
Interesting, now elitist Land Rover clubs have entered the tread. :lol:
I wonder if female boat owners refer to their floating luv affair as he or him.
Six years ago when at a Seattle Boat show the new boat price of a large Meridian was way too close to that of the GBs and OAs thus the Bayliner/Meridian business model of the past faded in the target audience's mind.
No worries. We have both a Land Rover and a Range Rover but I'm not going to talk about them.
I love all boats, but then have my personal preferences for ownership.
What political office did you say you were running?
Business experience...no politics. But I do believe the good boats far outnumber the bad ones. That said, there are some builders, some people in the business I would never buy anything from. If they were selling dollar bills for three quarters, I'd run. In new boat buying reputation, financial condition, and business ethics are very important to me.
And my political views would give the evening news more sound bites than they can handle. But I keep them to myself.
I love all boats....
Sorry, I was joking.
I don't. When I walk through our large marina most of the boats there, power and sail, do not attract my attention at all other than my noting that they're physically there. This is why I would never own a Bayliner. Nothing to do with their quality or intelligence in their configuration or value for money.
I happen to think they are just about the least aesthetic, most boring-looking boats on the planet. The only model of Bayliner that I feel is somewhat aesthetically interesting is the old early 80s 3888. But the rest of them, from the low 20s on up through the high 40s I find to be aesthetic yawns.
To us, if a boat doesn't look good (to our sense of aesthetics) we have no interest in owning or operating it.
Which to us rules out almost all the production boats. Even Grand Banks are skating on thin ice with us aesthetically. Price has nothing to do with this. As a group, the most butt-ugly boats in our marina we think are the Nordhavns. I see a Nordhavn and I wonder what the hell the naval architect was thinking when he drew the lines. Or perhaps he didn't draw the lines and left it to the plant custodial staff to come up with them after he'd designed the basic boat. (A lot of cars are like this. Designer draws the front and the middle and then goes to lunch and leaves it to the janitor to do the back end).
The number of production boats that we like in terms of their aesthetics is tiny. And a boat we don't like in terms of its looks are boats that we have virtually no interest in at all.
Which is why when someone comes up and wants to talk to us about their Carver or something I politely excuse myself by saying I have to go see a man about a horse.
No worries. We have both a Land Rover and a Range Rover but I'm not going to talk about them.
I had a broker tell me several years ago that he loved Bayliner because they put more people on the water than any other builder. I looked around and found these numbers and the 47xx isn't included. I doubt any other builder comes close to building a similar sized boats anywhere near these production totals.
Total Production per Bayliner:
32xx---3200
38xx---2100
45xx---617
We figure their aesthetics appeal to the owner even if not our choice..
Bayliner is thousands, while others are hundreds.
Bayliner did the same thing on small runabouts. They reached an audience that couldn't afford Glastron, Larson, and Sea Ray. It changed the entire boating landscape. About like what Vizio did for televisions. I'm for anything that gets people into a boat. (Assuming a safe boat). Right now runabout builders are trying to do that with outboards. As to cruisers, the boat today that gets people into their first cruiser is Sea Ray. No one else comes close to their volume in the 30'-60' range.
Absolutely. Aesthetics are in the eye of the beholder. I'm sure the few production boat designs I like are not liked by plenty of other folks. Obviously there are plenty of people out there who like the look of Bayliners or they would not have sold as many as they did, price point or no price point.
I know I will get a lot of ____ for even posting this question..but are Bayliners that bad...For a boat to go cruising in the San Juans, Gulf Islands of British Columbia, or maybe even Alaska I don't see why they are held in such low regard. There are some things that I like about them, no teak outside, nice lines ( looking at the 38 foot), Hino diesels which don't seem to be a bad motor... PRICE....I could spend half the cost of a more popular trawler, buy a Bayliner and have the extra money to spend cruising for a few years......
It seems to me that many first time boat buyers buy Bayliners and that maybe Bayliners reputations suffers more from their owner's then from the quality (or lack of quality) in the boats themselves
p.s. lets be nice when answering this question.....
thanks
If you go for the 4788, join Bayliner Owners Club - Home. Tons of knowledge there. The sticky doors are easily repaired. Engine room access is dramatically improved by adding a center access hatch in the salon floor. And so on. We love our 4788!
Yes, I cannot imagine the boat withouth the center engine access hatch! With the center hatch engine access is fantastic!
Hmmm. That's interesting. Was this something that Bayliner eventually designed in on later boats?
What year did the hatch become standard? Sorry for thread hijack.
Hmmm. That's interesting. Was this something that Bayliner eventually designed in on later boats?