looking at older sunsetters and have sume question

I meant SOME questions

I am just going to copy and paste what i wrote on themalibucrew forums and see if you guys can be a little more insightful. All they tried to do was convince me to go into debt to buy a boat.

I grew up near the Delta in Stockton and now live in Fresno with my wife and 8 month old daughter and most importantly away from
my parents who own a boat. The last 2 years i was working on a 1985 ski sierra supreme (stringers and floor were rotten)
that was just becoming too much of a hassle.
I sold the boat and my wife and i agreed that we would look for something more turn key.
I have found 2 Malibu sunsetters and i'm trying to find out which one i should go after or if i should wait for something different altogether

The First one is a 1986
its listed right now for about 5700
and it needs a new tranny.
I think i've found one that will run me about 500 and i think i can install it myself (is this pretty straight forward)
The boat had the floor carpet and upholstery redone a couple years back.
the engine says commander on it and has an older style exhaust. (should this concern me)
the trailer is also showing rust and the brakes need to be bled. i assume they have been dry for some time.
It has what the owner calls a crappy stereo system, pylon and new cover.
The exterior is pretty oxidized and the owner got a quote to wetsand or buff it out for 200 extra. I'll probably pay
All said and done i'll have 6400 into it

the second boat is a 1991
listed at 7500 and negotiable
pretty sure i can get it below 7000
here are the owners email answer to some of my questions.
It has 741 hours, was stored with a boat cover in front of our house (not under covered area),
the trailor does have brakes, there are no problems with the transmission,
we put a new stereo/CD player in this summer with speakers and the floor is wood with carpet cover.
There are no soft spots in the floor, but the wood under the rear seat started showing signs of needing to be replaced my husband said.
(do you think he means the removable piece of floor over the drive shaft?)
It needs a good cleaning, but otherwise is in good condition. We will consider offers
From the pictures it looks like the interior is pretty good but the side panels look pretty bad and the drivers seat looks
like it has some torn stitching. It looks like the picture were taken with the upholstery wet because it seemed like all the upholstery was loose. (if that makes sense)
The exerior also has some oxidation but not bad at all.

I have the following options that i bought with the intention of using on my project boat.
Lightning universal tower
Clarion marine head unit with 4 clarion marine speakers and disc changer
2 nvert board racks
and perfectpass wakeboard pro

so if you were me. What would you do?

(Message edited by ldr on January 24, 2008)

I dont think I can make that decision for you. What I would first ask a few questions about what your looking for: Why a sunsetter? What are your intentions with the boat, ski, wake, family, etc.? How soon do you want one? and is your price range somewhere around 7k?

The reason I ask these is, dollar for dollar I think a nautique 2001 cant be beat for a wake-able boat.

I had an 86 Sunsetter and I really liked the boat overall. I paid around 5K for it intially. Mine had a Mercruiser engine in it and I never had many issues other than general maintenance after I put an electronic ignition on it. The floor/stringers were in pretty bad shape and when I bought it, most of the seats, combing pads and other wood pieces had a pretty fair amount of rot in them. I pretty much replaced every piece wood in the boat and I had gotten to the point where the floor only had another season or two before it needed to be replaced and I sold it. The 86 was an early year for the Sunsetter and as I rehabbed it, I could see things that weren't finished off as well as Correct Crafts or Mastercrafts of the same era. So, I would check over the floor and also the interior pieces, bases and combing pads for rot. I don't know much about the Commander engine, but I have seen them in other older ski boats and I am sure skidim.com has parts for them. Mercruiser and PCM parts are pretty easy to find, so I would factor that in. It was a project boat for me and it was a cheap way to transition to an inboard. When weighted properly, it had a great shape and me and my crew experienced alot of progression behind the boat as we had moved up from an I/O. Good luck with your decision, the 91 sounds like a pretty good deal to me. In the off season, you can find people to redo interior pieces for a little cheaper, so that might help you out with your budget.

Matt,

my main priority is size and functionality for family and friends, the wake comes second and resale value and just overall value also play a role.

I do want to stay in the $7000 dollar range
The one thing i don't want is another project involving wood rot.

I like the Sunsports for their depth but there aren't many around here.
I think Malibus look better but then you sacrifice depth.

(Message edited by ldr on January 24, 2008)

(Message edited by ldr on January 24, 2008)