high hour/ no hour boat ?'s

I just read another thread and It was asking about a ski school boat.This brought up the age old question of a high hour heavily weighted boat.Doesn't it seem like if you run a boat hard {Any CIE guy's) with alot of wieght that any issues are going to surface sooner than later? Kind of like the old work truck vs. the new truck theory, Been throught the ringer and If it hasn't broke yet it aint going to break. I would love a new boat don't get me wrong. But I would almost rather have someone else go through the hassle's of fixing all the little things before me. But I would not buy one of Schwennes old boats......HAHA thats a little excessive even for my better judgment.I've seen alot of low hour boats in worse shape than a freinds boat thats always slammed, That being said if he would take the 35 grand I keep offering I would buy his boat.

I wouldn't shy way from high hour boats... more than likely they are well maintaned and not gummed up from barely being used.

Most likely a ski school boat isnt abused.. the price break makes it attractive for sure!

My boats have between 6-800 hours on them when I turn them back in, and I wouldn't shy away from it at all. It all depends on the owner though. I keep up with all the scheduled maintenance, so I'm pretty sure the thing will run a lot longer with little to no problems. One thing to check into, is a lot of school boats have never been titled, so the warranty starts from the day you buy it, not from when the school had it.

Good point travis.... I guess this is key... you'd have 3 years from the day you bought it and regardless of the hours...

I guess the dealer you bought it from is key..

They have alot of say in the schools that use the boats and they regulate on how they get treated.

Having run a few professional skiing operations I would have to say it depends on each situation. We ran the ClubMed boats 2000+ hours per year. We used outboards because the motors would be junk at the end of the year. Part of the problem was that the drivers rotated assignments every 6 months and did not care about the boats. In Tahiti where there was a Tahitian mechanic responsible for the boats things were kept up much better than they were in Martinique.

At MarineWorld way back in the day we used MasterCraft prostar 190s in Salt Water. They would get pretty beat by the end of the summer, not a boat I would ever want to own regardless of the level of reconditioning. The one exception was the mechanics boat, only he drove it an it was never used for show practice.

In general I would say one hour of commercial use is equivalent to two or three hours of personal use.

The "retired" ski school boat may last a long time but I would not consider it unless it was a screaming deal, based on my experience with boats in commercial use.

My boat, 05 X-2, was a ski school boat. I have put almost 150hrs this past year on it and I cant tell a difference from the day I got it. Demo boats are maintained regularly and if there are any issues, the local dealer is responsible for it. Not only is it the schools rep, but also the manufacturer and local dealer, so if there are any issues they are taken care of. When I bought mine, it was not titled and I got full factory warranty, and I got a great deal as well.

My MB was a ski school boat, but the ski school was run by my dealer so it was very well maintained. I bought it with over 400hrs. We now have almost 800 on it and have had very few, very minor problems. All covered by factory warranty starting from the date of purchase.
I guess I would take a hard look at the school and the maintenance program used by the school.
Also I would have an independent dealer check out the boat prior to any transaction. If it wasn't under warranty or from a non-dealer.

Another advantage of getting a demo boat is that the dealers and manufactureres are hoping the demo boat will help sell a few more, so they are usually loaded out with options. My X-2 was LOADED with about $5K of options.