New Sea Ray Owner

[PJB3]

Purchased a 2011 240SD recently. Had been looking for the right one for well over a year as they are rarely for sale in this area, and any boats 2011 and later were either too far to travel to see, too expensive, or in rough shape. Lo and behold I found one online a few months ago that to my surprise was pictured sitting outside the garage at my marina. The guy that owns the place apparently has winterized and done all the maintenance on that boat it's entire life so after checking it out completed the purchase. Extremely lucky.

Needs some serious buffing and love for the paint as the red color gets very dull very fast but for the most part boat is very clean and only has 125 hours on it.

My previous boat was a 2007 Godfrey Sanpan 25' with a 150hp, so this is going to be a learning curve and a little harder on the wallet, but I have friends and family who are docked with me who currently own Sea Rays so won't be too bad. The old pontoon was a wonderful boat, but much larger than we really needed and this boat will get us to the city and back much more efficiently.

Forum has been helpful already as a lurker - I found a thread about a stereo upgrade and replacement that will be very helpful. So basically just wanted to introduce myself and say hello and thanks in advance to anyone fielding my newbie questions about the Sundeck.

 

[Fill Ess]

Welcome and looks like a great boat!

 

[blaster]

Thats a great boat. I’m sure you will love it. Congratulations.

 

[All's Well]

Congratulations on the great find, clean her all up and get to the water

 

[GirlyGirl1999]

Welcome! You can’t go wrong here…well you can but if you stay away from the bikini thread you should be ok. Very nice boat, we started by looking for a 260/280 SD but then found the 290 DA, Enjoy!
Jon

 

[PJB3]

Thanks to all. I've lurked long enough that I have also been able to figure out what the references to plywood over the bow are. So I guess it was time for me to start actually posting....

 

[Espos4]

Thanks to all. I've lurked long enough that I have also been able to figure out what the references to plywood over the bow are. So I guess it was time for me to start actually posting....

Sounds like you’ll fit in just fine here!

 

[PJB3]

So, an update to this thread it's been quite a month since I posted. First, she's in the water and running well. Needs a different prop probably. But a few days after I posted I filled the freshwater tank to be greeted by the sweet smell of gasoline. I'm guessing it was over half full of gas in a nine gallon tank and no idea whatsoever how long it had been running around on the water, on a trailer etc. with a potential disaster sitting right there under the deck. PO said they never once used the freshwater system or the head and that actually holds up. My theory is that they had a friend or a kid using the boat one day and someone just wasn't paying attention and thought they were filling in the right spot. I doubt the PO would have made that mistake and just left it there obviously.

So, had to bust out the bulkhead in the bow locker and a friend and I carefully had to muscle the tank out and overboard while trying like hell not to spill gas-water all over the deck and seats. Got a little on the deck but that cleaned up great. Then we did our best to dawn and simple green that hold and the bilge to get the vapors and residue out.

So now I have no freshwater system or tank which was a feature that I don't really care about but she would have enjoyed it primarily the sprinkler on the swim platform. I will replace the tank next year and probably the lines as well although there's no evidence anywhere that the gas was actually pumped through the system. Fill line and tank vent are probably going to be least fun to replace. It was an as-is sale, we knew the few small things we needed to do and had checked out the primary mechanical things, but man I just never thought about putting my nose in to the freshwater cap to smell for gas.

Oh well, she's floating and in the slip for a few weeks now. I'm not great at backing her in at all but hopefully that will improve with more hours and experience. Now I guess I'm off to wander around and dig up info on how people have modified their cabin lighting. Hope you're all having a wonderful start to the season, or depending on where you live, maybe you're pretty far in already!

 

[Little Ducky]

Great looking boat.

Where in Western PA?
I grew up on the Allegheny River near Freeport PA and loved every bit of boating throughout the summer.

 

[PJB3]

On the Ohio, downstream from the city just a bit near Neville. Close enough to get through one lock and get to the city quickly when you want to, but far from the madness of that pool on a weekend. I don't know the last time you were on the river here but the South Side Marina has gotten pretty large, and the one at Washington's Landing is about four times the size it used to be. If we go up, it will be primarily on weekdays just to anchor out for a few hours with some friends.

Obviously the Ohio can be a little nasty because of the Mon but the last two years the water has been great so we've been lucky. the Allegheny up near Freeport is beautiful. When did you leave town? I am checking out your thread on the work you did on your Sundancer, good stuff!

 

[blaster]

More than once I have had a dock hand try to fill my rod holder with gas. Thats a bad situation but the freshwater system is way worse!

 

[PJB3]

More than once I have had a dock hand try to fill my rod holder with gas. Thats a bad situation but the freshwater system is way worse!

I’ve heard that exact same thing from a few people that I’ve told the story to, also seems like fuel ends up in waste tanks a lot when people just aren’t paying attention. I just can’t believe they were running around with that in there for who knows how many years. Very glad I didn’t end up on the river opening the sink valve and finding out the hard way about it…