fellinger said:
Good evening. I am considering purchasing a friend's 1995 GW 272 Sailfish rigged with twin 200 Johnson Ocean Pros (carbbed). The motors have between 300-600 hours on them and have never had any major problems. Yearly maint is performed by a reputable mechanic. He is offering the boat for $15k. The boat shows some age but, has no cracks or soft spots. Outside cushions could use a cleaning and/or replacing and the cabin is pretty mint. He has owned the boat for the last 5 years and it mostly got bay use.
My questions...
- Is the price fair?
- What do I need to know about this model year GW?
- What should I expect as fuel burn rate with these motors? I was thinking 1.5mpg total??
- Are these engines known to be work horses or duds?
Any other information, advice, or experiences would be welcomed.
Thanks!
Fred
Here is what I do when I'm pricing the boats I sell. Go to "yachtworld.com" or any other boat sales website. Put it the year or year range/size of your boat in order to get an idea of what they are going for in certain areas. In your case I would put in 1990-2000 27 Grady White and see what they're going for. That price seems fair to me as long as everything checks out.
I can't offer any information on that model. I tend to buy smaller Grady's in the 20-24' range. Just easier to sell/flip.
Those engines are notorious for fuel/oil consumption however they are very reliable and easy to work on/service. I've personally never owned a boat with that engine for longer than a year, but from my experience and what I've heard they are work horses for sure.
From my experience the weak point on them is the VRO pump (fuel/oil pump). Although I've been told the newer ones are more reliable than the older ones. Basically the problem is the oil side of the pump going and the alarm that is supposed to go off when there is "no oil flow" does not function properly. Resulting in powerhead failure. Like I said, I've been told older OMC's were more notorious for this than newer (mid to late 90's). In the yard I work at we have plenty of people still running the VRO pumps with no issues. On all OMC's I've owned I always bypass the oil injection, disconnect the alarm, and premix my fuel. Essentially eliminating the problem.
I cannot give exact fuel economy for those engines since I've never owned one long enough nor have I paid attention to it. What I can say is they are relatively simple engines to diagnose and work on and I recently purchased a 225 Ocean Runner with a blown powerhead that I plan on replacing the powerhead for my 24' offshore project.
Before I buy any boat, I always have a few quick things I checkout that help my decision. Run compression on the engines. I find these numbers more important than actual engine hours. Remove the drain plugs on the lower units just to see the quality of the oil and if there is any water in them. If you are able to run the engines, check to see they are both putting out to the batteries/pumping water/not overheating. Check steering cables/hoses, shift/throttle cables.
Check battery cables and whatever wiring you can get your eyes to. Looking at basic things like this will tell you how the boat was treated and what you're getting yourself into.
Good Luck with your decision.
Jason
