Seeking Advice. I have a 2007 305 Express with roughly 1300 hours. Was thinking of upgrading to a 2018 330 Express to have a more modern boat. But now I am wondering if a repower is the more cost effective way to go. All the electronics werre upgraded 2yrs ago, just before I purchased it. Overall condition is pretty good, and I love the boat. I'm just wanting to get the Helm Master and worry free engines. Although the current outboards have been pretty worry free to this point.
Repower or Upgrade?
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PointedRose
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How long would you keep the boat if you repower? I’d want to get close to 10 years probably out of new engines. Of course you probably would put more hours than I would.
I upgraded to a 330 Express from a Marlin 30 many years ago. I liked the roomier cabin area for family weekenders and generally more elbow room for passengers/fishing buddies. These were BIG issues for me so an easy decision. In your case, you say you LOVE your boat so why change? You know your boat and how it's been maintained - worth something rather than a new, used boat that you will have to figure out.
Mustang65fbk
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I'm a numbers guy, and most of the time the numbers have the biggest influence on something for me. How much did you pay for your boat? How much do you think you could sell it for? What would be the difference in price between what you think you could sell your boat for and what you'd spend on the newer boat? How much do you figure it would cost to repower your current boat? Obviously you don't need to answer or give the information asked above, but those things are definitely something to think about. If for example, you bought your boat for say $100k and have another $20k into it, but think you could only sell it for say $75k... that's a pretty decent sized loss right there, which would make me consider keeping the boat and just running it as is. That being said, if you can break even, close to it, or maybe even make some money off of selling your current boat. That would definitely make me consider upgrading to the newer one if it isn't going to cost all that much more, especially if you plan on keeping the newer one for several years and can justify those added costs. I also think buying a boat, especially a newer one, that has had a repower done to it already, or that has considerably newer motors, would be money well spent. As it seems like those that repower older hulls don't usually get the money back out of the boat when they go to resell it that they just spent on the repower, if that makes sense. I'd hate to see someone spend the "$100k" on the boat, put another "$20k" into it and then another say $50k+ on top of that for a repower, and then have their boat still only be worth oh idk... $100k? Fortunately, I bought my boat for cheap enough that I figured I could repower my boat and still make money, or at least break even off of it, if I ever needed to and/or decided to sell her. I know that's unfortunately not always the case for everyone, though.
Gowiththeflo
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Wow , going thru the same situation . I also have the same boat and year & luv the boat . I was been agonizing over re powering from 250 to the new 300s and new fly by wire etc.. . Personally the 305 is an easy boat to run By yourself so the 33 really don’t get me that excited . However do we move up 10 or so years for newer hull or spend $65k and have many years of hopefully trouble free . Ps I have 1500 hrs . Million dollar question when is it time . Luv the feedback
Thanks Capts and Good luck I’m in the same boat. Haha literally