Need Opinions On a Boat

[erikh45]

I know with the heading I am opening a can of worms.

I am thinking of buying another boat. I have an aluminum boat I can take into rougher water, but I am looking for something that I can use in more of a vacation setting. Something I can pull the kids around on a tube or skis. I have been looking at a 1989 Tracker 1800 FS. with a 1990 Evinrude 150 on it. It has a trolling motor, flasher, depth finder, cover, and ski pylon. Seems like a boat that could be multi purpose for messing around on the lake. Anybody have any experience with the boat and or motor? What should I be leary of, and what type of info would be good seeing as this is an older boat? The guy is asking $6000 which seems way steep to me, but it is worth a look. I will be looking tomorrow and may have more info then.

I have had numerous boats in the past from 14 ft alumacrafts to a 20ft Glastron w/a Yamaha 200 hp V-6, to a 28ft Bayliner. All of which served their purpose. Just looking for what others have experienced.

[trackerbrent]

This is the exact same boat I have, except mine is a 1990 with a Johnson, same thing.

Negatives:Not a good boat for pulling tubers and skiers. I have skied twice behind mine. I can get up on one, but takes forever. Once I started cutting, I yanked the boat everywhere. Does not turn worth a darn, will skip around turns. There is also not enough room in the boat for people or gear while doing watersports. If you put people in the seats in front of the counsols, the boat handles even worse in turns and in chop. Construction of boat is not that good, none of the wood used is fully glassed in. There is exposed wood ends everywhere. Mine needs a new tansom now which is going to be my winter project. If you do go and look at it, remove the aluminum cap over the tansom. You can do this without damaging anything or removing motor. Use a coat hanger and poke around through a screw hole to check for rot. If you can not do that, look for stress cracks in the splash well and beat on the transom with a rubber mallet to listen for dead spots.

Positives:Great boat for fishing 2 people. Boat is also very fast as it tops 60 MPH. Can launch in very shallow water. Handles bigger water pretty good, I take mine to Mille Lacs quite often.

I paid less than $6,000 for mine 5 years ago and it was in good shape. I would pay between $3,000-$4,000 today if the boat was in good shape and had a good transom, no more. I love my boat, so it is not all bad.