Well as of this weekend, I am now the proud owner of a 2000 265 express. Almost wasn't the case. A little story...
Saw this particular 265 for sale up in the Seattle area on Marketplace around middle of August, it was listed for 65k, which I thought was a bit high considering it has the OX66 250s on it. Also came with a triple axle trailer. Exchanged some messages with the seller. I'll leave out the random stuff, but he told me the powerheads had been replaced and have approx. 500 hours on them. Boat also has a Yamaha 9.,9 kicker, with all 3 tied in to the Simrad AP. Lowrance sounder is about 4 years old, he wasn't sure on the Garmin radar. Told him I was interested but needed to sell my North River before I was going to make a move. I was going to be up in his area around the first week of September and asked if I could come see the boat if it was still available, he said no problem.
Get up there to look at the boat, wasn't the best of days to look at it, pouring down rain. He did have it out of the water and on a trailer. Overall, it was decent, not perfect by any means. It was pretty dirty, some what I guess could be considered normal wear and tear for a 22-year-old boat. I didn't have time to take it out for a sea trial at that point. We talked for a while, and I told him I thought he was a bit overpriced for having the original 2 strokes on there. He kind of blew me off with the "yeah, yeah", which was fine as I was still trying to sell my boat.
Fast forward a few weeks, I get a message from the seller. He mentioned that I thought it was overpriced and asked where I thought it should be priced at. I explained to him that I had been looking at these boat off and on for 4-5 years and based off of my research he should be priced around 40k. I gave him some examples of boats on Boat trader and yacht world with the original OX66's that were in the low 40s that were in cleaner condition that his. Showed him some repowered 4 strokes that were anywhere from the mid 50s on up. He took my recommendation well, and said to keep an eye on his listing, and it would probably be in the ballpark. At the time, he said he would sell it to me for 40k if I had it funded by the end of the month. Mine still hadn't sold, so I knew that wasnt going to happen. I did happen to look, and he lowered his price to 45k on marketplace.
Well, a couple of weeks ago, mine finally sold, and his was still listed. I called and arranged to have a survey done. Survey came back mostly as I expected. The hull including transom was solid. The only issue with the hull that he found was a small area on the starboard side of the hull, just forward of the transom was a little soft. He didn't seem concerned with that at all, and just said to monitor it. He mentioned about lack of "care and cleanliness", pretty much stuff that I had noticed when I looked at it a couple of months earlier. The biggest issue was on the sea trial. Normal cruising from idle to 3900, engines and boat ran smooth. WOT about 3900 rpms port engine would stall out. Seller noted the Aux fuel tank was low/empty, so switched to the main tank, same thing. Seller said its fuel was low, was reading 2 "bars" on the gauge. Between talking with the seller and the surveyor, I was obviously getting 2 different stories. I'm pretty mechanically inclined, so that part of me says well if its low on fuel, both motors should have stalled. The surveyor agreed with me, saying the port motor is the only one that stalled. Seller, said, that both motors stalled.
I told the seller I would come up the following weekend to sea trial it with him with enough fuel in the tanks to rule that out, if all goes well, we can probably make a deal.
Made the 5-hour trek up there, we went over things on the boat again. I went over it a bit more closely this time since it wasn't raining. Went out for the sea trial, boat and engines ran smooth, but noticed he was having a hard time "controlling" the boat. He was giving a ton of steering input, but the boat wasn't reacting to it. Asked him to go ahead and open it up, he did, was running around 4900 rpms for a minute, then the port engine sputtered and stalled. Steering was getting worse. While we are sitting there, he is turning the wheel at least a full turn before the motors would make any movement. Not feeling very good at this point.
We get back to the dock, the better half and I go for a walk, and she and I agree it might be best to walk away based off the price. I wasn't to concerned with the steering, again, being mechanically inclined, I suspect it has a leak and has air in the system. Also based on the research I've done on the OX66, the LP fuel pumps seem to be a known issue that cause a similar problem. He said its been probably 2-3 years since they were last replaced. I had planned on going through and replacing all the filters, LP pumps, waterpumps, tstats, etc if I bought it anyway.
I tell the guy, sorry, but with not knowing exactly what its going to need, I think Im going to have to walk away. He understood, and I think he felt pretty bad as well that it went the way it did. I told him if he got the issues taken care of, to give me a call and maybe we can work something out. We get on the road, about 3 miles down the road, I get a text, "Since you're here, why dont we do it for 35k? That should be enough to cover the repairs"
I respond with, "Well, not knowing exactly what it's going to need, I'd be willing to spend 32k" and the deal was struck.
Overall I feel pretty good about the purchase. Once I got back and was poking around, I opened up the compartment in the vberth behind the helm, and the back of the helm is completely wet with hydraulic fluid. So it looks like it needs a new helm. I'll get all the maintenance stuff done I mentioned earlier and give her a good run to see if the stalling still occurs.
I had planned on doing a repower in the next couple of years anyways, so just need them to get by till then.
Saw this particular 265 for sale up in the Seattle area on Marketplace around middle of August, it was listed for 65k, which I thought was a bit high considering it has the OX66 250s on it. Also came with a triple axle trailer. Exchanged some messages with the seller. I'll leave out the random stuff, but he told me the powerheads had been replaced and have approx. 500 hours on them. Boat also has a Yamaha 9.,9 kicker, with all 3 tied in to the Simrad AP. Lowrance sounder is about 4 years old, he wasn't sure on the Garmin radar. Told him I was interested but needed to sell my North River before I was going to make a move. I was going to be up in his area around the first week of September and asked if I could come see the boat if it was still available, he said no problem.
Get up there to look at the boat, wasn't the best of days to look at it, pouring down rain. He did have it out of the water and on a trailer. Overall, it was decent, not perfect by any means. It was pretty dirty, some what I guess could be considered normal wear and tear for a 22-year-old boat. I didn't have time to take it out for a sea trial at that point. We talked for a while, and I told him I thought he was a bit overpriced for having the original 2 strokes on there. He kind of blew me off with the "yeah, yeah", which was fine as I was still trying to sell my boat.
Fast forward a few weeks, I get a message from the seller. He mentioned that I thought it was overpriced and asked where I thought it should be priced at. I explained to him that I had been looking at these boat off and on for 4-5 years and based off of my research he should be priced around 40k. I gave him some examples of boats on Boat trader and yacht world with the original OX66's that were in the low 40s that were in cleaner condition that his. Showed him some repowered 4 strokes that were anywhere from the mid 50s on up. He took my recommendation well, and said to keep an eye on his listing, and it would probably be in the ballpark. At the time, he said he would sell it to me for 40k if I had it funded by the end of the month. Mine still hadn't sold, so I knew that wasnt going to happen. I did happen to look, and he lowered his price to 45k on marketplace.
Well, a couple of weeks ago, mine finally sold, and his was still listed. I called and arranged to have a survey done. Survey came back mostly as I expected. The hull including transom was solid. The only issue with the hull that he found was a small area on the starboard side of the hull, just forward of the transom was a little soft. He didn't seem concerned with that at all, and just said to monitor it. He mentioned about lack of "care and cleanliness", pretty much stuff that I had noticed when I looked at it a couple of months earlier. The biggest issue was on the sea trial. Normal cruising from idle to 3900, engines and boat ran smooth. WOT about 3900 rpms port engine would stall out. Seller noted the Aux fuel tank was low/empty, so switched to the main tank, same thing. Seller said its fuel was low, was reading 2 "bars" on the gauge. Between talking with the seller and the surveyor, I was obviously getting 2 different stories. I'm pretty mechanically inclined, so that part of me says well if its low on fuel, both motors should have stalled. The surveyor agreed with me, saying the port motor is the only one that stalled. Seller, said, that both motors stalled.
I told the seller I would come up the following weekend to sea trial it with him with enough fuel in the tanks to rule that out, if all goes well, we can probably make a deal.
Made the 5-hour trek up there, we went over things on the boat again. I went over it a bit more closely this time since it wasn't raining. Went out for the sea trial, boat and engines ran smooth, but noticed he was having a hard time "controlling" the boat. He was giving a ton of steering input, but the boat wasn't reacting to it. Asked him to go ahead and open it up, he did, was running around 4900 rpms for a minute, then the port engine sputtered and stalled. Steering was getting worse. While we are sitting there, he is turning the wheel at least a full turn before the motors would make any movement. Not feeling very good at this point.
We get back to the dock, the better half and I go for a walk, and she and I agree it might be best to walk away based off the price. I wasn't to concerned with the steering, again, being mechanically inclined, I suspect it has a leak and has air in the system. Also based on the research I've done on the OX66, the LP fuel pumps seem to be a known issue that cause a similar problem. He said its been probably 2-3 years since they were last replaced. I had planned on going through and replacing all the filters, LP pumps, waterpumps, tstats, etc if I bought it anyway.
I tell the guy, sorry, but with not knowing exactly what its going to need, I think Im going to have to walk away. He understood, and I think he felt pretty bad as well that it went the way it did. I told him if he got the issues taken care of, to give me a call and maybe we can work something out. We get on the road, about 3 miles down the road, I get a text, "Since you're here, why dont we do it for 35k? That should be enough to cover the repairs"
I respond with, "Well, not knowing exactly what it's going to need, I'd be willing to spend 32k" and the deal was struck.
Overall I feel pretty good about the purchase. Once I got back and was poking around, I opened up the compartment in the vberth behind the helm, and the back of the helm is completely wet with hydraulic fluid. So it looks like it needs a new helm. I'll get all the maintenance stuff done I mentioned earlier and give her a good run to see if the stalling still occurs.
I had planned on doing a repower in the next couple of years anyways, so just need them to get by till then.
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