yachtworld 305 reviews

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Marlin 300 compared Robalo 305

• Thread starter Anonymous
• Start date Sep 2, 2009

Anyone ever looked at and compared the 2? Any likes and dislikes , mixing and matching of the 2?  

SoutheastFL

Well-known member.

I thoroughly checked out the Robalo 305 at the Miami Boat show when it came out a couple of years ago. The Robalo has terrible ergonomics compared to the Marlin. It's got a goofy raised gauge display at the helm that I felt blocked my forward visibility, just a terrible way to display them. It also had a molded in foot rest on the passenger side that tripped every person coming out of the cabin. I knew it was there and still tripped over it myself. It got to the point that a salesman stood there and warned people to be careful as they came up from the cabin, another terrible design. I felt the Robalo was very well built and had a higher degree of quality than the Marlin. It also had a nice sharp bow entry and I bet it slices through the rough water well. I see they've been putting on twin F350's, that much weight may influence the way it rides, test ride it to be sure. Be warned those F350's like to suck the gas too.  

I was on one at a local dealer for about 2 hours yesterday. It had a pair of 250's on it. I did not like the top pod arrangement as you stated, but could certainly live with it. The cockpit was way better than a Marlin for fishing. The fit and finish was excellent. The battery/electric compartment is the way it should be on all boats. The diesel gen and pump access looked fine to work on and maintain. The price was 150K and that was before bargaining. I am looking over all my options , I want to move up in size. I want a modern boat with modern building techniques, composites. Lighter materials with proper hull design equals a better fuel economy and softer ride. I need to take a ride over to the Pursuit dealer and spend a few hours over there too. I have never been brand loyal to anything, but I do always want what I like and feel is the best. I forgot to add the fish boxes were amazing ! The tackle center and bait prep is great and I fell in love with. I fish , so does my wife and kids. It is a real fishing machine. I love the 28 Carolina Classic, if is only came with outboards. Prop shaft are not for me when fishing the bay, I really really do NOT want 2 boats.  

I agree the Robalo does have more modern construction than the Marlin, fiberglass stringers vs wood covered with fiberglass mat in the Marlin. The windshield on the Marlin looks like it came from WalMart. You didn't mention if the Robalo you looked at was new or not, if it is $ 150K is a great price. I would think the F250's would be fine too. Pursuit came out with a new model last year, their 315 Offshore. Its the best of the best but with a higher price tag to match and only comes with F250s. Robalo has an owners group too, check it out: http://www.robaloboatowners.com  

Yes, the 150 was new. it was actually 171, but the have a 21K factory rebate, Still 171 list is still ALOT cheaper than the POS Chesapeake and like 100 times more boat, the Marlin is way over priced and yeah ALOT of its items look like it was bought and assembled via Walmart ! I am going to do some reading on the Robalo link. Thanks for your honest input...maybe more will follow. Grady White is a very good boat, I am in no way trying to bash them..they just need to step up to the plate and get with the times which has been said many numerous times already. I did not even speak of the cabin set up on the Robalo but holy shit what a set up !!!! Eddie and Kris should really take a tour of the Robalo plant and learn something new ! Pete  

IMO, (and that doesnt mean too much :wink: ) The Robalo sucks you in with a lot of bells and whistles! There are a ton of creature comforts, and man, the boat is gorgeous. However, my general concern was the overall quality of construction. GW will also hold its value better. There arent many boats that beat out GW with quality of construction. That means a lot when our 50 miles offshore. Good luck with your purchase, both boats are great and you're going to have a blast with it  

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Yachtworld ?? Good or Bad?

• Thread starter Prairie Virgin Sailor
• Start date Mar 22, 2021
• Forums for All Owners
• Ask All Sailors

Prairie Virgin Sailor

Do serious boat buyers actually use Yachtworld.com for anything more than a "Sailor's Porn Magazine"? Is there some "boat searchers etiquette" traditionally followed for people wanting to buy a sailboat that I am not aware of? I bought my current boat off Kijiji and am now browsing about for a more serious boat. I am constantly looking at boats for sale on Yachtworld.com. I have made 4 general enquiries re boats I have found on their website. Three of the enquiries I heard nothing back on, and the forth, I received an acknowledgment from the broker telling me he would be happy to help me out. I asked for clarity on a Pacific Seacraft Dana 24 which is listed as a 27 foot vessel. I asked for clarity on this ... he never responded. Finally, I sent a statement/complaint to Yachtworld.com in general explaining the lack of response regarding boat enquiries I have made. Surprise ... I heard nothing back. What's up??  

JohnShannon

I bought half my boats through Yachtworld. I did not share your experience, maybe it is the Covid  

Really ?? Well now I feel it's personal (smile). Interesting???  

SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John

Most Brokers are part of a Multiple Listing Service. Pick one to find who has a Boat's Listing as a Broker. I bought mine through this Broker by shear accident. Here is his Hunter Sailboat listing today. https://masseyyacht.com/search-resu...=0+9999&_sfm_Price=0+9999999&_sfm_is_massey=1 I called his number on a weekend. He is in Florida. He then called the Listing Broker in Biloxi MS. Here is our testimonial for the Head Broker, Ed Massey. https://masseyyacht.com/1997-hunter-430/ Jim and Sue...  

@Prairie Virgin Sailor I had the same experience as you from Yachtworld. In fact, I had extremely poor response from all the brokers I contacted. My guess is my budget was below their level of interest although I'm not sure why they bother listing boats if they don't plan on selling them. I ended up buying my boat privately off kijiji. I was concerned about buying without the oversight of a broker and used a purchase agreement I found online, modified a bit to better suit the sale. Everything went very smooth but the seller was a really great guy and was open to negotiation from the deficiencies found in the survey. I'm not sure it is always that easy.  

i bet you would get a snappier response on a 50 ft Benehuntalina than you do on small cheap boats.  

DArcy said: @Prairie Virgin Sailor I had the same experience as you from Yachtworld. In fact, I had extremely poor response from all the brokers I contacted. My guess is my budget was below their level of interest although I'm not sure why they bother listing boats if they don't plan on selling them. I ended up buying my boat privately off kijiji. I was concerned about buying without the oversight of a broker and used a purchase agreement I found online, modified a bit to better suit the sale. Everything went very smooth but the seller was a really great guy and was open to negotiation from the deficiencies found in the survey. I'm not sure it is always that easy. Click to expand

Some of those online listing services never take a listing down. It's really irritating to get interested in a boat only to find out it sold three years ago. You have to pay attention to the listing date. If it's more than a year ago it may be stale. That may be a reason you're not getting responses. Or maybe it's just that brokers don't perceive it's worth the effort on a cheap boat. But 10% of $7,000 is $700. Yeah, sure - I'd rather earn $7,000 but I've done plenty of work for $700 or less.  

william24424

I believe it's a seller's market out there., if I may use the Real Estate analogy, Zillow for browsing and a reputable Realtor/attorney to represent your interests. Find a trusted Yacht broker, stay until he/she finds your boat & let them negotiate, might be the way to go. You might Use Yachtworld to browse and if you find something you like have your broker contact owner. IMHO.  

sailboatlistings.com is another place to look for lower end sailboats. But as @shemandr said, some of the listings are never taken down. I've used sailboatlisting.com with good results. Just look at the very bottom of each listing to see when it was posted. If it is more than 6 mo old, it is probably a dead listing. Then proceed with a buyer-beware attitude.  

Yachtworld is a listing service for boat brokers much like the multiple listing services for real estate. The Brokers side of Yachtworld has important information about boat sales, like asking price and actual selling price and how long the boat sat on the market. The standard commission for a broker is 10%. In terms of paper work and closing the sale there is just about as much work to do on a $20,000 boat as there is on a $200,000 boat. As a result, brokers are much more inclined to work on selling $200K boats. The broker typically works on commission and he does not get the full commission, the owner of the brokerage takes some to cover overhead. Thus on a $20,000 sale the selling broker may put much less than $1000 in his pocket. For low value boats, and in the brokerage world anything less than about $50K is a low value boat, brokers have little incentive to spend a lot of time educating a potential buyer about a particular boat. You may ask, if they are so uninterested in selling a boat, why do they take the listing? A good question. Mostly it is a courtesy and a sales lead. If you buy a more expensive boat and you have to sell yours, they will list it. If buy a boat a low value boat now, you may come back in a few years a buy a higher value boat. But they are not going to spend a lot of time and effort trying to sell a low value boat to someone far away. And they won't spend much time with tire kickers (keel kickers?). For boats in your price range, identify a few boat you are interested in that are in the geographic area. Call the brokers, not email, and tell them you will be in their area on XXXX and want to look at a particular boat. Schedule a meeting time and then go there. You should get a better response from a broker who knows you are interested enough to invest the time and money to travel. In the end, brokers are just trying to earn a living. Given a choice to spend roughly the same amount of time on a sale the will earn $1000 or one that will earn $10000, which one is going to get the attention.  

dlochner said: Yachtworld is a listing service for boat brokers much like the multiple listing services for real estate. The Brokers side of Yachtworld has important information about boat sales, like asking price and actual selling price and how long the boat sat on the market. The standard commission for a broker is 10%. In terms of paper work and closing the sale there is just about as much work to do on a $20,000 boat as there is on a $200,000 boat. As a result, brokers are much more inclined to work on selling $200K boats. The broker typically works on commission and he does not get the full commission, the owner of the brokerage takes some to cover overhead. Thus on a $20,000 sale the selling broker may put much less than $1000 in his pocket. For low value boats, and in the brokerage world anything less than about $50K is a low value boat, brokers have little incentive to spend a lot of time educating a potential buyer about a particular boat. You may ask, if they are so uninterested in selling a boat, why do they take the listing? A good question. Mostly it is a courtesy and a sales lead. If you buy a more expensive boat and you have to sell yours, they will list it. If buy a boat a low value boat now, you may come back in a few years a buy a higher value boat. But they are not going to spend a lot of time and effort trying to sell a low value boat to someone far away. And they won't spend much time with tire kickers (keel kickers?). For boats in your price range, identify a few boat you are interested in that are in the geographic area. Call the brokers, not email, and tell them you will be in their area on XXXX and want to look at a particular boat. Schedule a meeting time and then go there. You should get a better response from a broker who knows you are interested enough to invest the time and money to travel. In the end, brokers are just trying to earn a living. Given a choice to spend roughly the same amount of time on a sale the will earn $1000 or one that will earn $10000, which one is going to get the attention. Click to expand

I have bought boats I found on both sailboatowners.com and yachtworld and was very happy in both cases. I have also had success selling on sailboatowners.com. Tim  

Tim22 said: I have bought boats I found on both sailboatowners.com and yachtworld and was very happy in both cases. I have also had success selling on sailboatowners.com. Tim Click to expand

The problem is not with Yachtworld. However, I do not like Yachtworld's new format which makes it more difficult to use. Like so many others, I have had issues with non responsive brokers. Many brokers are doing it part time (retirement hobby) or just not trained in the profession. If a boat is sold, they neglect to remove the listing. Makes no sense. Then you look at some of the pictures of boats that look like trash bins. Wonder why they don't sell ??. Why would a broker take on such a listing? I know of brokers that take listings on boats that are 2 hours away and expect the owner to show their own boat. ??? Sailboat Listings and Texas Sailing seem to work well.  

@dlochner hit all the big points. Like anything in life, there are great brokers, and crappy ones. No way of knowing what you'll get. Wanna get a brokers attention? Call them. A Dana 24 with the very common bow sprit is 27 feet long  

Jackdaw said: @dlochner hit all the big points. Like anything in life, there are great brokers, and crappy ones. No way of knowing what you'll get. Wanna get a brokers attention? Call them. A Dana 24 with the very common bow sprit is 27 feet long Click to expand

Scott T-Bird

I contacted at least 8 to 10 seller's brokers via Yachtworld last spring when I was searching for our boat. I called at the same time as sending an e-mail. Every time I left a voice mail, I got a return call within the hour, and I'm talking about evening calls. Every single one responded. I was very specific about my inquiries and I got honest replies, as far as I could tell. So, I had a very good experience with Yachtworld. I'd say they all had bigger fish to fry, but I had a good impression that they were going to provide approximately same level of service as they would dedicate to purchasers of more expensive boats.  

Scott T-Bird said: I contacted at least 8 to 10 seller's brokers via Yachtworld last spring when I was searching for our boat. I called at the same time as sending an e-mail. Every time I left a voice mail, I got a return call within the hour, and I'm talking about evening calls. Every single one responded. I was very specific about my inquiries and I got honest replies, as far as I could tell. So, I had a very good experience with Yachtworld. I'd say they all had bigger fish to fry, but I had a good impression that they were going to provide approximately same level of service as they would dedicate to purchasers of more expensive boats. Click to expand

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