Z275....was it worth the trip?
 

Last year I was drawn to Mariahs when I went to look at a 2001 Z270 I was thinking about buying. I was as impressed as you would expect a first timer on a Mariah to be, excited to take ownership after I agreed to the sellers price, but something stirred in the seller and a week later he decided to keep the boat (can you blame him)


So my plans ground to a halt, no other boat would do, I had to have a Mariah, particularly a 2001 Z270, turns out they don't come up for sale too often, I had only seen one other in a year of looking nationally. Lots of 300's, and 250's but I was sold on the generous cockpit area of the 27 foot.

As I researched more I began to realize I dont really need the full Vberth down below and the clever bowrider arrangement of the Z275 made alot of sense, so I expanded my search.

2 weeks ago my buddy and I drove almost 900 miles (one way) to go look at a 2001 Z275.

Low hours rack stored, mint condition, Southern boat, pictures looked good, price was right......so off we go.

The second I laid eyes on it I realized it was better in person than in the pictures, (which is hardly the case). I knew all it needed to do was not sink, and it would be coming home with me.

Well.... It didn't sink.

Was it worth the trip?.......Here's my answer:

Nice!!! Congrats!! :wink_thumbup:

Got her in over the weekend, and out yesterday for her first real cruise.... I'm very happy.

Looks great, and sounds like you are going to have hours of fun on her. Post some more pics for us all to drool over.
Great time of year for all of you lucky guys, and especially with a nice new toy. Congratulations. Well worth the wait. :wink_thumbup:

Mariah 275
 

Hello!

It seems to be a nice boat.
I have a 278 Shabah and it nearly the same boat in design and construction,and it`s a fantastic boat to drive.
Please post some pictures on the forum of your boat cause we look forward to se her..

Mine came from 1600 mi away and never regretted it. You will love the mid-cabin setup, especially for kids. The only negative is I have never found a good way to stow the bimini but that’s minor as I just fold it back and put the boot on.

1600 miles, from IL, thats about as far as it gets!!!!

I have found the Bimini, and the camper top it came with stow well hanging in my garage:)

I have never set up or used a Bimini top, but can't you fold it up, put the cover on it, and brace it overhead folded up? Or is that what you do?

When you said lay it back, I pictured it laying back over the transom.

It came from Grand Junction CO. I met them half way (the drove the hard part!) I run most of the time with the double bimini up as you see in the pic to reduce sun exposure to kids and in-laws, but at times it is nice to just have open sky! You may want to watch the fridge also. If I leave mine plugged in, it will run my batteries down in about 3-4 days. So I have it unplugged most the time and use it like a cooler. Have fun on the water!

thanks for the fridge heads up...

So far I haven't really done anything with it yet.

I have the 3 battery option with an onboard 30 amp power supply / charger, 2 start batteries on the main 1,2 all switch, and a 3rd accessory battery on a separate hidden single battery switch.

With the boat all on, I have never been able to detirmine if the Fridge even worked, or to detirmine whether it was shore power only (which I expected) or if it was DC it ran off the start batteries or accessory battery.

There is also one last accessory switch on the dash which I haven't gotten around to figuring out what it did either, if in fact it did anything, I assumed it might be for the fridge.

I figured some combination of all of the above would make the fridge work!!!!

Now you say you plug and unplug the fridge, I will follow the wires to see where they run, to see if it is even plugged in or not, if its DC, I will probably make sure its wired it to the accessory battery, so It won't affect my start batteries, and if I do leave it on when I leave the boat, I wil be sure to plug the charger into shore power.

Add that to the to do list,

I like your double bimini top, I'm not sure I'll get much use out of any of the covers that came with my boat, they are all original Mariah vinyl (the Bimini and camper tops have never been used), and now that the boat isn't down south anymore, the vinyl cockpit and bow cover are very difficult to snap to say the least.

First on the to do, is replacement canvas bow and cockpit covers.

The Fridge actually runs off 12VDC only. It's not a dual power one. Mine would come on any time the 3rd battery switch was turned on. I have since wired it to one of the spare Accessory switches in the dash so I can control it on or off.
As you noticed you probably have one or more accessory switches that do nothing. They were just put in for future accessories on the Z275.

My fridge is also only 12VDC but is not connected to the battery switch under the right rear seat. It gets power from the two starting batteries (I nee to switch mine like Z275’s). It has BLK and RED wires in back with spade connectors I unhooked. As for the switch under the seat, the only thing it powers, I can find, is a RED wire with a spade on the end found hanging up behind the storage door, near the back of the radio in the cabin. I assume this is to power items in the cabin off the deep cell.

I have and use the original bow cover. My cockpit cover is canvas (I wish it was the original vinyl as it is stronger and more water proof than the canvas). My double bimini is just the bimini with the back part of the camper canvas attached so you should have this. I am going to stop using the bow cover while tailoring because it vibrates and is chafing the area behind the anchor door. I would like to have a full boat cover to trailer with but at $1400 :eek_animated:to have one made I think I will pass for now.

Interesting, I made up a wiring diagram of how mine was when I got it. I'll attach it in PDF format. My 3rd battery was connected to the single switch under the seat and powered the GPS, fridge, cabin lighting, power hatch, and seats.

Z275,
Thanks for the info.
That is the ideal setup. Mine is not like that. I have felt the deep cell was under used. Only transom shower, anchor lights, radio ant., and bilge pump connect straight to my deep cell. Looks like I need to do some rewiring!:shakehead:

I guess everything was custom in 2001,

I would think ideally you would want the deep cycle battery to power everything you need when you are anchored and hanging out. Bilge, Cabin, radios, Anchor light, fridge.

My 3rd battery powers- Radio's (and antenna) Cabin lights, and GPS. (maybe the fridge) but not the anchor light.

Looks like I have some rewiring to do too.

another thing I found that bothered me with the wiring, was the battery negative from the charger was never connected to anything.

The plastic knockout on the charger over the Negative terminal was never removed, making me think it was never connected since new.

I agree the vinyl is stronger and more waterproof, but on a chilly evening the vinyl cover is easily 1" to 1.5" short in length, and .5" short in width. Maybe it won't be so annoying once the evenings warm up.

I'm sure I will get use out of the vinyl when I store the boat. But for regular use I think I will like the ease of canvas. Good to hear the double is the bimini plus camper. That makes tons of sense.

Jason,
I have one large gauge black wire (about a #4) from the + side deep cell going into the rotary switch under the seat, and one red (about a #10) coming out. It goes through the wall and joins other wires near back of red starter battery switch and disappears in a conduit at the transom. Do you have more than one wire coming out of the deep cell switch? I am hoping that maybe the red wire with a spade on the end near the cabin radio is a alternate power to cabin like you have. And that I may be able to unplug a common feed to the cabin from the starter batteries and replace with deep cell feed. I know it may be wishful thinking but Mariah did over wire their boats for future changes/additions.

John,
My switch under the seat *was* the same way. A 4ga going to the battery and a 10ga going up to the helm area. I though this fed the fuse box behind the snap up mirror in mine. Someone may have changed that since the boat was new though. I've since run a 4ga wire from behind the radio console in the cabin to the aux switch under the rear seat. I put a distribution block in that powers my amps, radio, and TV invertor. I also moved the deep cycle up to a 27 group size and put a matching battery mount bracket in for it. For some reason they had the nice brackets on the other 2 batteries and a cheapo battery box for the 3rd one. I would of liked to upgrad all the batteries to AGM's but the Guest charger I have is not compatible with AGM's or gel cells. Guest said any Ferro type charger will destroy these types of batteries.

I’m glad to see our wiring started the same. You’ve made a good balance in your electrical system. I really need to start doing more work to my boat in that area.
Thanks for the tips!
John W.