They sure dont make boats like they used to
 

Like the title says. We have been thinking of buying another boat, I am leaning a little more towards something that is fisherman friendly. My son and I love to fish but I wont fish out of the Z. We went to Bass Pro and looked at the Tahoe deck boats that are fish ski combos. Those boats are around 30K and I would say that if they offered to trade me straight across for my Mariah I wouldnt do it. Everything on that Tahoe just looked and felt cheap. It seems that Mariahs are so overbuilt it would make it hard for me to settle for anything else. So I dont see ole red going anywhere anytime soon.

Re: They sure dont make boats like they used to
 

yes, John i agree with you, i purchased my 1st boat ( i`ll never forget) April 4th 1974, I`VE been into boating ever since, like anything, when you own something, you look and compair with others, this one ORIGINAL 1ST GEN. ( MARIAH ) is by far the princess of the marina,the workmanship and the standard equip on these boats are LIKE NO OTHER BOAT IN THE WORLD,

Re: They sure dont make boats like they used to
 

I don't even bother going to boat shows anymore.

Believe or not, Tahoes are better built now than they were a few years ago. According to posts on another website, they were notorious for the wood structure rotting a way after just a few years.

Re: They sure dont make boats like they used to
 

Hate to say it, but we just bought another boat and it's not a Mariah!! I looked for some, but couldn't find any that would fit our needs and/or would be a reasonable distance away to see and evaluate. We ended up with a 2003 Regal Destiny 2120. It's a" deck boat" with 200 hours on it. It has the 5 liter fuel injected Volvo Penta. We still have the Talari, but that has always spent more time with my daughter and son-in-law and we were going to steal it from them for over six weeks this summer, so we needed something else. We're also going to be on larger bodies of water, so we wanted a bigger boat for the whole family when we're together and also for the Traverse Bays and Elk Lake. The big deciding factor, of course, is that my wife loved the boat!!

Re: They sure dont make boats like they used to
 

I agree, the new boats are pretty much "built to a price point", unlike our Mariah that was just plan BUILT! I'm afraid that the only way to move up from Mariah is maybe Cobalt or Formula, and I would need a Bail out to get into one of those.
Anyway, 5 more weeks and she comes out of storage. Can't wait!

Re: They sure dont make boats like they used to
 

I have pretty much decided that after looking at some new ones I just cant give up the Mariah. The one thing that got me thinking about selling it is that I am starting to have a few minor elecrtical gremlins pop up. The boat only has about 150 hours on it and runs and drives great. I will be pulling it out of storage in the next month or so and asking the electrical experts on here a few questions.

Re: They sure dont make boats like they used to
 

There are a lot of good electrical guys on here, so a few gremlins won't last long. My mantra is "clean and tight". That kills most of them.

Re: They sure dont make boats like they used to
 

My main concern right now is my power stern light. Something keeps killing the battery after it sits for a few weeks. There has been at least 3 times when I have the boat sitting in my driveway that I will go out in the morning to go to work and the stern light will be up as far is it can go under the cover with the light on. This without the key being on or the light switch being on. I am thinking I have a bad switch on the dash and that it might be pretty hard to find a new one. I will have to do a search, because I am sure I have seen a thread on the dash switches and what to use to replace them.

Re: They sure dont make boats like they used to
 

The sticky at the top of this forum has the info for these power stern lights. I've seen a few comments on these. Seems like one of the few weak points on Mariahs.

Re: They sure dont make boats like they used to
 

I will check that out, thanks a bunch.

Re: They sure dont make boats like they used to
 

No sweat, good luck gremlin killing.

Re: They sure dont make boats like they used to
 

To John Miller - we fish quite a bit out our 252Z - in Lake Winnipesaukee for small and large mouth bass and occassionally for lakers and landlocked. It's a great stable platform. I bought a couple of bolt on rod holders that I put on the rear grab rail. Biggest problem: you can't troll - at idle we're moving around 4 MPH so we have to put a bucket over to slow us down. AND with the deeper hull, can't get into real skinny water easily.

I do not have an electric motor up front and given how the Mariah is setup it would be relatively easy to do - put the battery under the front seat but it would be hard to run a wire back to the motor for charging. I am contemplating building building a lightweight platform to stick over the front seats to better protect them and give more fishing more.

Great boats. Certainly hard to replace.

Re: They sure dont make boats like they used to
 

I love that red Mariah. I was in the market for my first Mariah in 1996. The show room had that boat featured in the lobby. I was in love, had all the bells and wistles etc. Just wouldn't fit in my garage, and wifey would not let me spend that much! So I settled for a 180 Shabah, still not a bad choice. Still my current boat and love it. Still gets many compliments as it is garage kept.

Love my boat, have no plans on replaceing anytime soon.

Fishing56

Re: They sure dont make boats like they used to
 

Sunny and 75 here in S.E. Ga. and I just brought the Mariah out of the barn,checked everything out,fired her up-can't wait to hit the water.As I did this I thought" they just don't make em' like this anymore".After a 14 year layoff from boating,and previously having a chris craft ltd. I thought what would I replace it with.I found out about Mariahs about 3 years ago and found one about 4 hours away 6 months later,it was immaculent,I bought it,the rest is history.I am looking forward to my third season.Hope everyone has a great summer!:wink_thumbup: