[rayzorback]

REGRET IT!!!! Now looking at a one owner 1995 Celebrity 200 Status in Great shape. 5.7 mercruiser. Would anyone like to chime in on the differences detween these boats as far as quality/construction etc.?

Thanks

[mikeyt]

Congrats on selling your boat. From what i remember about Celebrity boats is that they were bought out by Bombardier around the same time that the original Mariah Boat Co went bankrupt and disappeared from the marketplace shortly afterwards. Celebrity boats were above average quality & tended to be slightly on the heavier side because of it. I believe the original owner of Celebrity boats went on to start Crownline Boats in the very early 1990's. There was some question about what type of plywood they used in the flooring with the consensus that it wasn't marine grade until the later years of their existence so you might want to check closely for soft spots.

[ShabahZ280]

MikeyT said it well... Jimmy Fulks and Fred Claxton worked together in executive roles at Celebrity back in the late 80's. Jimmy and Fred both went separate ways to create their own companies, Mariah and Crownline. If you look at the late 80's, early 90's Celebrity boats, you can definitely see the early phases of the Mariah and Crownline designs. (Look at the windshield "wings" of the Shabah, the similarities in hull designs, for all 3 brands, and even the top of the line Celebrity boats were called "crownline"....) Anyway....Celebrity was sold to Paine Webber, (an investment company) around 1991 and sold again in 1996 to Bombardier. They produced the boats in small numbers until around 2001 when they went out of business.

Their big issue was the non-marine grade plywood used in construction. I'd hope that by '95 they would have figured it out... But I'm not sure. The boats were built heavy, so their performance wasn't up to par with competitors, but still, if you can put these things aside, they're good looking boats, and still above bayl**** in build quality.