Sea Ray SLX 350

Ok, not sure what you are getting at, read the thread and said it was a 2 hour job for preventative maintenance, a Post owner had the same issue as well. Same issue referenced on an Ocean, hell its the same issue for any transverse mounted Westerbeke genset.

The SR looks to be a 400 DB, not sure what year, you can’t expect a genset to be mounted fore and aft in a boat that size, so it took 2 hours, what is your beef? The owner appeared to be able to do it himself, without hiring a professional, again, what is wrong with that?

I can google plenty of crappy equipment installs in 42’ Hatt’s, Bert’s and the like. You turned away from a late 90’s 38-39’ SR Sundancer, you do realize that the people who designed and laid out those mechanical systems are no longer at the company? And the big deal with all Sundancers was the switch to v-drives under the cockpit to get and extra berth/living space under the helm deck? You know, somethings gotta give.........

I agree. Guess Pacblue has never spent 2 hours in a HOT engine room after the motors and generator have been running sometime, water temp 85F and air temp 92F, changing a genset impellor, that you could knock out in 5 minutes if you had access. It's impossible to do that change at sea. I see relatively few bonehead moves down from other builders. Ocean was notorious for having to dismount the generator and slide it sideways......having to pay a mechanic to change the impellor for 5 hours, instead of 1 hour is always great, year after year.

If you read the post the owner performed the preventative maintenance work at the dock in a COLD engine room at his liesure. But nice of you to pile on J whenever you can, I am used to it by now.

Expecting 50-60' MY like type access in under 40' is a pipe dream, and you have to be realistic. Like I said before, something has to give and these boats sell because of their features not because of their machinery spaces. And it is kind of funny to hear the complaining from guys who work/benefit on the service side, but it goes with the territory.

NO builder under 40' is immune to access issues on something, you run out of space somewhere. A generator may have one service side that the builder makes accessible to the owner/operator, but and impellor or fuel pump may be on the opposite side and needs an extra hour or two.
See for example, a questionable shoe-horned genset install on a 39 Hatt, keeping the maintainers of the world busy. You could insert a picture for every builder, except maybe a custom, and highlight these type of issues.

Agreed

I have the same sentiments as Pascal. I too deal with it on other yachts. Actually I'm dealing with it tomorrow on a brand new 65-70' MY and the fact they ran a wiring chase right across a hatch opening needed to service the a/c strainers. BUT, what I'm getting at is on the boat the OP is talking about and for his purpose (going to a sandbar). The outboard boat is the way to go and you aren't diving into that godforsaken hole in the deck and laying on top of motors to service anything. Outboards are much easier to work on, without killing yourself. Plus you get more access to the stuff where the inboards were, like the bilge pump. And, the new outboards are a lot more reliable than stern drives. You can see that by many companies who were strictly I/O or inboard, avoiding them completely for outboards.

That's doubtful. Mercury came out with their own (non chevy based) line/design of inboard engines this year. The wakeboard crowd is pretty popular and they use inboards (not stern drives though). Stern drives still have their place in some boats, but the market is a lot more limited, and now will fall along the lines of Jets or Arnesons in popularity in the future, so I don't think they'll disappear forever. Volvo put duo prop lower units on the five seven outboards and is testing that, Suzuki has them on their big outboards in the market already. The duo props are necessary to get enough lift to get the heavier/bigger boats on plane. Mercury released a 450 HP outboard recently. So the outboard manufacturers are really moving forward with technology.

I agree with others that the Sea Ray XLS is not a great boat for Ft Lauderdale, for the reasons others have posted.

I had a similar family conundrum. I was going to buy a BW Outrage, but the local Marine Max didn’t have one in stock to show us. The salesman managed to tell my wife all of the advantages of a dual console. Long story short, I told the Marine Max salesman to pound sand, I now own a Pursuit 295DC, and Im still married.

In hindsight, I’m glad we bought the DC, and I’m quite happy with the Pursuit. A few thoughts:

1. It has dual outboards. I’ve got the dock rigged with an easy engine flush setup, so its quick to flush the system.
2. The entire cockpit is fiberglass. I can go fishing with the guys, grin through spilled drinks, and take on salt spray, with an easy hose down.
3. The windshield to hard top connection on the Pursuit is great on cold days, windy days, and wet days. On nearly every trip, somebody wants to sit back there, and avoid the wind, sun, or spray. (If only Putsuit had pull real wipers on both sides!)
4. It has joystick controls. They might help sell the boat to your wife, but I cant seem to get the knack of the joystick. Its nice to push to/from the dock, into the wind, but I feel like Ive got much better control using conventional methods. The joystick may be more intuitive to a novice, but there will be a learning curve .... Id use fenders for the first coupla times!
5. The seating is a good compromise between durability, comfort, deck cleanliness, and social orientation.
6. Big, easy to access head.

Honestly, I’ll bet our boat gets at least 50% more usage, because it is so versatile for different types of family use. Further, the boat looks great, because it is so easy to maintain. That versatility and ease of maintenance translates to boating time, vs house time. (Of course, you have to like your family, or else you are better served with a fishing bandwagon)