Express Cruiser - Better quality, Beneteau or Cranchi?

I don't have any thoughts with the ship brands.
The Stern drives may need a heart to heart. Your boating great lakes and seasonal that may extend the life of the drives. Has service been kept up? Bellows service and inspections been preformed correctly? Who can service them that you feel good about?

Trying to be helpful. I/Os down here in salt water, always submerged, never pampered, hardly cleaned, inspected or serviced; make great artificial reef material.

Yes the freshwater lakes are a much better place for outdrives. Better too if you've got in & out lifting/storage requirements. Those who think clearly tend to not like I/O's too much around the harsher saltwater enviroment.

Either way as rc mentioned deferred maintenance is the big issue. I've seen a 4 year old boat need $7500 in outdrive service. Fortunately we caught it in survey and got an allowance for it.

I'm curious with the vast selection of express boat builders out there how you have narrowed your inquiry down to a couple of relatively obscure brands?

+1.
Also why are you looking at I/O's in that size boat? At that size I'd be looking for inboard or pod diesels, and would stay far away from brands that aren't well represented in your area. Sea Ray and Formula pop to mind.

For an express cruiser in that size range, I'd pick Sea Ray over either of those. With those two boats, it's the usual warning to get a survey and let that guide your final decision. As RER asked, how did you settle on those two as favorites? Is it the garage? That's awfully small to have a garage and that space has to come from somewhere.

I'd recommend Searay as well....or if you want to go fast and be fuel efficient a 48' Fountain express cruiser.

Cranchi:

Endurance 41' (open)



Mediterranee 43' I.P.S. (open/HT) now M44 ST (M40 ST)







Mediterranee 47' (open/HT)



Cranchi Shipyard

The only thing I can say on either boat is that a few weeks ago I stepped on a neighbor's beneteau express flyer to help someone backing in the next slip with a sailboat in windy condition and I almost ripped out the beneteau railing... Most flimsy pos i ve ever encountered, stanchions secured with very narrow bases held with TWO smallish screws...

Space given for one thing (dinghy storage) must take away space from another. That's a small boat for a garage, and my general expeince has been that mfgs. That go away from the norm with gizmos , do it because they can't compete in areas like construction, handling or representation. Formula with IPS / joystick takes care of the handling concerns with no thrusters. And they're built there in the Midwest. Local representation is worth its weight in gold. Sea Ray the same. Not sure what models come with Zeus, but it's worth asking about.

I take it you're referring to new models? It looks like Beneteau has pretty decent coverage in WI ...a multi location dealer with some new boat inventory.

I see nothing on the Great Lakes for Cranchi other than one brokerage boat for sale.

Liam should chip in here, he will know both these brands well.

I would consider both brands to be heavy on style, strong in the eye candy department and less so in the quality of materials and construction.

Aston Martins are nice looking cars. You couldn't give one to me for use as a daily driver.