Is the 2320 sl right for me

[chudke]

Hi everyone. I am building a house on an island off the coast of Maine. It will be a year round residence, and although there is decent ferry service to the island i want my own boat. I am hoping to leave it in the water year round.

The main purpose of the boat is to get my family and supplies to and from the main land 'about 3 miles, one way'. Also I think it will be useful to have the boat during the construction of my house to ferry the work crews and light gear around. It would be nice to be able to pickup the occasional piece of plywood etc.

I have my eye on a 2014 2320 sl with a 250f yamaha. This will be my first new boat purchase. Given the critera above do you think I will be happy with this boat. If not please feel free to offer suggestions.

 

[shawnee83]

The 2320 is a great boat and may work well for you. The 250 is also a good engine. A 300 would be good too but not less than the 250. The fact that it is an outboard lends itself to year round in water service. The only question I would have is how many people would you need to shuttle back and forth at any given time? You can have 4 in the cabin reasonably confortably with 3 on the bench and 1 at the helm. Additional people in the birth. Kids like riding in the v-birth anyway. If you would need more cabin space, you can check out the 2530's with the extended cabins? Also, given the cold winters there, I would add a cabin heater. That's the good thing about the pilot house, a good solid cabin that will allow decent heating or cooling. Because Parker's are basically fishing boats the simplicity of the cabin and finishings keeps maintenance down. Good luck.

 

[chudke]

I pulled the trigger and put my deposit down. I hope a got a decent price, 65k new 2014 2320 sl with f250 and second station. Engine comes with 5 year warranty.I'm debating getting the trailer 4k for the bunk 5.9k for the rollers any suggestions? Also wonder if you have any suggestions on what electronics i might want to add on. Thanks for your reply, it helped me make my decision.

 

[fisheron]

Personally I prefer bunk traillers and add the plastic slides to the top of the bunks. I do a lot of solo launch and load. With the bunks I can run the boat up on it and it will hold in place untill I climb off and finish winching it up. With rollers the boat slides back making it more of a two person job. For launching a few taps on the brakes usually gets it sliding off.

Plus the bunks are more simple and sturdy. I once lost a section of rollers and the metal roller bracket put a long gash in the hulls bottom. After that I converted it to bunks and will never use rollers again.

Whatever you choose go to the ramp first and watch some pros do it. It will give you a better idea of what to do and what not to do. Then its just practice.

 

[shawnee83]

I agree with the bunk trailer comments on all points. Roller pins tend to rust and cause rollers to come off, so as stated require more attention in the long term. With the new dash style on the 2320, I would go with a nice flush mount 10" or 12" screen/combo unit(GPS/Sonar/Radar...etc). The Garmin 7000 series looks nice to me. With these new systems you can network all these functions plus a few others like auto pilot and flir through one system and monitor. Lowrance has pretty good stuff too. Also, to give you the most capability for anytime travel as you will be living on an island, I would mount a remote controlled spot light. They are a must for night runs. If you can, have them mount it out over the railing on the bow pulpit. You get less glare at the helm when using it mounted there. Electronics aren't my strong point and I just have a simple dash mount Lowrance unit. I'm sure others here will offer more specifics on them. Like everything, it will depend on how much money you want to spend. Congratulations on your new purchase. The 2320 is a super nice boat and I'm sure it will serve you well.

 

[chudke]

So I just figured out that the 2320 is only rated for 6 passengers, which surprised me a little. I have seen them before and thought they would have no issue with 8. Since my primary use for this craft is to taxi my family/friends I am worried that I might need to upgrade to the 2520 as it is rated for 12.

So can the 2320 haul 8 safely. Keep in mind I'm not talking about voyages into the open ocean, I'm talking in the bay less than 10 miles, and never more than a mile from shore. Also if it's rated for 6 and I load 8 will I get in trouble from the coast Guard? I have read conflicting things on that.

I would prefer the 2320 since I think it will be cheaper to run maintain etc. But I also want to carry 8 from time to time. Any thoughts? Any 2320 owners had 8 on the boat before?

 

[chudke]

So, i was talking to the dealer and he confirmed my suspicion, the catalog has a miss print. The 2014 2320 is rated for 10 persons. He took a picture of the coastguard plate to confirm it for me. Also contacted Parker directly for clarification. So while it might be a little tight with 8 people should at least be possible.

 

[shawnee83]

I've had 7 on my 2120 on a few occasions. It's a lot but I also was out for the whole day not just on a shuttle run. On one of those times 4 of the 7 were large males, 2 just graduated HS football players and 2 maybe even larger dad types . It was a load on my 2120. Also consider how much cargo will be involved with these trips? It's not just the people, but all of their stuff. You may just need to make multiple trips sometimes? These boats can handle a lot and are rugged but overloaded in calm water/weather is one thing and overloaded when it's not so calm can take you into the dangerous category. Only you know how you loads are going to be as I'm obviously not familiar with you water and situation. Just giving you some hopefully constructive points to consider.

 

[grouperjim]

Based on the needs you describe I would go with a 2520 mod V. The boat is huge and extremely stable with the quantity of people you are looking to carry. You can also pick up one lightly used 2520 for the price (or less) of a new(er) 2320.

 

[Makoman232]

So I picked up my new 2320 this summer.

During a trip around Shelter Island, I had 7 adults on board and 3/4 full fuel tank.
I recorded a speed of 38 mph, with my 225 yami 4 stroke.


Just 3 words........ Buy the 2320!!!!


Good luck