Need advice: SANTE 210... Low hours or accessories?

[1965rustang]

Hi guys, new to the site and I would appreciate any advice y'all have to offer. I am currently in the market for a SANTE 210 TE 2003-2005. I am currently looking at two boats.

One 2003 with ~350hrs,cover, Bimini, kicker tower speakers and tandem trailer. white hull. Nada comes in at just short of 27k. Asking price is 28.5k. (Note: there were some cracks in the gel coat around the prop shaft strut and the strut had a small amount of play. Owner has said he fixed the issue, but is open to negotiation if there is a concern after inspection.)

The other, a 2004 with professionally installed upgrade ballast 750s in lockers and bag in bow, 4 wet sound 10s on the tower, PA system, but has 623hrs. This boat has a black hull which I feel would show more wear and somewhat does. Nada comes in at shy of 29k. Asking price is 29.5k.

Both interiors are nice, plush and comparable.

What do I choose??? Any guidance would be appreciated.

[NautiqueJeff]

I would choose the 2003 all day long. That year is arguably the most desirable of the original 210. It has the cool electronic hatch releases, the good tower (the '04 tower is particularly bad, and they will have to take a price hit on that boat simply due to the bad tower), and with the lower hours on the '03, I would take that easily over the '04. The '04 is probably the least desirable year, mostly due to the tower, but you also have things like the knee-buster hatch releases, etc.

Both will have leaky helm-control ballast valves (unless the PO addressed this). There are several ways to address that issue. Here's a lengthy discussion on that issue, and several ways of fixing it. On my '03 210, I ended up keeping the Asco Red Hat valves first mentioned on page 5 of this thread. They worked great!

http://www.planetnautique.com/vb5/fo...ballast-valves

Got any pictures of the boats?

[Ryan1776]

Jeff, I'm definitely still in the learning stage, but I've never heard about the tower issue!
I looked on up. is the tower bad because of where the front of the main uprights tie into the front of the lower support? Did that make sense???
As opposed to sitting on top of the lower support like the rear?
Just trying to boost up knowledge.

[NautiqueJeff]

Nothing physically wrong with the '04 tower. It is just a weird design. It doesn't follow the lines of the boat at all and just looks bad. They reverted back to the previous design in '05. Some people say that the '04 tower causes certain blind spots when circling back to a rider too.

[obd666]

Ryan, he is just referring to the 04 tower that is round on the bottom and generally thought to be less attractive than the previous version of the tower. There is functionally no issue, its just aesthetics. However, i have seen 04's that had the previous version of the tower so this is where pics of both boats would be helpful.

[swatguy]

As mentioned just on an 03 vs 04 basis I personally go 03 all the way. As mentioned the 03 is one of the most desireable boats years of the original hull. The tower and boat itself just flow nicely. Very nice features inside the boat that year too. Not so Nautique "puzzle" like.
You can easily upgrade your ballast if you want down the road. The hours are negligible if engines are maintained.


The loose strut and gelcoat cracks would intrigue me and I would want some explanation. Sounds like may have dinged something. Which makes this situation not such an easy 03 all the way call. Out of aligned prop shafts, loose struts, which means vibration and some service bills. I would want that checked and ok'd by a dealer of my choosing.

Black hulls definitely show the most imperfections. That 04 has some nice options that make it a nice "complete" boat. The tower is personal preference. It's not proned to failure. It's just not one of Nautique's best designs and that's proven by its one year run.

Tough call but assuming the 03 checks out and the story behind the strut is good i would still go 03. Any pics of the gelcoat cracks or the strut and bushing?

[Ryan1776]

Not to have hijacked. Good info! Thanks guys.

[1965rustang]

Hi guys. I appreciate the input and will post pictures as soon as I have access to a PC.