SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD

No longer available.

Caravelle Boat. Model 217. 1996, 22 feet, 265HP Chevy 5.7Liter motor V8. $7,000.

All the pictures are less than one year old. Call Chris 904-638-8338

The boat does have a clear title.

When I bought the boat, I asked the salesman how many hours on the boat. He said he didn't know. During our test ride, I noticed it said 48 hours. I got excited. I knew it was in tremendous shape, but I was stunned it was that low hours.

I bought the boat, got it home, took it out, and that was when I noticed the hour meter inside the speedometer was not moving. It was dead. So even though I've had it out on 15 different occasions, it still says 48 hours. So I have no idea how many hours it really has. All I can say is it never has broken down on me and it runs like a champ. I believe I've added 60 hours to it on top of what it had when I got it.

Here are some video links of it in operation.

 Me riding on the bow enjoying the leisurely cruse.  

Me driving. My friend hated it when I started out full throttle. It shoved her back in the seat too hard she said. So this was a gentle start to keep her happy.  

Now this is a 1.5 second plane. I gave it full throttle from a complete idle and you will notice it climbed up and out of the water and was level in 1.5 seconds. The buoy behind the boat, when I take off, notice how fast it disappears out of sight. The acceleration on this boat is fast.

My friend is funny. She wont give it full throttle. She gives it 25% throttle and its slow to climb up and out of the water. You can see how slow it is to level off when she is driving. See her stretch her neck trying to see over the bow because she is so slow at making it plane and level off?  

This video is the day last year, July 2017 during my first test ride of the boat that prompted me to buy it. The salesman only gave it half throttle and it took 3 seconds to plane.

Now this next video is not specifically my boat, but it shows how Caravelle boats are made. A lot of the cheaper boats are noisy. You can hear the water hitting the hull and its noisy. One of the reasons I love Caravelle is because they are so quiet and amazingly smooth. You pay more for them, but in the long run its worth it. For me to own a Bayliner or Sunbird, you would have to give it to me.

Below are more pictures of this boat 4 sale.

If you can figure the following chart out, then you will know its fuel consumption. The boat has a 30 gallon fuel tank. The fuel consumption can go from bad, to good, to bad depending on your speed.

I bought the bowrider boat 10 months ago from a 75-year-old man. He owned it since it was new, and he kept it in dry storage. It sat on a rack for years (its entire life actually). The marina would take it down, put it in the water, he would ride, bring it back, the marina took it out of the water, flushed it for him, and put it back on the rack.

When his wife died, he no longer took it out but of course the marina kept charging him $400 a month for dry rack storage. Finally he decided to sell it. I jumped on it and bought it the same day because it was in such incredible shape and a great price. And especially because it has that huge powerful rare V8 265HP motor.

I love this boat and have had so much fun. In the ten months I’ve owned it, I’ve been out in it about 15 times.

It has never broken on me. Because I had to spend nothing in repairs, I spent money in upgrades.

I added Interwebz Boat Bow Navigation LED Lighting Kit - Red and Green.

Komo Covers Heavy Duty Trailerable Boat Cover for Boats/Tenders 20 to 22 feet (Navy Blue).

BOSS Audio MCK1309WB.6 Receiver / Speaker Package, Bluetooth, MP3/USB/SD AM/FM Car Marine, Detachable Front Panel, Wireless Remote (No CD/DVD), Two 6.5 Inch Speakers, Antenna, Auxiliary Cable.

Vexilar SP200 T-Box Smartphone Fish Finder & Sonar, Black.

Standard Horizon GX1700W Standard Explorer GPS VHF Marine Radio – White.

TRAM 1610-HC 5-Ft VHF Marine Antenna.

Dual Electronics XGPS150A Multipurpose Universal Bluetooth GPS Receiver with Portable Attachment.

Jarv Seat Bolt Car Mount Tablet Holder for Apple iPad Pro, Air, Mini / Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 3 S2 S3, Asus, Lenovo LG and All 7 - 12" Tablets w/ Anti-Vibration Goose Neck (use with or without case).

Sport Marine HYDRO FOIL SE SPORT 300 WHT SE300WHT.

I added Navionics full GPS navigation (10” tablet screen) of Florida waterways which shows water depth along with location. You can see how deep that part of the channel will be before you get there. Dock to dock auto routing, and much more. Look up Navionics Boating Plus HD. I build a custom 10” tablet holder.

I added WIFI sonar so the 10" tablet has full fish finder abilities plus depth mapping abilities. You can also pair it with multiple phones simultaneously so passengers can also see the fish finder in action on their phones.

I added a high resolution GPS receiver with 4’ accuracy so you know precisely where you are in the body of water and what the depths are of where you are heading before you get there.

I added a high quality marine radio with 15-20 miles of range with GPS built in. If you get in trouble, you can push one button and it sends a auto distress call to the coast guard and tells them your GPS position.

It’s an amazing high-tech system you never see on bowriders.

I also built custom headlights, spotlights and docking lights that swing out or in depending on whether you have the boat cover on it or not.

I added the hydro foil. It increased my top end 3mph. Now it lets me trim the stern drive precisely and removes porpoising at high speed on plane. It has made the boat so much smoother.

I sold my home and I’m moving to a new small place and don’t have room to store my boat there. I’m not interested in paying storage to keep the boat somewhere else. So, I bought a Polaris 850 touring ATV four-wheeler which I can keep there and keep my adventure actives alive. So, I’m selling the boat. $7,000.

Because he (the 1st owner) kept it in dry storage its whole life, he never used the trailer. The old man, when he bought it new, was given a temporary tag to get it home. But instead he took it to the dry dock storage marina. As such he never went down and registered the trailer in his name. Why would you go register a trailer when the boat sits on a rack and never travels on the road? 20 yeas later or so when he goes to sell it, because he never registered the trailer in his name, the title was never actually in his name so, he cannot go get a duplicate title.

The trailer comes with the boat unless you don't need a trailer (I would be willing to keep the trailer but the price is the same), but the trailer does not have a title/registration. The trailer came with the boat but he couldn’t find the title. So every time I go boating, I take my tag off my utility trailer, throw it on the boat trailer and off I go. It works for me. Because the tag that's on the trailer is registered in my name, no questions are ever asked. But that tag is from my utility trailer and its NOT included.

You could buy a mini trailer from harbor freight $225. It comes with title/registration. Then put that tag on the boat trailer and its registered in your name. No one can tell which trailer that tag came from, so your set.

The trailer is included but the trailer does not have a title. The boat does have a clear title.

The boat does 45 miles an hour with the little prop. The little prop makes it shoot out of the water like a rocket. From zero mph to full planed only takes 1.5 seconds. That's amazing acceleration for a boat.  If you put a bigger prop on, you will plane slower but gain a top end of 55 mph. Maybe 58 now that I've added the hydro foil. 265 HP is admirable in any 22 foot boat.

The sterndrive operates flawlessly. I have no idea if it has ever been repaired in the past, or when in the future it might need some repairing, but I know right now and the entire time I've owned the boat, it operates perfectly.

The 5.7 Liter Mercruser engine, is a Chevy 350 four bolt main. That engine was used in Chevy pickup trucks for twenty years and it has an amazing reputation for durability and being bullet proof. The only thing they did to that Chevy engine to call it a Mercruser, was add water cooled exhaust manifolds.

Chevy was the only company to use four bolts on every crank bearing cap. Thats how it got the nick name "4 bolt main".

As long as you don't let the exhaust manifolds rust out from lack of flushing the boat when you take it out of salt water, which would let water into the engine block, it will run for virtually ever. Flushing the salt water out of the manifolds when you pull it out of salt water is critical. If the manifolds rust through, then salt water enters the exhaust ports and into the cylinders and the motor then typically need rebuilding once the pistons and rings have been allowed to soak in salt water.

One of the reasons I bought this boat was because the marina that stored it its entire life, flushed the boat every time they take it out of the water for the customer. I didn't have to wonder if the previous owner was lazy and sometimes did not flush it.

This is also why I would not buy a boat that sits on a boat lift at the side of the dock. A boat on a boat lift is nearly impossible to flush with fresh water and thus its virtually never flushed. That's why you see the boats for sale that sit on boat lifts at very low prices. Boat lift owners know they wont last long so they sell them before they get too old.  Because smart buyers wont buy them, they have to lower the price way down.

Mechanically the boat needs nothing. Well, the blower began making noise so expect to replace it but it still works. And there is one light switch that gets too warm when its on in my opinion. I would change out that light switch and put new lugs on the wires.

All the seating cushions and vinyl is in very good shape. It’s still original factory. In the back seat (the rear box bench) the wood has gotten weak. You will need to unscrew the plywood box from the floor, take the box seat out, pull all the vinyl staples out, peal the vinyl and cushion off the wood frame, repair or rebuild the plywood wood frame, pull the cushions and vinyl back over it, and re-staple it, and then screw it back to the floor.

 But I recommend adding a little vent to the seat box so it does not trap moisture again like last time. The seat lifts up for below/underneath storage, but it had no vent so wet life preservers and such could not dry out. That’s why the plywood got weak.  

Come check it out. Show me $7,000 in cash and I’ll put the boat in the water and let you take it out for half a day before you buy it, and I’ll teach you about the high-tech stuff. The navigation system is one of a kind and never seen on a boat this small.

Want a test ride? I will fill the tank up when we leave, and you refill the tank when we get back. You pay for the consumption you caused. And to get a test drive, you will need to show me cash in hand that proves your capable of buying the boat if you decide you like the boat. It wont obligate you to buy the boat. But it proves to me I'm not wasting my time ferrying around people that want free rides and cant afford if they wanted it.

You can look at it in my yard and hear it run for free without showing me cash.

 Call Chris 904-638-8338