Runabout boats for sale
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XRunabout
Ideal for day cruising and watersports these Runabout boats vary in length from 13ft to 36ft and can carry 4 to 15 passengers. These powerboats use the following propulsion options: outboard engine or stern drive engine. There are a wide range of Runabout boats for sale from popular brands like Chaparral, Sea Ray and Bayliner with 553 new and 1,444 used and an average price of $35,000 with boats ranging from as little as $6,210 and $308,976.
Runabouts
By comparison, choosing the perfect heavy-duty pickup truck is a lot easier than picking the perfect runabout. There is Ford, GM, Chevrolet and Dodge, and reading those brand names, youāve probably already got a good idea which one youād pick. With runabouts, the field is more wide-open, and the options are more plentiful. For starters, letās define what a runabout isāand most likely, itās what you picture in your mind of when you think of a recreational powerboat. A typical runabout measures from 16 to about 33 feet, comes with sterndrive or outboard power, often has a pointy or pickle-fork, open bow with seating and a walk-through windshield. Sure, there are deck boats that try to look the part, and cuddy cabins that try to horn in on the segment, but those are not runabouts. Those are, well, deck boats and cuddy cabins. A good example of an outboard-powered runabout is Cobaltās 25SC. For a good example of a sterndrive runabout, check out the Malibu 21 MLX.
When choosing the perfect runabout, consider these factors:
- Usage: watersports, crusing, entertainment, etc.
- Price
- Power and propulsion system
Now, the first criterion for choosing a boat is knowing how youāre going to use it. Do you have kids who like to ski and wakeboard? If your kids are passionate about watersports, you might want to opt for an inboard tow boat, but bear in mind modern runabouts with sterndrive power can really be tailored to water sports. Four Winnsā Surf Series and Montereyās Surf Edition runabouts have made great use of Volvo-Pentaās forward drive to get great wakes from a sterndrive setup. Four Winns and Monterey also have made available a number of options like towers and ballast systems that make its surf-geared runabouts even more versatile. Or are you looking for more of a day boat, something for cruising? Itās what one of my friends in the industry called a āgo-to-dinner boat.ā Your needs for that kind of boating will be more generic. For example, do you want a removable cooler or is a built-in refrigerator a must-have item? Do you want a Porta Potty or a more elaborate commode?

The Volvo-Penta Forward DriveĀ protrudes beneath the waterline and faces directly forwardāwhich assists in creating a larger wake for surfing.
Price also is a big consideration, as is standard equipment. For instance, youāre always going to want a bimini top, and if a boat doesnāt come standard with one, youāre going to have to pay extra to get one. Rinker Boats are good examples of runabouts that come standard with a bimini.
One of the main considerations has been a boatās power and propulsion system, and today there are more choices than even a few years ago. It used be MerCruiser or Volvo-Penta, but nowadays outboard engines have enjoyed something of a renaissance in runabouts because of the design freedom and the maximization of interior space. The Regal 29 OBX is a great example and one of the early models to make use of outboard power.

As one of the early runabout models to utilize outboard power, the Regal 29 OBXĀ represented a serious departure from the norm for this builder when it was first released in 2016.
With outboard power, if you start getting close to 30 feet, you might want to go for twin engines. Outboard engines are making lots of horsepower these days, but theyāre still relatively small in displacement, so they donāt make the big torque numbers of a sterndrive V6 or V8. The torque of an automotive V6 or V8 allows for the use of bigger propellers, which lets them get away with a single engine.
Perhaps the most important tool, the most powerful and effective way to find the boat that meets your needs isnāt endless red-eye nights spent on Google searches. No, itās boots on the ground at as many boat shows as you can stomach. You might think you like something, but until you step aboard it and feel it out, itās hard to tell. Youāve got to see, feel and touch.