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Brew

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Posts posted by Brew

  1. 3 hours ago, tbone_ said:

    Anyone know how wide a trailer is for a boat with an 8.5’ beam (say like a 2013 Cobalt 232)?

    How much width is needed for a parking space is what I’m trying to figure out.

    Depends on the boat type and whether you are looking at wheel width or full trailer width. However, max legal trailer width is 102” so the wheels are generally going to be right inside that number. With guide poles taken into account I would think you would be a little over that and closer to 106” depending on the pole layout.

  2. 14 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

    Cool.  If you want to charge your CC customers extra, more power to you.  Those customers (99%) will frequent other businesses very quickly.

    see above

    It’s nowhere near 99%, we’ve had very few people even comment on it. Use your debit card if it’s a problem and you don’t have cash.

  3. 2 hours ago, Texzilla58 said:


    Generally everything you buy at big retail these days is built on a margin contribution model. Every cost is factored in to figure out if one is actually making money. As we learned from the old revenue, GM%, GMROI model that big margins could be consumed by big uncalculated costs of business.

    So yes you are paying for a percentage of credit card fees, the charges for a Wells Fargo truck to take cash, inventory costs, returns, bad produce, basically everything it costs to get it into your possession. Those costs aren’t assigned on a per transaction basis. Adding a three percent fee for cards that probably costs me 2.2% avg makes me money. I hate that shit.

    Our CC processor gets the charged fee, we don’t. The 3% add on goes to them and we have a lower negotiated debit/ACH fee.

    I’m amazed people spend this much time worrying about all of it. If I go eat, I just pay what it is they tell me to pay. It’s ludicrous to get butthurt over a CC fee as long as they are up front about it. It would never occur to me to turn around and leave because of a CC fee, an auto tip %, or much of anything else actually.

  4. 1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

    Because it fucks consumers who use their credit cards to get points, to mention a ton of other protections and benefits by using a card.  Cash gets you nothing.

    Why should I give a flip about your points, all points have done is run up the fee charged to the vendor. Plus, what protections do you need on your cash purchase at the bar? We pass on the fee. We’re in a service business with large fees and got tired of clients using cards on $50k contracts when they can just ACH it and I just have to pay 1/10 if a percent.

    • Like 2
  5. Old boats whether inboard or outboard are great, electronics have ruined the ease of use and ease of working on them. When I bought the 2020 Nautique 210, I picked it up from the dealer right after they had closed (time zone difference screwed me up) so we didn’t go over anything. I’ve had boats all my life, don’t need a walk through anyways. I took it home, pulled it to the ramp to drop it and take it to the lake house, and there was no key anywhere. Shit, where’s the key? I called the salesman (it’s getting late on a Saturday night at this point) and he was like you idiot, it’s a key code push button, there is no key. Just enter 4 0’s and hit start. I still couldn’t figure out how to do some things with that boat 2 years later when I sold it because everything was computerized.

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  6. 7 minutes ago, The Royal We said:

    That 230 did look really clean. You'd be comfortable buying a boat that old if you got a good look at it? Would make me nervous.

    Interior isn’t great on it which is why it’s priced there. It’s all a roll of the dice sometimes, but in the last 10 years I’ve had 2 93’s, a 96, an 07, an 06, and a 20. I buy low hours in good shape, have the motor looked over, and go about my business. There just aren’t many places for the old ones to go bad as long as you get them compression checked. Starter issues and changing the impeller have been about it. Never had a driveline issue or a significant electronics issue. Had a buddy buy an 07 230 last year, motor blew his first time out. He got an overheat alarm on the test drive and bought it anyways like a dumbass. $15k later, he learned his lesson in getting them inspected.

  7. I don’t know that it would be a major issue because of the distance from the bow to where it would become an issue as long as you were 3 feet by a distance of 12-14 feet out. The deepest point varies by boat type just for the record. For some, it is going to be close to the back. For others it may be mid boat. The older/smaller boats are going to tend to be further back because of the hull style, but an X series MC isn’t going to have much difference between the middle/back of the boat. A Nautique GS 24 will be a little more rear centered with draft, but with either the major damage that can occur will be at the back of the boat with the running gear and may actually be further back in distance than the R6 because of the location of the running gear. The R6 probably sits higher in the middle though.

  8. I need to stop looking at this thread, it has me looking at boats again. If I keep looking I’m going to end up buying a boat before the summer is up which is going to cost me a new kitchen in exchange. That 230 I posted on the last page is calling my name.

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  9. 28 minutes ago, The Royal We said:

    Thanks for the reply, that makes sense. I started poking around looking at '20-'22 used models and there sure is shit is a Cobalt premium that I don't know would be worth it. A Malibu or Mastercraft could easily be had for the same price (or less) as the Cobalt in the same year model, and that seems a little silly for what I would be trying to do. It looks like I would have to go back to a '18 or '19 on a Centurion to get there.

    I don't think anyone riding behind my boat would able to tell too much of a difference in the quality of the wake as long as they could surf it. One of our friends has a 2010ish Supra that we were out on a few weeks ago and he was having all kinds of problems with the perfect pass system and/or the engine was misfiring. The wave was shite. I felt bad for him, but no way I'd want to mess with one that old unless I knew more about how to fix them on my own.

    It probably would make more sense just to rework my cradle to work with a "real" wake boat. But the increased height of the bunks would eat up more of the water in my slip and with the feast or famine nature of rain in our area the last few years that probably would mean more time on the trailer.

    I missed the part on the bunk style setup, typically wake boats will cradle fine as long as it’s not a drive on platform or a sling. Anything that cradles using bunks will cradle in the trailer location. The draft on a wakeboard boat is generally going to be around 30 inches at 22 feet or less, a little more as you go up in size. However, that draft point is 2/3 of the way back in the boat versus with an I/O where it is at the rear of the boat. An R6 will cradle in under 2 feet of water with the motor tilted up to the water level. An X22 needs 32ish inches solid (maybe not comfortably) to cradle, so that is a legitimate issue to consider. You don’t want to be in a scenario where you risk hitting the cradle with a prop on an inboard. It can go really bad, really fast.

    On surfing older wakeboats, keep in mind they weren’t built for surfing. That is a much more recent phenomenon. It’s also why the size of the boats have jumped so much in recent years because they need to sink them further to generate a wave. My late 2000’s X-1 and 220 were garbage to surf unless we had enough people/weight to move things around to configure the wave. Even then something like the R6 has a better wave.  Honestly, my 2020 210 wasn’t great to surf because the boat just wasn’t big enough. You need a wider beam, taller freeboard, and a shit ton of weight on a corner to get the proper wave or you need a bunch of electronic/mechanical goodies that force the physics side of it. Old wakeboats don’t have those things but enough weight can cure most things

    Working on the engines, I would much rather have an older wake boat. Most all run variants of the GM 350 or Ford 351 blocks and are very simple engines. Even with the advent of EFI, they still aren’t very complicated and they are easy to get around.

  10. 1 hour ago, The Royal We said:

    Curious why you say this? Is it just a bad mashup of luxury and functionality? Or are there problems with the lower unit design?

    I ask because the ability to surf behind an I/O interests me. We live on a lake and I keep my boat in the covered slip at our dock 95% of the time, but the water is not consistently deep enough for a real deal surf boat. And I'd have to get a new cradle for the lift to accommodate the drive shaft/prop on a surf boat. It looks like these Cobalts draft ~3 ft and that would work unless the water in the lake is way down and I'd be trailering then anyway.

    We currently have a Hurricane deck boat with an outboard, which is great for our lake and for skiing/tubing/cruising and even wakeboarding for beginners. But I do think as my kids get older they would enjoy surfing more than anything else.

    Honestly, because I’m a wake snob and think all of these companies attaching “wake” to their products are full of it. I think if you really want to board/surf, buy a boat designed for it. If you want to cruise a lot, buy a Centurion that actually has a decent deadrise. The newer wake boats run much better than the older ones anyways and aren’t terrible in open water/long runs. I ran my Nautique 10-15 miles on the river occasionally and it was passable, so I would rather go that direction. I also paid $110k for it brand new versus the stupid numbers the R series are selling for.

    Saying that, Cobalt’s design is as close to one that works as well as anything that I have seen. It comes with a massive price tag and it’s still an I/O that’s using some “smoke and mirrors” to get to a decent wake product, but if the goal is to cruise mainly with some surfing mixed in then it probably works. I’m also not a fan of the reverse drive system and the location of it. I’ll be curious how it holds up long-term.

    I know 4-5 people with R4’s and R6’s. They have all been happy but they typically still surfed my boat when we were out.

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  11. 36 minutes ago, Texzilla58 said:

    This came from a doctor friend in Memphis who is leaving asap after the recent murder of a Campbell Clinic renowned pediatric orthopedic surgeon in the office in Collierville. He said UTCHS has no grads wanting to stay in Memphis, that all the hospitals are struggling finding doctors to relocate, and that their are rumors that St Jude is in a panic over the horrific increase in crime, challenges recruiting talent, and keeping parents and staff safe. Who knows what their charter allows and so forth, it’s certainly not a public official discussion. A damn shame that place is impacted by the collapse of Memphis; I have several friends thru the years whose children have lived thru the miracles that hospital does for sick kids. They get almost all our charitable donations.

    Having a large office in Memphis, spending a lot of time in Memphis, working with a large number of medical clients, and living not far from Memphis, your last two posts are a little bit over the top. I’m not saying Memphis is great, hell not even good, but the sky isn’t falling quite as fast as you are saying.

    The problems Memphis is having  as it relates to medicine are playing out across the state in the way we have dealt with Medicare, certain political topics that don’t need to be discussed here, shutting down of rural hospitals which are putting immense pressure on the larger hospitals which trickles down to quality of life issues for doctors that take call, etc. 

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  12. 25 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

    She is a geneticist. I can’t think of a business she could start in that field. There are certainly a ton of labs down there though.

    Let’s see female, check. Brazilian, double check. Sounds like Onlyfans is the best play here.

    To your earlier point and slorch’s response, the last few years years have really skewed what is reasonable from an income perspective/retirement perspective going forward. Housing has gotten out of balance and a lot of other things have as well and it’s been compounded in states with large influxes of people. We’re talking to new hires now that can’t afford apartments/rentals locally which is a strange discussion where we are located, but it’s a real issue.

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  13. 9 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

    Here’s something maybe you assholes can explain that is new to me— I just got back from overseas and I’m several places I’ve been, there’s a sign that I’ll get charged a processing fee of 3-4 percent to pay via CC.

    WTF? That’s got to violate their vendor agreement with the card companies, right? 
     

     

    Vendor can pass on up to 3% on a credit transaction as long as it’s clearly stated. The points game has really screwed up payment processing. Everyone wants to use a CC for everything now.

  14. 32 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

    Someone above mentioned too low of hours can be problematic. That red cobalt I linked above is a 2013 with only 55 hours. Is that too good to be true?

    That low isn’t great on an I/O. You’re running raw water through a system and letting it sit for months/years on end it sounds like. It’s just not great for components. I saw that ad and thought scam immediately, but that was just a first reaction.

  15. 18 minutes ago, utee94 said:

    Definitely personal and anecdotal.  My kids (13 and 15) both love wakeboarding.  They like it better than surfing.  They're learning the tricks, love to jump, etc.  But that's just my own experience.  

    Personally I love the driving experience of a large I/O like a Cobalt, that's the most fun for me.  I haven't wakeboarded in years, I've actually pulled out my old slalom more recently.  The wakeboat is of course a complete disaster for skiiing behind, so I only did that once, because my kids had never seen anyone ski on a slalom and didn't believe me when I told them I knew how. :)

     

    Up until a few years ago, I kept a 93 MC205 just for that reason. We still had a course set up and my dad would run it every now and then and I would give it a go. Surgeries on both elbows later, and it got sold as well. Water sports are brutal on your body if you really go for it which is probably why my kids never did. At 44 I’ve had multiple blown ear drums, fractured eye socket, both elbows bad, blown knee, Achilles/ankle injuries, cracked ribs, and now this back deal I can’t get past which is worse than all the rest combined. I’m done, I’ll drive but I’m not getting back behind the boat ever again (maybe).

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  16. 26 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

    If you want to blow the budget, cobalt has a i/o wake boat. 
     

    image.thumb.png.4d213d1cc3b183013734ad4fc431d680.png

    That’s a harder pass than the Sunscape. That goes in the same boat grouping as the 28 foot pontoon with twin 450R’s selling for $325k.

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  17. 22 minutes ago, utee94 said:

    BUT... I'll also add... that most of the people I know with teenaged kids, who got an I/O because the water sports weren't the most important thing-- later find out that for their kids and their kids' friends, the water sports DO end up being pretty important, and so they end up landing in wakesurf boats ultimately, anyway.

    I had two Cobalts over 25 years, but now that the kids are teenagers, we've got a Mastercraft X45 for water sports.

    It’s all in what you want to do, but I will add that outside of surfing (which I still don’t get) you can do anything that most people want to do with a jet ski, pontoon, I/O, etc. especially if you are dealing with older teens with no past water time. They are going to want to hang out with their friends and get in a tube every once in a while. Even if they throw on a wakeboard, I can’t remember the last time I saw someone upside down or even going wake to wake outside of my dumbass on my last ride on a board. My nephews have been on boards since they were little, today they just want to ride the skate.

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  18. 4 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

    Thanks Brew. Why are those boats better options than a Malibu?

    Also what is this no steering in reverse stuff? That seems important.

    And good points about practice. 100% my plan. First with someone knowledgeable then probably a bunch just on my own. I don’t really want to learning with a boat full of people or in a pressure situation.

    Edit: missed your first post when I asked those questions. Thanks for the feedback.

    The Sunscape has the least desirable hull/following from a wake perspective assuming it has the Diamond Hull. If it has the wake hull, then you basically have a stripped down Wakesetter for more than a Wakesetter should go for. The inboard market is going to drop at some point, I would rather be in one of the desirable brand/models at the right price.

    Wakeboats don’t steer in reverse. The prop is fixed, so they will pull slightly to one side based on the prop rotation, but you aren’t maneuvering in reverse.

    There are a number of Cobalt 232’s out there for sub $40’s. Much better deals than that Monterrey.

    https://boattrader.page.link/PLLq?mt=8

     

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  19. If you get stuck on a wakeboat, something like this would be a much better buy than the Malibu. Whatever you do, get it inspected and there is always room to negotiate.

    https://www.onlyinboards.com/2009-Nautique-Super-Air-Nautique-230-for-sale-Montgomery-Texas-160732.aspx

    Another decent buy if you could get it into the mid 30’s.

    https://www.onlyinboards.com/2008-Supra-Launch-22SSV-for-sale-Crystal-Minnesota-160145.aspx

    If you are going to go trailered option, get someone to go with you the first time and go during an off time. Bad things happen on a ramp when people get stressed. Wake boats also don’t steer in reverse which makes that whole process difficult until you get the hang of it, especially if wind/waves are involved. You can really f-up a wake boat in a trailering situation.

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  20. 8 hours ago, tbone_ said:

    What should this boat be worth? Looks nice...

    https://www.boattrader.com/boat/2006-malibu-sunscape-23-lsv-8951683/

    What additional questions should I ask the guy?

    Personally, hard pass. They are asking Wakesetter pricing for a Sunscape and hoping they get it. It’s been a while since I kept up with older v drives, but the Sunscape likely sits on their Diamond Hull which is a longer version of their old slalom hull with modifications. It has no following to justify that pricing on an ‘06.

    I’m a wakeboat guy through and through, have had quite a few across multiple brands and from every decade since the 90’s at this point. You need a better idea of what you want to do with a boat and what the water is like. Wakeboats aren’t good for cruising, they aren’t good for rough water (especially older ones), they aren’t good for pulling into a beach and hanging out, etc. What they are good for is moving max people, being easy to work on, versatile for different water sports, etc but they are ultimately designed for specific uses and if your use doesn’t line up then there are better options.

    There is nothing wrong with I/O’s if you want to ride around and pull a tube occasionally. You could find a 24 foot Cobalt in you range that will hold it’s value like a wakeboat. If I’m going wetslip only, I’m buying a pontoon and never looking back just for the record. Tilt the motor up and I only have to worry about cleaning aluminum tubes occasionally. It’s a floating dock that will carry everything you would ever want. My older kids prefer the pontoon and jet ski’s at this point which is why I’m out of the wake game at this point until grandkids come along. Severely herniating two discs on a board last year helped that decision along as well.

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  21. On 7/27/2023 at 6:52 PM, Gatorubet said:

    I’m confused.

    Where in that scenario does the winner of the Surly Sniper Rifle Delivery Lottery get to approach the gorgeous Ukrainian wimmins and explain how you took time off from your massively successful business ventures in the United States to deliver this sniper rifle to kill Russians, who threaten beautiful women like them?

    I’ve seen how this plays out on Pornhub, in for $100.

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  22. 8 hours ago, Juicy said:

    This is the career I would like, I would say he is about as fringe as it gets. 13 years 16 games played. 31 mil made. Seems like a decent living to me. 

     

    https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/tampa-bay-buccaneers/drew-stanton-3331/cash-earnings/

     

    That’s not fringe. That’s a top percentile NFL career. The latest numbers say the average NFL career is right around 3 years and less than $3M in earnings. QB’s and kickers prop up the first number, QB’s prop up the second number. Something like 80% have spent their earnings 3 years post playing. The numbers are pretty crazy when you dig into them, but guys that get a taste of playing and game checks blow everything chasing another shot. We have a group that works with them to invest, live cheaply, and avoid their families to try and give them a shot post playing because the percentage that sign a second contract is extremely low. 

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  23. 1 hour ago, Brothahorn said:

    Sounds like a fun job. When you say fringe, do you mean like a journey qb type? Like a guy who makes $1.1 million or something for 8-9 years? Or a guy who is bad with money or lives in an expensive city?
     

     

    Guys at the bottom of the roster that are playing on non-guaranteed minimum contracts. If they are active roster, they get paid the minimum which is pretty decent now. If they get pushed to practice squad at some point, they get 20% or thereabouts of their minimums that they get while active. If they get cut, they are not getting paid at all.

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  24. On 7/25/2023 at 12:37 PM, HRSchenker said:

    Only for mixed drinks or beers on tap. Never for opening a bottle. 

    That’s BS for the record. The bartender and servers in restaurants always get tipped because they are making $2 an hour. To go, sit down, whatever, they get tipped something. If you frequent places like we do, tipping well makes a world of difference in service. The 5-6 places we eat regularly, service is great for the type of restaurant it is.

    Fast casual places I’ll leave a couple bucks, valets always get tipped well (there for a few days and magically your vehicle shows up a lot faster), hair cut gets tipped well, etc. If it’s a low paid service based deal, then I just consider it the cost of doing business.

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  25. 23 hours ago, Texzilla58 said:


    Btw that rigged system will pay $7.16 billion to players in 2023. There are roughly 2280 players so that’s $3.1m avg. obviously some make much more, others don’t. That’s a huge transfer of wealth every year. Few businesses hand over half their TOP LINE revenue to their employees before any costs are calculated. They aren’t sharecroppers choppin cotton down in Groesbeck.

    That’s a very Pollyanna view of the NFL economics. I do tax and other work for probably a dozen NFL players and a couple of agents. Most of the guys operate on the fringe. Outside the top players, it’s a pretty terrible business. It has improved significantly the last few years, but the economics aren’t great. I talked to a guy last week that was probably going to get rostered in an expensive, high tax city and he was trying to figure out housing as a UDFA knowing he could be cut/dropped to practice squad at any time in season.

    As far as your point on total salary cost, any business where people are the product are going to be in that ballpark. My payroll costs are in that ballpark as a percentage of revenue.

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