Wish Me Luck - 2004 3860 Purchase

Congratulations!  I wouldn't worry about the hours.   Many of us put on over 100 hours a year and so for 18 years old that's only 35 hours a year! The 3860 is a great size and a very versatile boat.

Great choice, twin engines and V drives! We have a 2001 4160 with 1130 hours and great, just a lot of little stuff taken care of over the years!

Vessel was at Moose Landing in the Sebago Lakes region so primarily fresh water use. My wife and I purchased our dream retirement home in Dresden Maine and have a dock/mooring on the Kennebec River which leads to the Maine intercoastal/Atlantic. I have 2 moorings, but I need to check with the Harbor Master if my current moorings are adequate for this vessel due the the size difference...we get strong Westerly winds cutting across the river from Richmond Maine and the current is pretty strong at Max Ebb/Flood. Based on my experience and reading local literature, the water at my mooring is fresh water and I haven't seen any growth on my hull or outdrive for the last 2 years. I get a lot of brown fouling that can be rinsed/scrubbed off with Starbright hull cleaner. Once you go down river, however, the river turns brackish and then salt around Bath so the "new" boat will see salt, but the hope is when motoring back home you are flushing the system out with fresh. The engines have a closed cooling system but the available maintenance records don't show that the heat exchangers have every been cleaned so I plan to do that this spring before any use. The current vessel does not come equipped with Radar, so I used "cyber Monday" to purchase a Garmin Fantom 18" Radar and changing the chart plotter over to a Garmin 840sx which my brother in law is giving me. Although its older, the 840xs firmware and maps can still be upgraded so I will see how that works out to start since I'm already sinking $$ into some upgrades/repairs. Garmin said the Fantom was compatible so we will see. I've been using my spare time to read the owners manual and literature on the various systems....its a pretty steep learning curve so I've been taking a lot of notes and what/when/where type stuff. Any advice is appreciated...I'm a humble boater and have learned some hard lessons. Just when you think you have something figured out while boating, you get knocked down pretty quickly. Just a matter of when.