Bayliner 265 Sports Cruiser – SOLD

This is the story of how a 2004 boat doesn’t see the light of day until 2009…

The boating world was dramtically different pre-2008 and the global financial crash.

Boat dealers like me, the world over, were ‘high on the hog’…

Well, if truth be told, I had only started out half way through 2006, so I was only in the process of getting my leg over the hog…

Then it all changed, suddenly and dramatically. The global ecomony collapsed and entered into the long and deep recession that we all came to know and love!

The landscape of the marine industry across the developed world was transformed over the next year or two, at every level; from the one-man-band operators to long established brands that were once global powerhouses.

I’m sure you know many of the names that were brought to their knees… Larson, Crownline, Maxum, to name but a few. Some of these brands would rise again but many will nevermore see the light of day.
Indeed the ramifications of the global downturn are still being felt in some quarters, with the recent demise of Sealine being a case in point.

‘So what?’ I hear you say… just bear with me. There is a point to this!.

The companies that survived, much like my own, had to adapt fast. It was a case of down-sizing, cutting overheads, matching supply to demand, and essentially giving the new breed of smart consumer exactly what they wanted… and let’s face it, anyone who still has the wherewithal to buy a boat today, after coming through what we’ve seen over the last few years, is pretty smart. Sadly gone are the days of the yahoo henrys who thought they had money and we’re throwing it around them like it was going out of fashion… God bless them.

Brunswick Marine (parent company of Bayliner, Sea Ray, Mercury, Mercruiser etc. etc. and a true behemoth in the industry) was one such company that weathered the storm remarkably well, but this did involve losing a few brands along the way and shutting down about a dozen boat factories along with them.

Now, around this time, as a Bayliner dealer myself, we were getting a stock list e-mailed to us weekly, showing us what we could buy from Brunswick that week. Bear in mind that up until the financial crash Brunswick were building thousands of boats every year and had built up a huge inventory to support this level of sales. When the sales switch was literally turned off overnight (and it really was that sudden), to say that they became motivated to turn their stock into cash quickly is the understatement of the century.

In a word, the deals were good!

Another thing that was happening, which I have never fully understood, was that every so often a boat would come up that was built anything up to a few years previously but was still in the wrapper and being sold as a brand new boat with full warranties and everything.

In two words, these deals were very good!!

The word from the sales manager was that each time they shut down a factory and cleared everything out they’d come across a boat or two that had seemingly been forgotten about – maybe a cancelled order that hadn’t made it back into the pipeline or something? I suppose when you’re pumping boats out the door faster than you can shake a stick at it’s easy to lose track of one or two here and there!

I snapped up a few such boats myself and they genuinely were brand spanking new with no hours on the engine and in perfect order, albeit they’d been sitting in the factory for a couple of years.

You are looking at one such boat right here.

The upshot of this is that these boats were (and this one still is) fantastic value for money.

In everything but the hull number, this is a 2009 boat. She didn’t leave the factory or come out of the wrapper until 2008 and was not sold to her first (and only) keeper until Spring 2009.

With only 195 hrs on the clock and having only ever seen fresh water, she is in quite literally as new condition.

And now you know the story of her origins hopefully you can understand just why she’s so good..

Watch the full length video tour to see for yourself.

Suffice it to say that right here is the opportunity to buy what amounts to a 2009 Bayliner 265 Sports Cruiser (latterly known as the Bayliner 275 from 2005 onwards) for the price of a 2004 boat.

And this boat has always been super-desirable, largely down to a cabin that is unique in 27ft sports cruisers. Leave your details below to watch the full length video and find out how good that cabin is…