First of all, as they say a picture is worth a million words, so a video should be worth about a billion?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmMKwMeUabU&feature=channel
that is a video of the boat driving past us in waves.


We bought this Bayliner 175 XT in July 2005 for £15000 in Britain and we have spent nearly every weekend on it. The boat is great as in the morning you can go on it and drive around the sea/lake using the fantastic 135hp 3lt inboard engine, which gives 30mph cruise and top speed of 43-46mph. (That is very fast) then go back to the marina and tie it up and go for a great lunch then go out again. The boat is definitely great for day trips as it is very versatile as you can have two sunbeds and two loungers with or you can simply pull up the two sunloungers to form two seats again. The boat weighs 880kg's roughly and has enough seating for 8 people but Bayliner put a safety limit of 6 people with a weight limit of 457kg for people and luggage (amusing how precise it is when it depends on a thousand things what your weight capacity is).

We have had 8 people on board (5 adults and 3 kids) when our friends went on it and

1)It creates a massive wake (well massive for a 1 ton 15ft boat)-this is for wakeboarders.

2)Acceleration and top speed are not a problem, we cruised at 30mph at 3800 rmp(with 2 adults and 1 child we get up to 37-40 mph at 3800rpm) so yeah there is a lag, but it is to be expected. Although, put people up on the bow, it will get you onto plane much easier than everyone sitting at the back!!!. Bow riding is dangerous though so make sure that whoever is at the bow is old enough to hold on properly and i wouln't drive much over 20mph and only in a flat sea.

3)It still handles well(including around the marina at low speeds)

4)Plenty of space, everyone had there own seat and handle and somewhere to put there bag and stuff

5)You could still go over waves quite comfortably, the bow did not sit to low either at speed or while stopped

6)Still got decent fuel economy, well it is only once every couple of months so that if you need a boat for 8 people you need a 30ft cruiser(or around there)

So as far as having a lot of people on it goes, there are no problems!

As for waves we went out in sea state 2-3 and it handled well if you kept the speed above 20mph so it would plane and skim across the waves. The only trouble we encountered was the fact that we went 24mph over a 1.7metre wave and water poured into the boat. Fortunately Bayliner have a great draining system and within 10 minutes all the proof that this ever happened was just a wet floor and soaking stuff - and a group of people in a nearby boat still laughling auibly over the waves.

I have recently added a video on YouTube of our Bayliner 175 going over smallwaves at a slow speed (10mph)
this is the link, just copy it into your search bar:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Bben2gp7mCE
(I will try to get a video of the boat going fast over waves (in the 25-30mph zone) and one of just general handling, i will do it as soon as possible-problem is i always forget my camera!)


The boat handles well but the manual steering can get tiresome after a while. The boat has great seating at the front which is great to lie on when you stop or even better to lie there while skimming across the water. If you have a choice of getting the XT version or not then i would definitely say to get it as you get a radio and the hull colour design but the best thing is the fact that you get the watersports arch which makes life very easy when getting in and out of the boat and gives you something to grab onto when driving through waves.

The boat is very practical as every seat has it's own cup holder and even if you don't choose the xt package you can still hold onto the individual handle that every seat has. We boat has a very solid construction as we have (unfortunately) hit lumps of wood at 30mph - which makes a horrible sound - but when we pull it out the water there was no visible evidence. The boat has storage running the entire length of the boat this is hidden under the deck and accessed by a hatch in the cockpit area, this is ideal for skis and other various equipment.

The boat is actually quite quiet! The engine hatch does a great job of stopping the sound (when you go 7 miles an hour the noise is the same as a piano playing) but when you go over 3000rpm you start hearing it more as it is 80 decibels.

The boat is easy to handle at both high and low speeds and is easy to park. The boat has a great 100-mile range out of its 18 gallon fuel tank.

The boat has a LOA of 17.6 (5.3 meters) feet and a draft of 16" (about 41cm) and a beam of 7 feet (about 2.1 meters.) Since the boat is 7 feet across it feels very stable if waves are rolling it sideways. The boat has fast acceleration as it takes 4.7 seconds to plane and 0-30 is 7.3 seconds (although we have done our own test, and with little fuel and only two people on board, the boat hits 30mph in just over 6 seconds!!!). You also get a trailer with it, you can choose if you want it painted or galvanised. We drive it in the west of Scotland.


All in all if you want a boat for just a day trip and don't want to go paying lots of it I would definetly recommend the Bayliner 175XT
For more information copy this link into your address bar:
http://www.bayliner.com/bowriders.asp?modelid=78825

I would reommend Boattest for reviews and information on boats. so you can visit
http://www.boattest.com/boats/Overview.aspx?ID=434&s=Bayliner-175-Bowrider

for information on the boat

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): £ 15,000
Brand of Motor: Mercruiser
Primary Location of Use: Inshore waters and bays
Primary Type of Use: All-around recreation