Hi all, has anyone with a 210 Montauk with a T-top done with spray curtains with isinglass wrapping around the T-top for spray and wind protection? Very interested in doing this, but can't find any good gear online. This seems like a custom job here. Has anyone done this and felt it was a good investment?
Looking for the easiest ACR ResQLink setup for my Mustang Elite 190 inflatable PFD in case of collision or capsize while skippering solo. The ResQLink 400 seems simple to just clip on with the oral tube kit and works with manual button activation, but I’m worried about what happens if I get knocked unconscious and can’t press it. Has anyone fitted either the 400 or the ResQLink AIS (which activates with an inflatable pfd but seems like a pain to set up) to a Mustang Elite PFD? how hard was the install and would you trust the auto-activation version? Thanks in advance.
42M, have gf, lived in Sausalito for over a decade, and somehow never owned a boat. Always wanted one. Finally pulling the trigger this year and I’ve been going back and forth so many times I’m losing my mind a little.
Here’s where I am. I’ve got a $5K deposit down on a 2024 210 Montauk leftover at a local dealer. It’s pristine — 10 hours, indoor stored the whole time, fresh 2026 Mercury 200 V6 DTS, hardtop, head, the works. All-in around $96K. By every objective measure it’s the smart buy for me. Solo morning rides are going to be 70% of my use. Quiet, easy to handle, fuel efficient, fits my actual life.
But I keep getting pulled toward the 240 Vantage. ~$259K all-in by the time tax and freight and bottom paint are in. And I can’t tell if that’s the lifelong-want talking or if it’s actually the right call.
Here’s my real situation:
• 70% solo morning runs (Richardson Bay, breakfast at Sam’s, lapping Angel Island)
• Maybe 20% with friends or my family
• I’m not an offshore guy, not a fisherman, not a watersports person. I’m a “morning coffee on the water and the occasional sunset with people I like” guy.
The Montauk handles 90% of that perfectly. The Vantage handles 100% of it plus the 10% I’m bad at planning around — windy summer afternoons, guests who get cold easily, the kind of “let’s just go, weather be damned” hosting that the Bay actively punishes you for in a 21-footer with 16° deadrise.
Things I keep telling myself in favor of the Montauk:
• Right-sized for my actual life, not the life I imagine
• I’d feel ridiculous taking a 240 out solo on a Tuesday morning
• The two-step path (Montauk now, Vantage later if needed) costs maybe $25K extra in CA double-tax — bounded regret
• I can afford either, but $97K over 3 years is real money even at my net worth
• The smart-money choice is almost always the smaller boat first
Things that keep pulling me toward the Vantage:
• I’ve wanted this since I was a kid. Do I actually want the “starter” version when I can swing the real one?
• The Bay is genuinely brutal on small boats with guests aboard. I’ve watched enough friends-of-friends try to do dinner cruises in 21-footers and end up wet, cold, and quiet on the way back in.
• Once my mom and gf join, the entertaining use case becomes way more real
• I don’t want to be the guy who finally bought a boat and then upgraded 18 months later because I knew the whole time
Vantage owners: how often do you actually take it out solo? Does it feel like too much boat on a quiet weekday, or does it grow into the slot in your life? And the entertaining piece — is the bigger platform actually generating more get-togethers, or do the same friends come the same number of times regardless?
21-footer owners in choppy bays (SF, Buzzards, LIS, Puget Sound) — be honest about the weather constraint. How many days a year do you bail or stay in because of conditions when you have guests? How often do you wish you’d gone bigger?
Anyone who did the two-step (small boat first, bigger boat 18-24 months later) — would you do it that way again, or would you have just bought the bigger boat to start? I’m trying to figure out if the “test it out first” wisdom is real or if it’s just retroactive justification.
Ok