We bought our first boat in July of 2003, a Doral 270SC. Made in Canada, this boat was 27 feet in length and 8-1/2 ft wide. It had a single 5.7 Mercruiser engine with a Bravo III outdrive. This Canadian made boat was purchased from a private party at the Algonac Harbour Club marina. Even though we only got in half of a boating season in 2003 we loved it so much we traded it in at the end of the season on a Sea Ray 330 Sundancer.

This was a great first boat. With the outdrive we could get in to very shallow water. It had the aluminum radar arch and an aftermarket windlass installed. We especially liked the camper top, which extended the 'living space' to the outside cockpit area. One major drawback was that it had no air conditioning. It also lacked any electronic navigation options. We used a hand-held GPS unit for the summer which worked well. The farthest we traveled in this boat was about 40 miles to the St. Clair Inn.

We traded it in at Colony Marine, and delivered it to their Algonac service location. Here it is on land next to our new boat, the 330 SeaRay Sundancer.