None taken

IMO, one big reason you see so many sorry-a__ Bayliner boats is because so many first-time boat buyers buy a Bayliner, then they remain clueless about basic boat care and maintenance. Even a Cobalt will look and run like s__t if you don't take care of it.

You also get a lot of folks that don't know how to handle a boat, buying a Bayliner at the Boat Show, then forgetting to put the drain plug in and sinking it at the ramp. Or, as seemed to be the case with the sob story above, they never bother to do a basic systems check before heading out for some offshore fishing. 30 minutes at the dock checking their brand new $36,000 boat's systems would have revealed the misplumbed livewell pickup. Sure, the factory should have done it right, and the dealer shouldn't have made things worse with a botched VHF install. However, you have to figure that any high-volume boat maker will screw up now and then. Since Bayliner sells so many boats, the sheer number of screw-ups is guaranteed to be much higher than other brands, even if the percentage is comparable.

The dealer was clearly negligent, since they seemed not to have given the boat a basic going-over before handing over the keys. Once again, 30 minutes verifying the boat's systems would have prevented the whole situation.

Regards.

Finegrain