2006 Ebbtide 180SE, With Trailer, SINLGE OWNER!

I am selling a 2006 Ebbtide 180SE boat with the trailer. This is an incredible find for someone in the market for a used boat.  I bought the boat in 2007 with 6 hours on it.  I have been the sole owner of this boat for the last 17 years!  I have meticulously maintained this boat myself all this time.  I have strictly used synthetic blend oil in the engine since I owned it.  I changed the oil and filter, as well as the gear lube in the sterndrive, every single year right before I put it in the water.  For the past 8 years it hasn’t even stayed in the water.  I trailer it to the lakes.  I do not use it that often in a summer.  I probably used it 5 – 7 times a year.  I used to water ski off it before I had kids.  Now I bring the kids out for some fun on the water, with an occasional tube being towed by it.  Here’s a great benefit of this particular boat: it was stored indoors!  That’s part of the reason it looks the way it does.  I have a steel building that is gets parked in, totally out of the weather and the sun.

The boat has a 3.0L 4-cylinder Mercury engine in it.  It has a Mercury Alpha One sterndrive on the rear of it.  It has plenty of power for the size of the boat, and is decent on fuel usage.

Last year I replaced the steering cable, the starter solenoid, and the battery (all of which were original equipment).  The battery is always on a battery tender.  The original battery lasted all these years because of that battery tender.

2 years ago, I had a marina in Saratoga replace the entire lower gearcase of the sterndrive with a new unit, and replaced all of the through-hull hoses and bellows that keep the water out of the hull by the sterndrive, to include new gimbal bearings and a new water impeller.  I installed a brand-new propeller on that sterndrive.  This was almost $3,000 when it was all said and done.  My buddy was piloting the boat while I was water skiing, and he hit what we believe to be a piece of wood under the water, damaging the old gearcase.  Almost 14 hours of work was done to that boat at that time.  Yes, I have the receipt.  You can tell by the pictures that the lower gearcase looks brand new.  There’s not even a nick in the paint on the propeller yet.  That same year I rebuilt the carburetor also.

She starts and runs great.  I posted a video of starting it and the engine idling.

You just don’t see many 1-owner boats that have been meticulously maintained all these years.

My family has finally outgrown my boat.  Now I just don’t bring my wife and kids on the boat, I now bring their friend(s) and their parents.  I needed to finally get a larger boat.  I didn’t really want to part with my Ebbtide, but such is life.  It has been such an incredible boat, and I know every inch of it.  I just had to buy a very expensive larger boat for my family.

The boat has a rear built-in cooler off the back deck, which is perfect if you like to fish.  There is also a built-in cooler under the port side seat up in the bow area.  I install some cool rope lights under the dash and sides that illuminate the floor of the boat at night (courtesy lights).  It comes with both the snap on weather covers (I replaced them once), and a bimini top to keep the sun off of you while you’re on the boat. It even has a full tank of gas with fuel stabilizer in it.

I had the dealer to my new boat print out a report from JD Powers on the value of this boat.  The high retail is $8,140 without the trailer.  I am including the trailer as part of the sale.  This boat is definitely in the high retail category due to the condition of the boat, as well as the functionality of it.  I have seen a lot of greed in the used vehicle and boat markets.  People are asking for thousands of dollars more than they are actually worth.  I am not doing that with this boat.

The trailer is a Tennessee Trailer complete with a rolling front swing up trailer jack.  I installed a spare tire mount on it, and bought a wheel and tire for it.  All 3 tires have been replaced within the past year and a half.  The spare tire is brand new and has never been on the road.  The trailer comes equipped with bearing buddies, which making greasing the wheel bearings very easy.

Although the boat is in outstanding condition and superior to similar aged boats, it is not perfect.  There are some split seams on the rear bench seat.  I applied tape on this seam last year, but I didn’t use the right tape.  I was going to have the bench reupholstered if I kept it.  It’s not a really big deal wither way.  The radio stopped working last year.  I didn’t use it much anyway.  I always preferred a Bluetooth speaker when anchored so I didn’t drain the battery.  And when the boat is underway, it’s hard to hear the radio anyway, despite me installing 4 Polk Audio high end speakers in the boat.  And lastly, it needs the sensor on the sterndrive to tell the needle on the dash the height of the trim.  After the first year of owning the boat I never even looked at that needle. I just knew where it was by the sound of the pump and how long my finger was on the button.  None of these are major repairs, and if I kept the boat, I probably would have addressed a couple of these.

I will also include the Mercury service manual PDF file with the sale.

Summer is around the corner, and this boat won’t last long.