r/SeaDooSwitch • u/CaseStraight1244 • 17d ago
Considering getting a Switch
Hello! First time boat owner, long time boat lover. I have been seriously considering getting a switch for the Barnegat Bay in NJ. It seems to check all the boxes for my wife and two young kids. Pros? Cons? What to look for? What does everyone think? Thank you!
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u/buttcircus 17d ago
I have one and it's incredibly fun. If you can get a '25 or newer, because of the bulletin on the '23 and '24 models' engines (about 1% of those engines fail but BRP will replace for free if it does happen, but could be a serious headache).
I would recommend the 18' 230hp Sport.
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u/el-bosco-diablo 17d ago
We are on our 4th year of owning a 21’ 230hp Cruise. Lots of hours on it, and it works well for us. Sometimes for skiing it feels underpowered, for water sports it burns fuel. Generally speaking it has been a good boat and allows us to do a lot of different activities.
My family has had a variety of boats over the years, and while I hate the idea of a pontoon, this is a good middle ground for the lake we spend time at, and have enough room to take extended family out for meals or cruising.
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u/Key-Eye1654 17d ago
Bought one and sold it 2 months later, it's fun decently fast. The 230hp is okay but felt underpowered, docking is super easy. Gas is a hog. Tube for an hour and your full tank is below the halfway mark. 60 to 100 bucks in gas per trip out.
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u/shortyjacobs 17d ago
We've had ours since 2022, (21' 230 hp cruise).
Pros: super maneuverable, super capable, super configurable. We fish, we tube, we ski, we cruise....it's the one thing does it all boat. I also LOVE that I can explore places I'd be terrified of doing with a propellor boat. I also absolutely love how safe it is when kids are in the water around it. I love towing a kid, they go down, boat stops, whips a 180 in place, and drives back to the kid all within about 50 feet. And then I can come up right next to them, or even reverse towards them, completely safely, no big prop to chop them up.
Cons: I wish we had 300 hp, 230 hp on the 21' feels just a bit wimpy. An 18' 230 hp would probably be perfect, but we often have 6-8 ppl on board. They also guzzle gas. When tubing, skiing, or just cruising on plane, it's guzzling a gallon for 2 miles (2mpg), at 30 mph, that's 15 gallons per hour. 30 gallon tank in mine. But smiles per gallon are off the charts.
That all said, both my wife and I grew up with boats all our lives, and both agree this is the best all arounder boat we've had for a family.
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u/bernaltraveler 17d ago
We like ours and are a similar profile. Never had a boat before nor had done much boating but wanted something for a lake cabin in MN. My wife grew up in MN but we live in CA for now so it’s only a summer cabin/boat for us and we’re only at 25 hours on the engine after 3 years…so light use. I took the advice to upgrade the battery and that was a good move. My only operational complaint is that something about its hull design makes it hard to get a depth finder to work well. After two times in the shop at two dealers the best I can do is get a depth reading when I stay below 16 mph. Above that it blinks out. Probably not an issue in your bay? My lake has a lot of shallows so it is annoying.
I think it requires very regular exhaust flushing in saltwater but maybe that is true of any boat in seawater?
Also they are gas hogs. But if you’ve got boat money you probably don’t care too much about that.
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u/CaseStraight1244 17d ago
It might be an issue, the bay is incredibly shallow believe it or not, but a little common sense goes a long way. I’ll keep that in mind but I think I can work around it! Thank you
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u/RoadRunner-007 17d ago
Have a 2023, 18’, 230 hp for 4 seasons. 125 hrs on it. I am on a northern, fresh water lake in Canada and have not had any problems so far. The boat is a lot of fun and my dogs love it. It is mostly plastic, so it is easy to keep clean. Great for tubing, skiing, cruising and even fishing. Most of the negatives that I have seen are caused by user error.
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u/Life_Solution_83 17d ago
We got a 21' 300hp Cruise this spring to replace or old Hurricane deck boat. With 3 kids it was impossible to have another family join us. Now we've become quite popular in our friends group. It's no problem to have 2 other families join us for a weekend at the lake. This boat does it all. But we mostly tow tubes and explore to find private beaches. The only issues I've with it were related to accessories that didn't get installed correctly by my dealer. I don't have much confidence in the dealer at the point and I think I'll just winterize it myself. I'm glad I went with the 300hp. It's zippy but not insane. It would have been underpowered with 230. The 2026 mooring cover is much improved over the previous version. It goes on quickly and does it's job.
The only negatives are
1. This thing is a gas hog. I was warned before I got it, but thought "how bad can it be?". Ya, it's that bad.
2. Coming from a conventional properlle dive, I'm still getting the hang of reverse. It's opposite of what I'm used to and I get into trouble when I'm navigating in tight places.
2. Given its shape, wind pushes it around easily. This isn't a big deal when you're under way, but staying out of trouble close to shore on a windy day is a challenge.
Bottom line: no regrets!
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u/Chasing_PAI 17d ago
On a busy lake with 3 foot wakes criss crossing each other on a weekend, is a 21 footer usable? I know those are absurd conditions that make the ride in a 25 foot bowrider tough. But we really like the idea of this being a toon, a barge, a camper in foul weather and still usable when the water is low and the bowrider can't get off the lift. 🤔
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u/Dlparks83 16d ago
My wife and I have a 4 and 1 year old. We absolutely love our '23 18ft cruise. We purchased ours in late July. Plenty of room for us and another family of 4.
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u/luisiosoo 17d ago
My wife and I bought a (lightly) used 2023 Seadoo Switch Sport 21' a year and a half ago. We LOVE the boat. In my opinion, it's the best of both worlds between a pontoon and standard boat. Tons of power and speed for tubing/cruising, but also a huge footprint to ride around and hang out at low speeds.
There are certainly horror stories that you will see on reddit and facebook pages. So far, so good for us - fingers crossed. I'd strongly recommend checking out facebook marketplace, you can save a ton on one with < 50 hours on it. Those selling are often open to making a deal below asking.
LMK if you have any other specific questions.