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Random Quote: I dont know nothin about fishin but I can lie as good as any fisherman.
Boat: 2005 Pathfinder 2300dv bought as new 10/2007 (dealer leftover) .
Motor: 2007 Suzuki 300 installed 4/2009 with warranty through 4/2015.
Trailer: 2007 EZ Loader aluminum bunks.
Original asking price: $48,000.
New asking price (8/25): $45,000. I don't want to store this boat over the winter. Make an offer! NEW asking price (9/30): $42,000. It's gotta go!
I'm selling to make room, time, and money for a 1972 Formula 233 I'm going to restore. I made decisions about upgrades like I was going to have this boat forever.
I've made a number of upgrades over the past 3 years:
- Top was beefed up structurally, sandblasted, re-powdercoated, and installed with nylon washers and tefgel. There is no corrosion anywhere.
- Various rod holders were added to gunnels, console, and top.
- LED spreaders and anchor light.
- Custom switch panels.
- Wiring completely redone from scratch.
- Lowrance HDS-10 with flush through-hull transducer and sidescan.
- Icom VHF.
- 3 AGM batteries.
- Redundant fuel filters with stainless bases.
- Heavy duty cover used only one winter.
This hull came with twin Yamaha F150s, but I believe they were too heavy and their shafts were too long for this hull. I sold them and repowered with the Suzuki in early 2009. The boat sits and rides much better with the big single. Since the fuel tank had two pickups, I kept both fuel filters and have a selector switch. That's a nice bit of redundancy on the water. I also kept three batteries, wiring two of them into a single house bank. No more worries about losing juice when running lots of livewell pumps.
- The engine has 64 hours on it as of 8/8/2010.
- The gas tank holds 190 gallons.
- There's a ~45 gallon livewell fed by two separate pumps under the leaning post.
- There are pitch wells in the corners of the transom. I use these ALL the time and they're great. I'm going to find a way to incorporate something similar when redoing the Formula.
- The fish boxes are pumped out with a macerator pump.
- The bilge pump uses a solid state switch.
- I have a console cover, boarding ladder, Autotether, a case of oil for the engine, an underwater LED light (boat is wired, but light isn't installed), and various other odds and ends worth something.
I've made a ton of upgrades and improvements not listed here. All the little things were taken care of: solid state bilge pump switch, stainless fuel filter bases, etc, etc, etc.
Any questions, feel free to ask. Call me at 954-816-9116 or send an email to cooperrf@yahoo.com. The boat is located in Chesapeake Beach, MD.
Before repowering with the Suzuki:
After repower:
This is with a full tank of 190 gallons:
I made starboard backing plates for all the mounting bolts for the top:
Nylon washers and tefgel were used when installing the top after having it re-powdercoated. There is zero corrosion.
Lots of rod holders were added:
Heavy duty cover:
Electronics, custom switch panels, and four gauges (2 are standard):
Wiring almost complete (need to trim a few zip ties):
Terminal blocks in transom to make switching out pumps *much* easier:
Nice boat! What is the fuel economy with the 300? What is your top speed?
I have been screwing around with props and engine height, so don't totally have those numbers figured out yet. But I've seen 53mph wot with the engine a hole higher than it is now and using a different prop. Economy is 3mpg +/- .3, depending on conditions, at 30mph. Right now I'm using the stock 3 blade Suzuki prop and the engine is all the way down, but I'm waiting on a 23" tempest from Prop Gods.
has to be one of the cleanest, well thought out 2300s that I've seen. Oh how i wish you lived closer and oh how i wish my budget was just a tad bit bigger! keep adding any and all pics/info that you can.
I've seen that boat on other forums at other times getting improved upon, it's just a beautiful boat IMO, but I've always been very fond of the 2300DV. Someone will get a really first class boat in this one.
Here are pictures of the battery "box". I made this with epoxy, woven roving, mat, cloth, and epoxy concrete paint. It's held closed with 2" wide velcro straps that I sewed together. The goal was to fully cover and restrain the batteries in the smallest possible space, to make the interior of the console more usable.
When I got the boat from the dealer, the t-top had corrosion under the powdercoating around the bolts and curtain snap screws. I was *this close* to pursuing legal action, but ultimately gave up and just made it right myself.
Here's what happened:
1) I took the t-top off the boat.
2) I overdrilled all bolt holes to allow for thickness of powdercoating plus a buffer.
3) Welder added supports to beef up the top.
4) Welder filled all the holes from the snap screws filled.
5) Powdercoater blasted (not sure what media) all the old coating off.
6) Powdercoater washed the bare aluminum with acid.
7) Powdercoater recoated top.
8) I wrapped all bolts with 8 turns of electrical tape before installing to keep metal from touching the powdercoating.
9) I filled all holes and coated all hardware with tefgel before installing.
10) I used nylon washers everywhere.
11) I reconfigured curtain to use different snaps.
12) I sewed together velcro straps to hold curtain snaps instead of screws into t-top.
13) I wrapped t-top with rubber where rod holders clamp.
Bottom line: NOT A SINGLE PIECE of metal touches the powdercoating. And NOT A SINGLE HOLE has been put through the powdercoating. It is fully encapsulating the metal 100% all around. There is zero corrosion because of these extra steps I took. The top is solid.
Arguably the nicest Pathfinder 2300 available - anywhere, new or used! Great rig & improvements.
Thanks!!
I have some photos to post. But I need to put up a disclaimer saying the boat is filthy because there's construction going on at the marina. It's impossible to stay ahead of the dirt and dust that get into the boat every week. I try to keep it clean.
I got some measurements.
At the bow, the interior height is 26":
At the stern, the interior height is 23":
The aft edge of the t-top is 78" off the deck:
There are fore-aft support tubes under the rear canopy of the top. The outside two are grab rails and are lower. The interior two are only for support and are higher. I took measurements halfway between the console and leaning post, about where your head might be. Down the center of the top, above where you stand, there is no extra support tube, so there may be an additional 2" of clearance (I forgot to get that measurement).
Cooper I have always liked this boat and enjoyed watching the improvements take place - Beautiful Rig. Good luck with sale.
Thanks for the compliments and good luck wish!
Here's a picture of the aft edge of the t-top.
There are 4 aluminum clamp-on rod holders. I chose these type instead of welded, because if they were welded I would need to powdercoat them. And how can you protect a powdercoated rod holder from getting chipped? Also, these are aluminum instead of stainless to save weight and reduce stress on the top.
The spreader is one of ScarabChris' LED spreader lights. There's another just like it on the front. It totally lights up the cockpit with a clean white light.
The antenna is a Digital. They're supposed to be the nicest around. That's just a bit of pipe insulation on there to keep it from hitting the rod holder. It doesn't touch unless it's bouncing around.
The canvas is held on with zip ties. That's for a few reasons. 1) It's *way* easier to install. I've done rope in the past and it wasn't exactly simple or quick. Zip ties can be done in 10 minutes start to finish. Also, it's harder to center the canvas when using rope. 2) I think zip ties look cleaner and more sleek. 3) I think they provide some extra bit of redundancy. Imagine your rope rotted through while out on the water. Now your whole top could potentially unravel. If a zip tie broke, you'd still have all the others. Plus it's easy to carry spares, so you'd be back in business in no time.
Also from this angle you can see the various tubes that I measured in a previous post.
The back rest is removable in case you want to use those rod holders. Again, zero corrosion on the powdercoating.
There is a small amount of tackle storage and a drawer. I keep most of my tackle in large trays in milk crates in the console, and put the common essentials (some hooks, sinkers, jigs, etc.) in the small trays. I refill them from the large trays when they get low. I keep leader, pliers, bait knife, etc. in the drawer.
The livewell is nice. The best of any boat I've owned. It's fed by redundant pumps, each with a separate nozzle in the livewell. I usually use both to fill it (so it goes faster), then run off one or the other on alternating days. The livewell is more than 40 gallons (maybe 47, I'm not exactly sure). It has rounded corners.
This is right after I picked the boat up from the dealer:
I have a console cover from the factory that fits around the legs of the t-top and is held closed with velcro.
There's a folding foot rest.
The ignition works off a button, so it's easy to start and stop the engine during the day without worrying about the key.
The top half of the plexiglass electronics cover folds upwards and can be removed (breakaway hinges). There's a dedicated spot inside the console to hold it when it's removed. It locks using the two black latches on either side.
The electronics enclosure and cup holders have drains to empty water onto the deck and keep the inside of the console dry.
There are 4 rod holders with knife and pliers holders on each side of the console.
The switch panels are custom. I chose the switch layout, text, font size, etc. These are better than any factory switches I've seen. The components used and wiring job are spectacular. They're made by Scott at Vector LED: http://www.vectorled.com/ The port switches include a horn, nav lights, courtesy lights (wired to terminal strip in bilge, but no lights installed), spreader lights, underwater light (wired to terminal strip in bilge, and I have the light - made my scarabchris, but it's not installed), and electronics.
I have 4 LMF gauges. Normally only 1 or 2 come with an engine, but I bought extras. You can display pretty much any function you want on any gauge. You can see the engine hours are 64.93 on the far right gauge.
The starboard gauges include bilge pump, raw water washdown, macerator for the two aft fish boxes, livewell pump 1, livewell pump 2, and pitchwells pump. Below that are the inidicator switches for the trim tabs. Then the throttle. The throttle is fly-by-wire and is super smooth. There's no tapping it with your fist to reach trolling rpms or anything like that. It moves like butter and stays where you leave it. I can't imagine ever going back to cables.
I have two props for the boat. One is the standard suzuki 3 blade prop. The other is currently a mercury 3 blade tempest, but that may change. I've already tried different size rev 4s and and a hydromotive.
I also have an auto tether. This provides real peace of mind when fishing alone.
Man that boat is well thought out and clean and you have made some sweet upgrades.
I have a few questions
1. Weight
2. Beam
3. dedrise
4. Pics of Fish boxes and how big and how long (inches) are they in stern of boat
5. pic of the bow deck area (is it a flat deck)
6. pics of any and all storage areas on the boat (are they all in the floor)
7. pic of anchor locker open to see how big it is
8. could you put a lifejacket holder under the ttop (one of the custom ones) not a tbag
9. is there a trim tab gauge and a engine trim gauge??? (thats nice!!!!)
10. Is there a stereo with any speakers???
I have never looked at pathfinders but man this one really catches my eye!!!!!!!
Thanks for the compliments. I'll do my best to answer your questions.
1) Weight is listed as 2300lbs. I'm guessing that's dry. Engine and basic gear probably add another 1000. 190 gallons of gas is another 1200 or so. Maybe 5000 ready to fish with a couple people. I tow with my dodge 1500 and used my ford f150 before that with no problems.
2) Beam is 8'6".
3) I believe the deadrise is 21 degrees, but it might be 22.
4) I have some pics of the fish boxes open, but no measurements. In the floor, there is one hatch in front of the console, two on the sides of the console (one on either side), two in the corners of the cockpit, and one in the center of the cockpit. I keep cleaning gear, dock lines, and life jackets in three of those hatches. The rest sit empty and wait for fish or passenger gear. I'll get measurements and better photos this weekend. In the meantime, here are a couple pictures.
This is the rear center hatch. The bilge hatch is on the vertical wall of the transom. The fish boxes are on either side.
Here's one of the fish boxes.
This is on the side of the console.
This is in the bow.
5) The floor is flat all the way bow to stern. See above for an aft-facing picture. I'll get more pictures this weekend facing forward.
6) Except for the the console, all storage is in the floor. There are drains and/or gutters around all hatches, so they stay relatively dry. Please see above for pictures.
7) The anchor locker is very large. I keep 600' of line attached to 12' of chain. You can see that it's maybe 1/3 full in this photo. There's easily room for a drift sock and anchor ball in addition to the anchor and rode.
8) I think you could probably have a mesh lifejacket holder under the canopy of the t-top, but I don't know how many jackets it would hold. I keep 6 type III life jackets and a throwable in my front hatch.
This picture is a little dark, but here's the underside of the top from a couple years ago.
9) The trim tabs have indicators built into the switch. the engine trim shows up on the gauges. You can configure it to show any number of ways.
This picture shows the trim tab switch with indicators.
10) I don't have a stereo with speakers. I have been using a small boombox connected to an ipod that I bungee to the top of the console.
Most people haven't seen these 23' offshore pathfinders. The factory still makes them, but I don't know if it's more than a few per year. It is wayyy better setup for fishing than either the Bluewater or Kencraft I had before.
Sold!! For sale: Pathfinder 2300dv / Suzuki 300 - PRICE REDUCTION (9/30) 
Fuel economy 
