I enjoyed many years on a 21 foot Bayliner Trophy, large cockpit, much fishing, great deck layout for fishing, even with sometimes 6 people on board. Many stripers went into the well, and many eels blew in the breeze while heading back into the current to do drift runs at Fire Island Inlet. Flounders from the ocean, a couple of sharks, handled rollers well, and landed well, took a beating, good ride, but a bit of a violent roll in a chop, beam to, no great surprise? (What a fourth of July that was! The anchorage wind swung everyone beam to the chop during the fireworks. Too crowded to drop a second hook. The only stable boats were the keel sailboats, mast dampening the motion nicely.) Many good hours and days and nights of fishin' and fun, along with much snoozing and chatting in the cuddy. If a boat holds together and runs well, an important value is what you do with it, including Bayliners, especially if you can't afford a GradyWhite.
Yes, the floor in the stbd side locker needed replacing. Compared to what we got out of it... minor, and it was pretty inexpensive compared to what we got out of her.
It just sold a few weeks ago, and has been out at least five times already. Hope the new owner has as good times as we had in her... I drove by today and he was out again.
Yes...gelcoat was starting to crack a bit. Stringers seemed good, but some plywood elsewhere needed to be watched closely, maybe soon to be replaced. Got to keep the bilge dry in such boats. We got much bang for the buck out of a Bayliner. Fittings were still solid. Did need a new Teleflex (hey, it was 20 years old!).
Is it worth keeping? If you do... Inspect the bilge... keep it dry and clean. If you buy a boat to use as a boat, and not for resale value, if kept shipshape, a Bayliner has a lot to give for what it costs. Redo systems if you want it more perfect, but it is a bit better than a floating dumpster. When it is not kept dry and clean, I suspect the troubles can get ahead of you more quickly than you'd like. Make sure things like cockpit drain hoses are in good shape, else the bilge *will* get wet, very wet, and then the problems come. If the pump is always running, find out why or look out!
Though I am no expert when it comes to very long term maintenance of a Bayliner, I am grateful for the times we had on one. It seemed this thread, after a few more posts, might be heading towards wanting to burn one in effigy. That humble Bayliner helped and towed a few other of them *fancy high resale boats* that broke I/O drives flying across shoals and on the wrong side of channel buoys.
I speak only of the Trophy... don't know about the lower of the low end models.