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One of the best ribs out there. Not perfect in every way but almost.
8.1m is a proper boat but still trailerable. 2005 boat would have been built when graham still run the company and He had an eye for quality.
If I run my 8.1m 25-35mph you don't need to turn in, slow down or scan the horizon for other boats wake as she is so forgiving. They run best in short sharp chop with some enthusiastic driving. Big head seas require some trim tab to keep the very sharp bow planted. Following seas they are quite happy to get airborne so well controlled throttle, that said in HUGE head seas they are much comfiest to turn around and lift the nose up and surf a bit faster than the waves. Beam seas and side winds they will land on outer chine hard if you don't use trim tabs. Quartering seas, a scorpion bow is about 70ish degrees dead rise. They will steer from the bow a little especially in a following/quarter sea, its perfectly controllable at slow to moderate speed, but turning hard on a following sea or diagonal wave demands a firm grip of the wheel if your shifting. I can only compare my two scorpion sea keeping to about 10 other boats I have owned or driven, and quite simply they are head and shoulders above them all. Including ribeye, ribcraft, regal, revenger, ring, phantom, pascoe, humber, flatacraft to name a few. My mate did round Britain race in a 9m pascoe and has raced everything including huntons, phantoms, he was gob smacked how soft a ride my 7.5m scorpion was in comparison.
Buying issues.
Trim tabs. Pretty essential on a scorpion, but I have never driven a twin. Bennett twin rams were the preferred setup and they are slow to operate and can fail/leak. Lenco became preferred fitting a while ago.
Drainage. The deck is self draining. But only at slightly higher deck water levels. The middle bilge deals with low and surface deck water. If this fails the boat will fill up by quite a few inches. Ensure bilge works, has an auto override, cables and connections are ok, and I'd suggest a solar panel to keep the battery in tip top condition.
One of mine had trapped water in a cable trunkings, a simple hole aft fixed it. If it's slow to plane or lands on aft section all the time, check for trapped water as scorpions are too well behaved for that.
Transom. Very solid build but beware of cowboy engine swappers. Scorpion seem to used to use very strong adhesive like 5200 for engine bolts, so removing an engine will likely cause damage to gel coat.
Tubes. Some scorpion colours like light grey and yellow develop a funny mould on their tube surface. It stains and is almost impossible to clean. They seem to delaminate where sun damage occurs, I notice the boat you mention has some wear patches on top, that might be a practical foot step or a cover up. Also check deck to tube flange, sometimes they carry some water in tube carriers if the tubes are left deflated. This can lead to osmosis. Both mine had it on port side only, and it was detectable by pumping the tubes up fully and looking for seeping water aft, onto deck area.
Wiring. Some of them have circuit breaker/main fuses mounted too low in aft bilge for my liking. Flooding could cause damage or corrosion so check main battery and circuit connections.
Fuel tanks. I think all Grahams scorpions have built in grp tanks. The tank is made of fuel safe derekane resin. That said i have been told wouldn't pass some current regs and with the increase in ethanol in petrol its slightly worrying the longevity of the tanks. The inspection hatch is under a bailey deck hatch and is worth checking for standing water on top of tank as it seems to age the gasket . If you have a survey, see if they will pressure test the tank for peace of mind.
Despite all the above, they really do look after you and the family. My daughter has been going on ours since she was 2. Last weekend I even managed to get the thumbs up from the Mrs, on her first time on a boat doing 60mph in a snotty Solent. You won't regret it
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