2017 Sea Fox 288 Commander — Marrero, LA

A 2017 Sea Fox 288 Commander at Marrero, Louisiana, asking $119,995 through The Boat Yard. Sea Fox is the Renken family's South Carolina yard, and its pitch has not moved in years: the twin-outboard, deep-V offshore formula priced under the premium Carolina names — the boating press reviews the 288 Commander as solid value, and that is the right shelf for it. The model runs that argument at 28 feet: a fishing platform first, with enough bow seating to double as the family day boat.

Two things we cannot tell you. We hold no sister ship to benchmark the ask against, and the model's spec record in our files is too thin to dress up. Nor has anyone surveyed it for you: one broker, no condition notes. Price position is what the shelf can place.

It places it cleanly. The center-consoles around it split into two bands — 2020-and-newer hulls near this length ask $135,000 to $189,900; the boats a size down or from an older decade, $69,995 to $94,900. At $119,995 the Sea Fox sits in the gap between them, priced like the 2017 boat it is: the honest middle of the powerboat shelf. The pressure on the ask comes from one boat.

The 2021 Robalo R272, across the river at Metairie, asks $15,005 more for four fewer years on the clock — the closest test of this price on the market:

If the instinct is more boat rather than newer, the 2016 Sea Hunt Gamefish 30 at Pass Christian buys a foot more hull — a year older — for $25,005 over the Sea Fox:

And where the budget leads, a 2007 Sailfish 2660 also lies at Marrero at $69,995 — ten years older, two feet shorter, $50,000 under this boat:

But if the middle of the market is where you meant to buy, this is the one to survey first: