My First Boat With *Pics* - Would Do You Guys Think?

amstech

Cadet
Joined
Aug 16, 2015
Messages
8
Little background, my family has always had jon boats/jetski's I could use but I finally have a boat of my own. My brother has a mid 90's 17" Nitro bass boat with a 120 Merc and my old man has a late 90's 18.6" Stratos Fishing Ski with a Johnson 150 Faststrike so I'm familiar with owning/caring for them. Anyways, I have finally joined the club!

I picked up a clean 1989 ChrisCraft Limited 205, boat is 21" with a OMC Cobra 4.3L HO (GM Engine, rated at 205HP) and runs great. Has a little over 400 hours and has always been garaged/taken care of, and stored properly. Here she is, I was told it will do upper 40's with 93 octane and 1 person but honestly I just bought it to cruise and enjoy.
(The trailer is just holding me over til I get a dual axle)











 
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Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
Staff member
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Jul 23, 2011
Messages
47,296
looks good. the one caution is the batwing manifolds are problematic. I would recommend changing them. do a search on here for batwing manifolds. also do not remove the one plug on the outdrive that is not really a plug (its in the stickies in the OMC forum)
 

alldodge

Moderator
Staff member
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Mar 8, 2009
Messages
40,581
Nice ride hope it gives you many good times.

I wouldn't bother with 93 octane, 87 is plenty, that is unless you really just want to spend more
 

jkust

Rear Admiral
Joined
Aug 2, 2008
Messages
4,942
I like the look of the boat overall if not the color pallet. The only benefit you could possibly have from higher octane in an engine that doesn't need higher octane due to high compression is that carbed engines can suffer from the symptom of run-on and higher octane will mask the symptom. 4,3's in particular seem to suffer from run-on commonly. Even so, high compression engines can be engineered in order to not require high octane such as the supercharged Yamaha Marine engines that only need 87 octane. I question the logic of a person that would tell you high octane leads to a higher end top speed for a number of reasons.
 

JASinIL2006

Vice Admiral
Joined
Feb 10, 2012
Messages
5,524
Nice looking boat! I love the lines! Looks fast just sitting there.

Too bad it's only 21". You won't get many people in there! :lol::lol::lol::lol:
 

cptrick3

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Apr 11, 2015
Messages
157
Boat looks great. Trailer looks like it may need a little TLC. At least grease the hubs.
 

amstech

Cadet
Joined
Aug 16, 2015
Messages
8
Thanks guys for the nice comments and replies.
I have a few questions I hope someone can help me answer, if this is wrong place my apologies.

1) The plastic side louvers near the rear are cracked a little, where can I get replacements?
2) Are there better manifolds then the batwings? Won't different ones mess with the air/fuel ratio?
 

JOLLYTOON

Cadet
Joined
Jul 1, 2014
Messages
8
If the manifolds have not caused a problem in all the years the boat been on the water do you really want to fix something that's not broken.
 

amstech

Cadet
Joined
Aug 16, 2015
Messages
8
Took it for a nice long ride tonight, idles great, cruises nice, very happy; for a moment I opened it up and with 2 people and a dog I was near 46-47MPH at its highest.
Hard to find the right trim, all the gauges work great except the trim so I was guessin and using my own judgement.
I cleaned up/sanded painted the trailer/wheels and I just painted my new louvers for the side in green to match, ty Jasin for the link.
 
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amstech

Cadet
Joined
Aug 16, 2015
Messages
8
Cleaned up the boat, replaced the louvers on the side, bought a tandem.
Boat is being winterized and stored, already dropped it off.

Here's what the package looks like, I bought OMC Cobra HO letters for the side of the trailer but haven't put them on yet.




 
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