Re: My new/old Metzler Maya S
Your boat is newer and in far better shape than mine, nice find and good buy!
I have a 1976 or 1977 maya that my dad bought new 30 or so years ago. I've pretty much had to restore it completely removing all the glued on items and reattaching them and patching a few leaks. Some seams are leaking slightly and I need to try some of the liquid sealant some places sell to see if I can extend the life of this great little boat.
I'd really like to find one of these in the condition that you did, they are great little boats - very versatile. I have had mine in rivers, lakes, and the ocean.
Have you ever seen the sail kits that they made for the maya? I think that would be great fun on the lake with my children to teach them to sail. If I could find one in the US I'd be thrilled. I assume it would cost a fortune to ship one here from the states or across the pond.
I painted the registration numbers on mine - it was pretty easy although I would have liked to have them positioned further aft so they could be more straight, but our regulations require them within a certain distance of the bow of the boat. I wanted black paint but could only find gray.
I don't know if you only have to have numbers or not, but here we have to have a registration sticker also. I made the mounting plate that you see my sticker on in the pictures. I took a piece of plastic that I cut from a quart of oil (the yellow that the blue sticker is on) then put a slit on each side of it and threaded a piece of hypalon patch through it (the gray on either side of the blue sticker). To install it I glued the patch material on each side and now have a nice permenant place for my sticker.
Photos were from a moose hunt on a river here in Alaska last fall.
Enjoy your new/old Maya!
(PS - I've got the exact same evinrude 7.5hp that you found for your small boat restoration - you can see it in the picture I posted!)
I looked for a long time before I found this one.
Being built in Germany it was considerably easier to find one here, than I am sure it would be there, but I did see two for sale on the web from a oil firm in Alaska last month that looked to be in really good shape.
I spent the last week tracking down a couple of slow leaks and sealing then, and I will do some work on the area just in front of the transom where gas leaked on the Hypalon. I will re-coat this part with a two stage rubber Hypalon paint.
This area has no influence on the boats performance or “float ability” though, as the transom on my model is mounted outside the boats inner structure, to the main tubes. I will probably wait for winter to do this work.
It has now held air without a re-pump for five days.
Should you ever want to have it completely restored there is a company just south of us, that does work for the German military, and can supply just about everything you could ever wish for.
My boat originally had the sail kit, but the former owner said it had been stolen during vacation one year. He thought they had taken as much as the could carry, and had planned to come back for the rest, but he woke up, and moved the boat bag into the house before they got the rest of the bags.
The mounting points for the sails are still there and really heavy duty. I plan to eventually use them for a Bimini Top and or a Tent frame to use in the often bad weather here, a little more comfortable.
These sail kits were really well made and tend to outlive the boats themselves. You can still find them on Ebay here, but they are kind of pricey.
We don't need the registration stickers here, but the boat numbers requirements seem to be the same as for your boat.
I would have liked to just put them on the motor, but it is too small.
Speaking of the motor, I love mine, how long have you been using yours?
If you will post the name on your boat and the length, I might have some original Metzeler paper work from the company for it, I can post for you.
P.S. The hunt photos are great, wish I had been there!
