2002 Bayliner 3055 Ciera restoration project

[arnaud036]

Hello,

I am from the Bay area and planning to buy a Bayliner from 2002 equipped with twin Mercruiser 5.0 L that has been sitting for 4 years in a marina (saltwater) with no maintenance done since. The boat has not been winterized, temperatures does not go below the freezing point here. The previous owner mentioned that the boat was running great before but he just stopped using it (~200 hours) and he does not have time to get it working again. I am a novice in boats and would really appreciate any tips on what I should look for and things I should be careful with. I am planning to do the work myself as a side project, so I am trying to collect information on the procedure to follow to get both engines running again as a first step.

Thanks for the info and help.

 

[Hc20]

What engines and drives are in this boat, first and for most before attempting to run this boat you need to service the raw water impellers in the out drives, on mercruiser drives these are rubber impellers and break down, failure could result in engine over heating and damage to the engines, I’d also inspect and replace the bellows, drain the fuel tank and refill with fresh fuel, new batteries clean and or rebuild carbs then sea trial the boat

 

[Mad Props]

Is the owner letting you do a sea trial? Not sure what you are paying for it, but does it justify a survey? I would highly recommend a survey if it makes financial sense. Your getting into the territory where Bayliner started coming around on quality, however I'm not familiar with their larger boats (they may have always been built better)... A boat that has sat for a long time (especially in water and unprotected) should be checked for any signs of rot on the stringers/transom/deck. Also, the condition of the anodes should be checked... Storing in salt water, especially at a marina, there is a high risk of excessive corrision from stray currents from shore power. I would also go in assuming you will need to have the hull scraped/stripped and repainted with bottom paint. There is a much longer list of things to look for, all things that can be checked by a surveyor...

 

[emoney]

Plus 1 on hiring a qualified Surveyor. It's a few hundred dollars that could result in your saving thousands and thousands of dollars. As a novice, nothing wrong with taking on projects, but you want to make sure exactly what you're getting into. Storage of any boat is hard on it, even sitting on a lift or a trailer. Sitting in the saltwater on top of that compounds issues tenfold. Not to say this isn't a great platform, but I'd want to know for sure before I spent a dime on it. There's an old saying that the most expensive boat you can buy is the free one. Keep that in mind.