New, bought my first boat

RlySlow

Recruit
Joined
Nov 16, 2016
Messages
2
figure i'll be needing a lot of the resources available here as I literally hardly know anything about boats. Always love the river just could never justify buying one when i was living at home, limited space, and no tow vehicle especially since in the midwest here it's only about 3-4 months of good boat weather + I'm also big into cars & motorcycles so the boat was secondary to that.

This summer my buddy who is a big boat person directed me to this one as I was expressing interest even though I didn't have a place to store it at the time or anything to pull it. However I still was pretty sure I was going to buy it for like $3200-3500. Then I broke my foot on my motorcycle and forgot about it. My buddy knew the guy and he had only mentioned selling it to people never actually advertised. Then now last friday my buddy said the guy finally put a sign on it with $2500 on it. just so happens the last weekend I traded a focus I bought for $1000 to a guy for his 96 chevy k1500 that is in great mechanical shape and I also bought and closed on my first house last month and I have a pretty decent amount of room with a 3 car sized garage and decent driveway space on a dead end street.

So the stars sort of aligned lol.
Anyway, ended up giving $2,000 for the boat. Took a risk as negotiating him to $2,000 was a stretch and I think he only caved since I was there and able to pull it out of the yard where it was sunk into the ground a few inches, that exact moment. The guy swore it was mechanically solid even though he hadn't had it out in water since august 2015.

Took it home put it on the battery charger Sunday morning. Put $20 of gas in it and buddy and I took it down and dropped it into the rough chilly water. Fired right up and we cruised it up and down the river for a good hour beating the tar out of it and checking it all over. Motor runs great, cruises at a good 50-55mph max. Found trailer trim button doesn't work, we had to jump it and for the most part the gauges are all crazy or not working. Otherwise everything else works. Motor runs great. River was really rough but boat handled it pretty well. No leaks or anything.

Main thing it needs is interior work. Mostly cleaning but need a new rear bench seat. Engine cover has a good rip in it too.
Guy said a couple years back covered sitting under a tree through winter, a branch fell through the cover unknown to him so it sat for months until he uncovered it to see the hole and the big branch had fallen right into the rear seat beating it up pretty good.
Otherwise trailer is in good shape with new tires.

Motor is the 5.7 mercruiser.

Big issue is I'm worrying about sourcing any sylvan specific parts for this thing since from what I know Sylvan doesn't support this boat anymore really and these bowrider (is that right for the type of boat?) made by sylvan are pretty rare as is.

Still know nothing hardly about boats but I'm sure I'm about to learn. Will be a good TLC project over winter to get ready to take out next year. Going to try to winterize it first and then do some deep cleaning on the interior. In spring I'll do a basic tuneup on the motor and work with my buddy to sort the electrical issues. I have a build going on my Trans am that will take up a lot of my time/space over the winter so going to keep it simple on the boat for now.

Overall in the past couple weeks I have about $3100 between buying the boat and truck combined so I'm pretty happy with things as they sit!

Here are a couple pictures.
XwsB6Jj.jpg

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7y8Bonm.jpg


if it wasnt for my trans am and bikes, not to mention my various house projects with my new house, I'd definitely probably be dumping a lot more money into this new boat hobby haha
9vysjlg.jpg
 

SeaDooSam

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Feb 15, 2016
Messages
575
Welcome to IBoats and Nice find. Looks like you made out well. Have you taken a boating course?
 

Patfromny

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Dec 2, 2012
Messages
1,197
Welcome to iboats and congrats on the new purchase. May I suggest the first project should be to insulate and sheetrock the garage... after winterizing and covering the boat that is. Midwest winter working on a T/A will be a whole lot nicer with insulation. sheetrock will brighten up the garage something fierce too. probably the cheapest project you could have if you do it yourself.
 

southkogs

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 7, 2010
Messages
14,785
Welcome aboard - and congrats on the new boat.

You mentioned Sylvan specific parts in your post - I wouldn't worry about that. The Mercruiser parts you can get easily, and you'll want to get a manual for that. The boat itself is made by Sylvan, but MANY of the parts you'll need to replace won't need to be from them. In fact, many of the rigging parts (rails, lights, helm, etc.) were made by someone else and added after the boat was built. You won't have any issues with that kind of thing.
 

Old Ironmaker

Captain
Joined
Dec 28, 2015
Messages
3,050
The boat looks slick. It took a few Corleone's to splash a boat you never ran on the muffs. I bet you aren't 40 yet. just a guess. Get yourself a manual for the boat and Mercruiser here on iboats. A wiring diagram would be a must to me if you can find one. I think the electrical issues will be the toughest to work on. I dislike doing electrical, a won't use the word hate but it is close. Clean up is the last thing on the list to do this winter. How is the floor stringers,deck and transom? Solid? I would check that first before spending a red cent on anything else. Read the restoration forum until you are sick of it. Nice boat, good luck.
 

tpenfield

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 18, 2011
Messages
17,621
Welcome and congrats on the boat. As stated, most of the component parts will be generic. Boats manufacturers only make the hull . . . They buy pretty much everything else from common suppliers. So for hardware and components, you should be able to find exact matches or close equivalents.
 

Patfromny

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Dec 2, 2012
Messages
1,197
Welcome and congrats on the boat. As stated, most of the component parts will be generic. Boats manufacturers only make the hull . . . They buy pretty much everything else from common suppliers. So for hardware and components, you should be able to find exact matches or close equivalents.



And your seats can be reupolstered.
Not sure if the ripped seat is where you were going with the "sylvan specific" thing. I have a 77 Crestliner and I was able to find everything for my boat that was needed except for the pinstripping. I'll have to make my own. Remember that you don't need original with boats. They don't lose any value if not original because they don't have much value to begin with. lol
 

savetexomabeaches

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 4, 2013
Messages
420
if it wasnt for my trans am and bikes, not to mention my various house projects with my new house, I'd definitely probably be dumping a lot more money into this new boat hobby haha

LOL -- Welcome to owning a boat

Create a budget list.. Then, wad it up and throw it away. Boats are fun!
 

ezmobee

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Mar 26, 2007
Messages
23,767
Guy said a couple years back covered sitting under a tree through winter, a branch fell through the cover unknown to him so it sat for months until he uncovered it to see the hole and the big branch had fallen right into the rear seat beating it up pretty good.

This part is worrisome. Everything else sounds great. If the boat was stored bow up and the rain water was able to fairly easily drain out you may be ok but generally it's bad news if boats with wooden deck and stringers are left open to the elements for a while. Nice looking boat. Congrats.
 

bansil

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Oct 27, 2016
Messages
115
Personally I agree that the stars aligned, hell they are almost the same color lol...congrats
 

RlySlow

Recruit
Joined
Nov 16, 2016
Messages
2
Thanks all.
Going to put it into the garage over the weekend and winterize it and maybe start some light cleaning.
I plan to start on my TransAm over the weekend though so going to try to keep my time on the boat limited to a couple hours at most.

We checked a bit of the floors and they don't look new but they aren't rotten either. Should be fine for awhile properly cared for but I think next winter will be a time to focus on the boat and make some serious improvements both cosmetic and functional. I might tear into it and do new floors anyway at that point since my buddy has a lot of experience with it.
 

fishin98

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Nov 28, 2009
Messages
521
Winterizing the motor and drive should be top of the list. Then over the winter set money aside for New exhaust Bellows,Belts,fluids,oil filter, tune up parts. I/O boats as they get older are maintenance intensive.
 

bajaunderground

Lieutenant
Joined
Apr 18, 2008
Messages
1,401
50-55mph for a $2,000 is steal. Glad it's a runner...as for the rest, use the heck out of it, take care of it and sell it for at least what you paid for it in a few years and buy another...I believe it's call two-foot-itis?

Welcome to iboats!
 
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