Been boatless for a decade now. Started perusing classified ads last fall and found this old formula in great shape. It was a little older than I was looking for. It had two fewer cylinders than I was looking for. Had an interior way uglier than I was looking for. But damn was it cool, and in great shape.
It had a few squawks - the starter needed to be replaced, the "up" solenoid for the trim was intermittent, the plumbing from the heat exchanger to the riser was just weird, the fuel pump was an obvious auto zone special - nothing major, just 46 year old boat stuff. I made plans to attack the obvious issues plus a few more - usual tune up, replace anything else that looked like it probably shouldn't be in service for 50 years.
I was obviously very worried about the condition of the wood structure, but it passed the tap, shake and bounce tests and visual inspection of visible wood (around the keyhole, around the deck at the engine compartment). The floor was sound and it had the appearance of being covered or garage kept for most of its life, and with only 160 hours on the vintage looking hour meter it didn't look like it had spent a lot of time in the water. I knew in the back of my mind that it would probably need a transom at some point, but she appeared to have enough life left in her - so she's mine now.
Fast forward to now - I'm going down my punch list. One item was to clean up the mounts for the speedometer and transducer. I broke out the drill, both to see the condition of the wood and to over-drill to re bed the screws. Terrified of what I might find, I was relieved that while there was some moisture in there at some point, the wood was sound.
Still in a drilling mood, I jumped in the bilge and poked a few more holes on the inside of the transom, just deep enough to expose the wood. So far, so good - a few dry spots and a few with moisture in there at some point, but still sound and strong enough that it couldn't be appreciably dented with a screwdriver.
Trying to be mindful of how many holes I was going to have to patch, I eyed the stringers. One good, second one good, third one... uh oh. An inch of good wood and then my heart sank like my screwdriver just did. Now I'm wishing I hadn't done this.
So, now I have a port side stringer that is compromised from a point halfway between the fuel tank bulkhead and the transom forward to....?
There will be a re-build involved here. Ideally, it would be next winter. Can I get some use out of her this season? Decisions, decisions. More investigation to follow.
Seriously, how is this not awesome?
Good stuff here...
Crap...
It had a few squawks - the starter needed to be replaced, the "up" solenoid for the trim was intermittent, the plumbing from the heat exchanger to the riser was just weird, the fuel pump was an obvious auto zone special - nothing major, just 46 year old boat stuff. I made plans to attack the obvious issues plus a few more - usual tune up, replace anything else that looked like it probably shouldn't be in service for 50 years.
I was obviously very worried about the condition of the wood structure, but it passed the tap, shake and bounce tests and visual inspection of visible wood (around the keyhole, around the deck at the engine compartment). The floor was sound and it had the appearance of being covered or garage kept for most of its life, and with only 160 hours on the vintage looking hour meter it didn't look like it had spent a lot of time in the water. I knew in the back of my mind that it would probably need a transom at some point, but she appeared to have enough life left in her - so she's mine now.
Fast forward to now - I'm going down my punch list. One item was to clean up the mounts for the speedometer and transducer. I broke out the drill, both to see the condition of the wood and to over-drill to re bed the screws. Terrified of what I might find, I was relieved that while there was some moisture in there at some point, the wood was sound.
Still in a drilling mood, I jumped in the bilge and poked a few more holes on the inside of the transom, just deep enough to expose the wood. So far, so good - a few dry spots and a few with moisture in there at some point, but still sound and strong enough that it couldn't be appreciably dented with a screwdriver.
Trying to be mindful of how many holes I was going to have to patch, I eyed the stringers. One good, second one good, third one... uh oh. An inch of good wood and then my heart sank like my screwdriver just did. Now I'm wishing I hadn't done this.
So, now I have a port side stringer that is compromised from a point halfway between the fuel tank bulkhead and the transom forward to....?
There will be a re-build involved here. Ideally, it would be next winter. Can I get some use out of her this season? Decisions, decisions. More investigation to follow.
Seriously, how is this not awesome?
Good stuff here...
Crap...
