1987 marathon help

[Bkarb]

Hey everyone. I acquired this old boat free.
22ft walk around cuddy. Best I can tell ya is it was started and ran on muffs this year but I did not witness that.
I'm going to try to upload pics and attach them. What do I have here guys I can't find any info online.
it has a 170 merc cruiser
alpha 1 drive
22ft
The engine has internal cooling with what I believe to be a salt water cooler.
I cannot find model information anywhere and I can't find much of anything online. Please help me with this guys.
thanks in advance.

 

[Bkarb]

Sorry I cannot get photos to upload

 

[southkogs]

Photo upload help HERE. Some specs on Marathon boats HERE.

 

[Bondo]

I can't find any info online.
it has a 170 merc cruiser

Ayuh,...... Search for Mercruiser 470,...... yer nightmares have just begun,.....

 

[Bkarb]

Thanks bondo. I'll look that up.
southkogs...I followed link and am still not able to identify exact model. I'll keep working at it.

 

[Bkarb]

I have a photo in an idea book now but can't figure out how to get it here

 

[nola mike]

The idea books load kind of goofy. Use southkogs guide for the pics. Either post directly (better) or link to google drive or something. What exactly is your question? As Bondo said, your engine goes by different names, 3.7l, 470, 485, 488, 165, 170, plus a few expletives.

 

[southkogs]

I have a photo in an idea book now but can't figure out how to get it here

Option 3 from the tutorial:

 

[Bkarb]

Thankyou guys. I guess my question is is what am I really sitting on. Engine I'm not scared of I'm a mechanic by trade.
what I am scared of is how good of a boat is this. Was it made well ect ect ect
best I can tell by doing a sound test and poking around is that's it's relatively solid. How ever a sound test only goes so far.
I cannot figure out what model bot it is either.
Should I proceeded with money spending or stop and regroup. Let me know your thoughts guys.

 

[nola mike]

At 30+ years old, it doesn't matter how well made it was. Totally depends on how it's been treated since then. Check all the spots on the floor, especially around the back, inaccessible areas in the back of the boat, bilge, and below decks area etc for any soft spots/signs of rot. If it was mine, I'd drill some test holes in the transom as low as I could get, and in the stringers where the motor is mounted. Check to make sure your lag screws on the motor mounts don't spin freely. Jump on the outdrive and see if you have transom flex. You can probably look at the boat and get an idea of whether it was cared for or not. I'd run away from a boat that's sat uncovered and assume I had rot somewhere.

 

[Bkarb]

NOLA Mike. Thankyou sir. If I drill holes and it passes do I just pump the holes back full of epoxy?
also the boat unfortunately has sat uncovered. I guess I'm kinda hoping since it has a plastic shell over the floor that the stringers and transom dodged the bullet.
I will be fine with that and let you know my findings. If I dont get to it tonight I will tomorrow for sure.

 

[southkogs]

In the specs link I posted, my first guess would be the 2200 Sportfish II model. From one photo I can't really tell anything about the condition of the boat, but I will tell you this: nearly without fail, if you have to rehab a boat hull and engine, you need to make sure you enjoy that part and aren't worried about how much it costs you. You will typically be able to find a water ready boat cheaper than the cost of the project.

If the hull is in usable shape as it sits, or there are just some minor things, then you adjust your consideration from there. Don't worry about how well it was originally made, worry about how well it was cared for and what kind of shape it's in now ... and if you like it enough to pour that kind of work into it. The whole thing is about having a good time, right?

The weight of that boat should be about 2500# with no fuel, so if you have a local scale you can try weighing it and see how that number shows up.

 

[Bkarb]

Southkogs thankyou sir. I have a truck scale at work I can roll it over and see.
with the work I have so much going on that it'll be pretty hard to take on any big projects so that is out I think.

 

[nola mike]

Yeah, just fill with epoxy. Head over to the resto forums to get an idea of what to look for and the work involved in fixing. I did the floor over in mine, and I would rather wrench for a week than spend a day glassing and grinding.

 

[Bkarb]

NOLA mike...yes sir I can completely understand the glass work. I'm right there with you. I'm gonna get ready to start the transom in my other boat. I dont think it lol be horrible though. It's an 1988 bay liner cobra. It has a relatively small transom that's appears to be just centered in the boat for the outboard. Best I can figure I'm gonna try to dig it out and pour in the new transom.

with the marathon if it needs much of any glass work I'm thinking I'll pass on it. Seems like it all be way more than I can handle right now. However I'm kinda growing on the boat the more I look out my window at it.
weather should clear off for tomorrow and I'm gonna go out and start digging into this thing. With that I'll take some pics and do what I have to do to get them posted on here.

 

[wahlejim]

Sometimes the most expensive boats are the free ones

 

[Bkarb]

Well guys after some further research I have figured out that this boat is actually made by a company called nbc boatworks.
I haven't been able to dig up a whole lot of information online. I did find a phone number for them but it goes to an un answered voicemail.
I am being told that marathon is actually the model of this boat.
Anyone have any information on these boats at all?

 

[southkogs]

There should be a HIN on the back of that boat - just under the rub rail stamped into the hull. The first three characters are the MIC code. That'll tell you the manufacturer for sure.

Generally - though not always - most of the time the manufacturer is more prominent graphically on the boat vs. the model.

 

[Bkarb]

Hey southkogs. I just finished doing some more googling. The first three are nbo. From what I found that translates t ok marathon boats inc. Company. What I dont quite understand is that marathon comes up as grumman boats now and when I called grumman they said that it was their hin.
I did take another pic of it last night specifically the engine compartment and while banging around "sounding" everything sou ds hollow it almost appears to have a liner between the floor and the keel. So I'm not sure where the stringers are even at in relation to where I'm looking. I'll continue to try and get the pics uploaded I keep getting error messages that the file size is too large.

 

[southkogs]

That makes sense. Grumman's website says Marathon Boat Group, and honestly coming from the 60s to the 80s EVERYBODY was making fiberglass boats. Companies came and went pretty fast and easily got swallowed up by other companies. So a Marathon boat, that was assimilated into the Grumman family and then effectively disappeared as Grumman was more successful with tin boats doesn't sound surprising at all.

That boat will have a hull (fiberglass part you can see from the outside) and then a sole or deck (the floor). There is a space between them and the stringers are in there. The bilge may have some space below it, but by the time you're back to the garboard drain, you should be feeling a solid fiberglass underneath.

If you're looking to core test the wood to see if it's wet, you can probably tap the bottom of the transom from the inside near the bilge. That'll give you an idea. You can also weigh the boat first to see if you have reason to suspect it. If the boat comes in reasonably close to 2400#, then I would just check for soft spots and identify-able rot.

You already own this one, right? Have you had it in the water at all yet?