Hi all! I am fairly new to boating and bought my first boat last fall and have about 30 hours of captaining under my belt.<br /><br />I bought a 1985 Bayliner 1900 cuddy with a 125 Force (Chrysler....ugh....) Outboard. A few small cracks in the gel coat here and there, around mounting points and such, but no chips or scratches in the hull - no bottom paint and all the goodies with the trailer for $2900.<br /><br />Obviously some day I will move up to a bigger/sturdier boat, but for now this one seems to be fine (except for the things that I did
)<br /><br />I have some questions about the boat:<br />The floor is soft in two areas. No one else notices except me (I am 340 lbs.) I can walk on it, but it seems soft. Can I use regular wolmanized plywood to replace the floor? Or do I *have* to use a marine plywood?<br /><br />How can I tell if the transom is soft? There are no cracks in the gel coat in that area, but if I lift up and down on the bottom of the motor while it is up in the air, the whole transom seems to flex about 1/4" or so.<br /><br />Now about the motor. I knwo that nearly everyone hates the old force motors. SO far, this thing for 2 seasons has started every time and seems to run fine. I had some idling trouble, but again, I mixed too much oil and had to clean out the carbs and it was better. The boat does about 30 MPH, I do not have a tach to tell what RPM I am at. I am currently running a 19 pitch prop which I think is too much. I just bought a 17 to try tomorrow.<br /><br />The BIG problem is what happened to me last week. We went to Wisconsin on a vacation and took the boat. I put it into the Wisconsin river and had 8 people in the boat and 2 in a tube. The boat wouldn't go over 5 mph. I dumped off a bunch of people and the boat did 10. I finally realized (newbie mistake!) that the water was 12 inches deep and I had the full lower unit in the sand the whole time. About that time I noticed that, the overheat buzzer went off. I shut it down and came home. I took the lower unit off, changed the water pump and the riser water tube was PLUGGED with sand all the way. I tried to use compressed air from the ports on the back, and plugging the exhaust, but that wouldn't work. I worked out all the sand to the top with a coat hanger and flushed with water. Then I used compressed air to try and flush the rest out. I hooked up the water earmuffs and it was spitting a little, but after 2-3 minutes of idling, the buzzer went off again. I am taking it to a local lake tomorrow to try it in deep water. Is there still a blockage in the block? If I was getting SOME water spitting out the ports on back should I run it and let itself clean out? Is there something on top I can remove and check? Is there a thermostat? Thanks for any and all replies, sorry for the long windwd post - I have been on my own for so long with this boat and an unsure what to do!<br /><br /><br />------------------<br />1985 Bayliner 1900 cuddy w/125 Force