Let me introduce myself as this is my first post. I am new to boating, aside from riding in them a dozen times or so. I have never owned a boat before but have been wanting something big enough for the family but small enough to store out of sight in my yard. In my search for the right boat I found they are disproportionately expensive compared to all the other hobbies I have done. However I have found that if a boat needs work the price drops dramatically. I can only guess that people think of boats as magic and are afraid of the unknown. I am a hands on guy with tools of every sort, except for the odd specialty tool that is designed for one specific task on only one size/model item. I do all my own work on my cars so engines are nothing new. I install my own car alarms/stereo systems and have a degree in electronics so the basic 12v system should be cake. I am a woodworker and I have all tools that I would need to build seats, storage wells, transoms, etc. The one area of boats that I do not have experience with is fiber glassing, although from what I have found it doesn't look too hard. Since I am not familiar with the terminology of boating or some of the safety basics I went out and got a copy of "power boating for dummies". I imagine a lot of things are common sense, I work in construction so I deal with safety every day. I have seen and experienced safety issues/injuries and 95% is common sense, the other 5% is safety for the "probably won't happen but just in case" type of situations. That said I firmly believe that you can not safety stupid. You can do everything possible to make a situation safe but stupid will win in the end. Since I am new to boating and there may be some safety things unique to boating and unknown to me in my ignorance of boating please let me know if I mention something that is unsafe. Please be nice about it, at least on the first warning, since it will be due to my ignorance of boating. After the first warning if I still insist on being unsafe then by all means tell me I'm being stupid.....I'd rather that cold wake up slap than to go on being stupid and possible hurt my family or myself.
The boat I just bought is basically a hull, no furniture, no motor, wiring harness cut at steering wheel, no lights. carpet is ruined and crumbling. The only thing it has is a steering wheel with the steering cable. The trailer that came with it is in the same condition. I expect to see a lot of the rebuild section of this sight
Even though it is missing all that stuff the hull looks to be in good condition. I can fix all the things myself, so even if I put $500 into repairs (minus the motor) I will only have $550 into the boat. $50 for a project boat isn't too bad, I think.
The boat I bought is a 1981 15' Sea Sprite bow rider. I have searched the net and can not find the original specs for, engine size, weight, capacity, etc. The info plate on the back only has the serial number. I am thinking of putting in a 75-125hp outboard with either a 5 or 10gal fuel tank (depends on engines economy). The decision on the power may come down to what happens to be available on craigslist. I am hoping to stay under $500 for the motor+minor parts to get it running smooth or under $1000 for an older motor that runs good.
If you can point me in the right direction for info on the boat I would appreciate it....or at least weigh in with an informed opinion on what size motor would have been commonly found on this type of boat. I haven't even hosed/swept the leaves and debris out of it yet so I can't say for sure how good the transom looks but from the outside the glass looks great. If I need to replace or even beef up the inside of the transom I don't see that as a problem.
Sorry for the long post but it's my first post to introduce myself and I figured more info was better than not enough.
Thanks for the help.
DJ
The boat I just bought is basically a hull, no furniture, no motor, wiring harness cut at steering wheel, no lights. carpet is ruined and crumbling. The only thing it has is a steering wheel with the steering cable. The trailer that came with it is in the same condition. I expect to see a lot of the rebuild section of this sight
Even though it is missing all that stuff the hull looks to be in good condition. I can fix all the things myself, so even if I put $500 into repairs (minus the motor) I will only have $550 into the boat. $50 for a project boat isn't too bad, I think.The boat I bought is a 1981 15' Sea Sprite bow rider. I have searched the net and can not find the original specs for, engine size, weight, capacity, etc. The info plate on the back only has the serial number. I am thinking of putting in a 75-125hp outboard with either a 5 or 10gal fuel tank (depends on engines economy). The decision on the power may come down to what happens to be available on craigslist. I am hoping to stay under $500 for the motor+minor parts to get it running smooth or under $1000 for an older motor that runs good.
If you can point me in the right direction for info on the boat I would appreciate it....or at least weigh in with an informed opinion on what size motor would have been commonly found on this type of boat. I haven't even hosed/swept the leaves and debris out of it yet so I can't say for sure how good the transom looks but from the outside the glass looks great. If I need to replace or even beef up the inside of the transom I don't see that as a problem.
Sorry for the long post but it's my first post to introduce myself and I figured more info was better than not enough.
Thanks for the help.
DJ
