I bought a 1986 venture 17' 6" bass boat paid $3000 for it.
I know it sounds like a lot but this boat is solid everywhere and one owner garage kept he is old and needed something smaller.
this boat has 3 new tires with 3 new deepcycle batteries and 1 new deepcycle/starting battery and has a receipt where he had compression checked, new spark plugs and the lower unit serviced.
He uses the same boat mechanic as a friend uses so we called him up and he pulled his records that go back 15 years as long as his shop has been open. Every other year he has had the lower unit serviced, compression checked, spark plugs and impeller changed. The only other repairs has been a rectifier replacement and some kinda hose for block pressure gauge replaced.
Went on a test run and the boat showed 67 on the speedo with 72 on my GPS it has a 150 mariner. He drove the first pass and when I drove I trimmed it in to far and when I hit it all I saw was sky it stood straight up
when we went by my friend said the only thing in the water was the last 2 feet of the hull and the prop.
the only problems with the boat is the cockpit (cockpit is that correct? ) deck as the carpet has come up and you can see where the fiberglass has some minor cracks in it but the deck is solid I'm 6'2" and 280lbs and the floor doesn't sag at all. both casting decks are fiberglass with no wood in the casting decks or hatches. The only wood I can find is in the cockpit floor and the transom looking down in the bilge access I don't see any stringers just the shape of the hull which meets where the top cap comes down to form the cockpit.
the transom doesn't move when lifting the outboard up and down and sounds the same all the way across when I hit it with a rubber mallet.
what do I need to seal the floor with before putting down new carpet or some kind of paint/sand coating?
there are 2 steering cables and the motor will turn easy with the wheel until the boat is moving then it will track straight but is hard to turn is there some way to lube the cables?
also the top three water intake holes have been epoxied up and I asked the seller about it he said they did that when it was new to stop it from sucking air at top speed when on plane. Has anyone heard of this?
I'm also going to extend the front casting deck back as the front is kinda narrow and with the foot control it get kinda crowded up there.
I know it sounds like a lot but this boat is solid everywhere and one owner garage kept he is old and needed something smaller.
this boat has 3 new tires with 3 new deepcycle batteries and 1 new deepcycle/starting battery and has a receipt where he had compression checked, new spark plugs and the lower unit serviced.
He uses the same boat mechanic as a friend uses so we called him up and he pulled his records that go back 15 years as long as his shop has been open. Every other year he has had the lower unit serviced, compression checked, spark plugs and impeller changed. The only other repairs has been a rectifier replacement and some kinda hose for block pressure gauge replaced.
Went on a test run and the boat showed 67 on the speedo with 72 on my GPS it has a 150 mariner. He drove the first pass and when I drove I trimmed it in to far and when I hit it all I saw was sky it stood straight up
when we went by my friend said the only thing in the water was the last 2 feet of the hull and the prop.
the only problems with the boat is the cockpit (cockpit is that correct? ) deck as the carpet has come up and you can see where the fiberglass has some minor cracks in it but the deck is solid I'm 6'2" and 280lbs and the floor doesn't sag at all. both casting decks are fiberglass with no wood in the casting decks or hatches. The only wood I can find is in the cockpit floor and the transom looking down in the bilge access I don't see any stringers just the shape of the hull which meets where the top cap comes down to form the cockpit.
the transom doesn't move when lifting the outboard up and down and sounds the same all the way across when I hit it with a rubber mallet.
what do I need to seal the floor with before putting down new carpet or some kind of paint/sand coating?
there are 2 steering cables and the motor will turn easy with the wheel until the boat is moving then it will track straight but is hard to turn is there some way to lube the cables?
also the top three water intake holes have been epoxied up and I asked the seller about it he said they did that when it was new to stop it from sucking air at top speed when on plane. Has anyone heard of this?
I'm also going to extend the front casting deck back as the front is kinda narrow and with the foot control it get kinda crowded up there.
