CrazyFinn
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2016
- Messages
- 357
Mentioned this in my other rebuild thread (that one is getting "close" to completion - waiting for some parts, etc...) that I bought another "project".
Shortly after I got going on that rebuild (a 1969 SRV 185) in the fall, I already started thinking about looking for a bigger boat for my next project. Then, over the winter, I went to the boat show in Toronto, and both my wife and I started thinking that it would be kinda nice to have a cruiser we could go out in for more than just the day. So... as we're wandering through these brand new boats, I told her that I should just buy an old one and re-build it. My wife is amazing - she just said "OK".
Through the winter, I kept perusing the ads on Kijiji (dangerous thing to do, by the way), and got a pretty good idea of what I was looking for...
My goal was to find a "trailerable" cruiser, 24' to 27' long, mechanically complete, with a tandem trailer included. I also wanted it to be as cheap as possible. I was open to both inboards as well as inboard/outboards (Mercruiser only if I/O). Over the later part of the winter/early spring I contacted the sellers of a number of Sea Rays, Chris Craft, and even a Trojan. Looked at a couple of boats, that were supposedly "solid" boats. Yeah, sure... One was a Trojan that I was told had solid stringers and transom. When I went to look at it, discovered that a previous owner had grafted rough, untreated, unsealed 2x8 timbers to the sides of the rotten original stringers. They might have been solid, but they were soaked. I'm sure that boat weighed a few hundred pounds more than it should have!
Eventually, I saw an ad for a "complete" '74 SRV 240 - with trailer. Studied the pics, and figured out it was a Weekender. Called the guy, and got a bit more info. He admitted that the previous owner had gutted the interior, but he didn't know why - he had just bought it to use for fishing, but then decided it was too big to handle alone. He said it was otherwise ready to go. Right... I wasn't ready to buy at the time, but kept watching the ad. A month later, when I did have the cash, the ad was still up.
So, I called the guy again, and went to look at the boat with my wife (it was a 3 hour drive one way).
The trailer, although it could use some work, seemed solid enough. The tires were badly cracked. The outside of the hull looked ok. The camper top needs some of the window plastic replaced, but seems serviceable. All zippers and snaps work.
The inside of the cabin had been gutted. The cabin floor flexes - because all that is left is the top layer of glass. The cockpit floor is somewhat solid. The transom is mush.
Anyway, worked out a deal with him for considerably less than the ad price, and got him to put new tires on the trailer - with an agreement that I would pick it up the following weekend.
A week later, drove back there in my van, picked up the boat, and hauled it home after re-wiring the trailer so I would have lights. Poured rain all day... fun. Surge brakes on the trailer actually seem to work!
The boat on the way home (we stopped to grab a coffee):
Shortly after I got going on that rebuild (a 1969 SRV 185) in the fall, I already started thinking about looking for a bigger boat for my next project. Then, over the winter, I went to the boat show in Toronto, and both my wife and I started thinking that it would be kinda nice to have a cruiser we could go out in for more than just the day. So... as we're wandering through these brand new boats, I told her that I should just buy an old one and re-build it. My wife is amazing - she just said "OK".
Through the winter, I kept perusing the ads on Kijiji (dangerous thing to do, by the way), and got a pretty good idea of what I was looking for...
My goal was to find a "trailerable" cruiser, 24' to 27' long, mechanically complete, with a tandem trailer included. I also wanted it to be as cheap as possible. I was open to both inboards as well as inboard/outboards (Mercruiser only if I/O). Over the later part of the winter/early spring I contacted the sellers of a number of Sea Rays, Chris Craft, and even a Trojan. Looked at a couple of boats, that were supposedly "solid" boats. Yeah, sure... One was a Trojan that I was told had solid stringers and transom. When I went to look at it, discovered that a previous owner had grafted rough, untreated, unsealed 2x8 timbers to the sides of the rotten original stringers. They might have been solid, but they were soaked. I'm sure that boat weighed a few hundred pounds more than it should have!
Eventually, I saw an ad for a "complete" '74 SRV 240 - with trailer. Studied the pics, and figured out it was a Weekender. Called the guy, and got a bit more info. He admitted that the previous owner had gutted the interior, but he didn't know why - he had just bought it to use for fishing, but then decided it was too big to handle alone. He said it was otherwise ready to go. Right... I wasn't ready to buy at the time, but kept watching the ad. A month later, when I did have the cash, the ad was still up.
So, I called the guy again, and went to look at the boat with my wife (it was a 3 hour drive one way).
The trailer, although it could use some work, seemed solid enough. The tires were badly cracked. The outside of the hull looked ok. The camper top needs some of the window plastic replaced, but seems serviceable. All zippers and snaps work.
The inside of the cabin had been gutted. The cabin floor flexes - because all that is left is the top layer of glass. The cockpit floor is somewhat solid. The transom is mush.
Anyway, worked out a deal with him for considerably less than the ad price, and got him to put new tires on the trailer - with an agreement that I would pick it up the following weekend.
A week later, drove back there in my van, picked up the boat, and hauled it home after re-wiring the trailer so I would have lights. Poured rain all day... fun. Surge brakes on the trailer actually seem to work!
The boat on the way home (we stopped to grab a coffee):
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