1989 Sylvan 188 Barritz Complete Rebuild

[Viciousharp]

Hello everyone!

I wanted to start this thread to document my complete rebuild of a new to me 1989 Sylvan Barritz.

A little back story. I was on the hunt to buy a lake ready boat. My boat I'm currently trying to sell was my last project. A 1990 Carver Montego 21 and it was a multi-year project that really wore me out! I was looking in the sub $7000 range and looked at about 10 boats. Having my knowledge I checked the floors, stringers (as well as I could) and transom of every boat. Every one I looked at needed work and at least half probably weren't safe to be on the water.

I had given up hope and saw this 188 Sylvan with the 4.3 OMC Cobra. It looked awful in the pictures and had obviously been sitting uncovered for years in a yard. The guy wanted $700 and I messaged him and told him I'd give him $200 only because it was on a nice trailer.

HE ACCEPTED! So I drove 2 hours and picked it up. It's in terrible shape. The floors are toast, the transom is toast,. The stringers I assume are toast. The motor is cracked and so are the old batwing manifolds.

I was honestly going to dump the boat at the landfill and sell the outdrive, stainless prop, and trailer and add that to my fund. Then I got to thinking. I could spend the next year or so rebuilding this for about the money I would spend on a "lake ready" boat and know it was done right and that the boat would last me as long as I wanted.

I'm working up a project list so I can start to buy materials and come up with a complete game plan. All I have done so far is pull the outdrive and motor just to make absolutely sure the transom was held together by broken dreams and unicorn magic. I don't have a ton of spare time so I'll update when I get time to work on it! Until then here are the pictures of what I'm working with!
​​​

 

[Hab]

Welcome... looking forward to your project.

 

[Viciousharp]

Managed to strip some interior out this evening. It's as bad as expected! Stringers are so gone the floor caves even if I'm walking down the stringers. Going to wait to strip the floor until after I tow it to my buddies shop to use his fork lift to get the motor out. Ill probably go ahead and order some Coosa Board sheets since I'm going back with all composites and not with wood.

I spoke to them on the phone and if I send a template they will actually use a CNC to cut the new transom so all I have to do is glue it in and glass it! Taking the RV down to the Gulf Coast this weekend so I won't have time to do more. Time to cover her back up and take the rest of the evening off!

 

[Woodonglass]

Unless you plan on owning this boat for more than 10 years, I'm not understanding your desire to use expensive composites. If you use plywood and use proper installation techniques along with Proper Maintenance the wood components will last 2-3 decades. The wood is not the problem, it's a combination of poor installation methods at the factory and then poor maintenance and care of the boat by the owner over the years. Using coosa board etc..will significantly increase your costs to restore this 40 year old boat and you'll never recover these costs.

 

[Viciousharp]

Sorry should have said I my post! I have also just purchased a lot on Lake Guntersville. I'm putting an A-frame up and leaving this boat there for the summers. I am hoping this little guy will last me at a minimum 10 years. Honestly if I do it right and durable I don't see any reason to get rid of it. I won't have enough in it to be burdened by it and 4.3 v6 are a dime a dozen.

The only thing I'm worried about parts wise is the OMC Cobra outdrive. Guess I'll just start grabbing them when they come up on Marketplace and build up a health stockpile of spare parts!

I 100% agree with you. If recouping your investment is part of the equation or if you aren't planning on keeping the boat long term then wood is the way to go!
​​​