Wanted to share my 1st boat buying experience. Has definitely been a learning experience!! Hopefully some of the things i've learned over the last 4.5 weeks will keep others from having the same problems!!
It started with doing a lot of searches on craigslist in all the major cities around where i live in southern ohio. It's amazing how many people won't call you back or even respond once they list something for sale on craigslist. Anyway, after sending out probably 20 emails, texts and phone calls, only 2 people contacted me back.
I decided to go look at a boat on the west side of dayton, about 1.5 hours from my house and at least an hour from the nearest body of water. With that being said, kind of precluded a water trial which would have kept a lot of my problems from happening. I had tapped lots of resources to ask questions about what boats are worth, engines that are reliable and the ones to stay away from (OMC) so when i go there i thought i had a decent grasp of what i was looking at.
1 big thing to consider when buying on craigslist, price is negotiable!! The price started at $1800 on craiglist, had him to $1500 before i left the house, final price after seeing the boat was $1100 for boat and trailer.
The boat is a 1985 Sea Sprite 185XL with a 3.7L Mercruiser and an Alpha 1 sterndrive. Single axle trailer with surge brakes. Outside of the boat is in pretty good shape, the interior and floor was awful as it had been left sitting outside uncovered. I knew the seats and floor were a loss and factored that in. I knew enough not to start the motor without a pair of muffs on it, i did turn it over to make sure it wasn't locked up. Crawled underneath it to inspect the hull, put my full weight on the stern drive to see if there was any flex in the transom which is solid. Thank god!! So i decided to give it a shot!!
So i buy the boat, PO hands me the title and i start home with my new toy, i'm a proud new boat owner!! Couple things to note here, in Ohio, the bill of sale is a one way ticket to get the trailer home without registration on it!! Not for sure how it is in other states. Was pulling the boat with a Ford Explorer Sport Trac, knew the boat was back there but the truck pulled it home just fine and at interstate speeds!! Was not use to pulling a trailer and curbed a tire on a turn in a small town. Busted a cord in the sidewall, expense number 1 and hadn't even got it home yet!! LOL
Got the boat home and stop at the state BMV the next day, more lessons learned. The title is for the boat, not the trailer. Got the title transfered into my name. The trailer is considered a non-comm trailer in ohio so to get plates the state of ohio wants to know the EMPTY weight of the trailer. Yep you guessed it, have to figure out a way to get the boat off the trailer, take it and have it weighed, then get the boat back on the trailer and take the weigh ticket with you to get the plates. So far so good!!
The PO had told me the starter needed replaced. The positive battery terminal would get extremely hot to the touch when you turned the motor over. From talking with mechanic friends and such, this means there's a dead short somewhere. The current is going straight to ground and pulling a lot af amps which builds the heat.
So my next stop was dropping the boat off at Francis Marine @ Rocky Fork Lake. In my grand scheme i figured it was most important to make sure the power plant was sound before i started the resto of the seats and floor. No since in having a pretty boat with a ****ty motor!! I checked with friends that own a boat at this point again to find a decent boat mechanic, which is few and far between out here!! Hindsight here taught me to use a established mechanic because problems found with the motor and stern drive were caused by somebody taking the stern drive apart and not putting it back together right!!
So, we're now 4 weeks into having the boat looked at. The battery has been moved closer to the starter to fix some of the overheating battery issues, the heat exchanger was dropped to put the new starter on. New starter ($206) installed and a crack was found in the heat exchanger, PO didn't winterize the boat correctly, water was left in the heat exchanger which froze over the winter and cracked the copper housing. Heat exchanger new price = $700, part found from a boat salvage yard on ebay, $176 with shipping. Gotta love ebay!!
The 1 time the mechanic had the engine running, yes the motor runs!! YEAH!! Heard a knock in the stern drive. Mechanic was scheduled to drop it anyway as when it was running it was pumping no water. We had already discussed replacing the impellar and gear oil in the stern drive so he was going to go all the way through it while he had it apart. After pulling it apart we have found that an oversized seal was used and lake water had gotten into things it should'nt have inside the stern drive. $123 in bearings later and the stern drive looks to be ok from here. Another point of note, when the stern drive was taken off, they put no spline grease on the shaft when they put it back together!! Its now started to round off the tops of the splines. Gonna have to replace it within a couple years according to the mechanic, chose not to do it now as the engine would have to be pulled out of the boat to facilitate it!! U-joints were ok, some wobble in the gimbal bearing, gonna go ahead and replace it while we're there as a gimbal bearing going out can destroy the gimbal housing which is an expensive repair!! About $25 for a new gimbal bearing!
I think the mechanic has grown weary of my questions but he has tolerated me!! LOL, i'm the type of person that just doesn't want it fixed, i want to know how it's supposed to work and how to take care of it so it doesn't go out again, hence a million questions. So i guess i tried to write this so that maybe other 1st time owners/buyers may avoid some of the pitfalls that i have run into. According to the mechanic, the boat should be ready for a water test by this wednesday (8/17/2011). Repair bill with all parts and labor so far is going to be between $500 and $750, i'm ok with this as blue book on the boat once the resto is done is in the neighborhood of $3500. As i continue on my journey i'll try to update this thread as i move through the seat project and redoing the floor.
Hope this will help others and feel free to comment with anything you think i should be aware of or have missed!!
It started with doing a lot of searches on craigslist in all the major cities around where i live in southern ohio. It's amazing how many people won't call you back or even respond once they list something for sale on craigslist. Anyway, after sending out probably 20 emails, texts and phone calls, only 2 people contacted me back.
I decided to go look at a boat on the west side of dayton, about 1.5 hours from my house and at least an hour from the nearest body of water. With that being said, kind of precluded a water trial which would have kept a lot of my problems from happening. I had tapped lots of resources to ask questions about what boats are worth, engines that are reliable and the ones to stay away from (OMC) so when i go there i thought i had a decent grasp of what i was looking at.
1 big thing to consider when buying on craigslist, price is negotiable!! The price started at $1800 on craiglist, had him to $1500 before i left the house, final price after seeing the boat was $1100 for boat and trailer.
The boat is a 1985 Sea Sprite 185XL with a 3.7L Mercruiser and an Alpha 1 sterndrive. Single axle trailer with surge brakes. Outside of the boat is in pretty good shape, the interior and floor was awful as it had been left sitting outside uncovered. I knew the seats and floor were a loss and factored that in. I knew enough not to start the motor without a pair of muffs on it, i did turn it over to make sure it wasn't locked up. Crawled underneath it to inspect the hull, put my full weight on the stern drive to see if there was any flex in the transom which is solid. Thank god!! So i decided to give it a shot!!
So i buy the boat, PO hands me the title and i start home with my new toy, i'm a proud new boat owner!! Couple things to note here, in Ohio, the bill of sale is a one way ticket to get the trailer home without registration on it!! Not for sure how it is in other states. Was pulling the boat with a Ford Explorer Sport Trac, knew the boat was back there but the truck pulled it home just fine and at interstate speeds!! Was not use to pulling a trailer and curbed a tire on a turn in a small town. Busted a cord in the sidewall, expense number 1 and hadn't even got it home yet!! LOL
Got the boat home and stop at the state BMV the next day, more lessons learned. The title is for the boat, not the trailer. Got the title transfered into my name. The trailer is considered a non-comm trailer in ohio so to get plates the state of ohio wants to know the EMPTY weight of the trailer. Yep you guessed it, have to figure out a way to get the boat off the trailer, take it and have it weighed, then get the boat back on the trailer and take the weigh ticket with you to get the plates. So far so good!!
The PO had told me the starter needed replaced. The positive battery terminal would get extremely hot to the touch when you turned the motor over. From talking with mechanic friends and such, this means there's a dead short somewhere. The current is going straight to ground and pulling a lot af amps which builds the heat.
So my next stop was dropping the boat off at Francis Marine @ Rocky Fork Lake. In my grand scheme i figured it was most important to make sure the power plant was sound before i started the resto of the seats and floor. No since in having a pretty boat with a ****ty motor!! I checked with friends that own a boat at this point again to find a decent boat mechanic, which is few and far between out here!! Hindsight here taught me to use a established mechanic because problems found with the motor and stern drive were caused by somebody taking the stern drive apart and not putting it back together right!!
So, we're now 4 weeks into having the boat looked at. The battery has been moved closer to the starter to fix some of the overheating battery issues, the heat exchanger was dropped to put the new starter on. New starter ($206) installed and a crack was found in the heat exchanger, PO didn't winterize the boat correctly, water was left in the heat exchanger which froze over the winter and cracked the copper housing. Heat exchanger new price = $700, part found from a boat salvage yard on ebay, $176 with shipping. Gotta love ebay!!
The 1 time the mechanic had the engine running, yes the motor runs!! YEAH!! Heard a knock in the stern drive. Mechanic was scheduled to drop it anyway as when it was running it was pumping no water. We had already discussed replacing the impellar and gear oil in the stern drive so he was going to go all the way through it while he had it apart. After pulling it apart we have found that an oversized seal was used and lake water had gotten into things it should'nt have inside the stern drive. $123 in bearings later and the stern drive looks to be ok from here. Another point of note, when the stern drive was taken off, they put no spline grease on the shaft when they put it back together!! Its now started to round off the tops of the splines. Gonna have to replace it within a couple years according to the mechanic, chose not to do it now as the engine would have to be pulled out of the boat to facilitate it!! U-joints were ok, some wobble in the gimbal bearing, gonna go ahead and replace it while we're there as a gimbal bearing going out can destroy the gimbal housing which is an expensive repair!! About $25 for a new gimbal bearing!
I think the mechanic has grown weary of my questions but he has tolerated me!! LOL, i'm the type of person that just doesn't want it fixed, i want to know how it's supposed to work and how to take care of it so it doesn't go out again, hence a million questions. So i guess i tried to write this so that maybe other 1st time owners/buyers may avoid some of the pitfalls that i have run into. According to the mechanic, the boat should be ready for a water test by this wednesday (8/17/2011). Repair bill with all parts and labor so far is going to be between $500 and $750, i'm ok with this as blue book on the boat once the resto is done is in the neighborhood of $3500. As i continue on my journey i'll try to update this thread as i move through the seat project and redoing the floor.
Hope this will help others and feel free to comment with anything you think i should be aware of or have missed!!
