Came across this boat for sale

[Steuben Jerry]

17 minutes ago, rob-c said:

Wife’s parents had s cottage on waneta just about directly across from the scout camp. It’s a nice little lake.. 

Haven't been there in the last two years. Drove by the other night to check out the launch on the way home from work, and was surprised how narrow the channel from the launch out to Waneta has gotten from weed overgrowth, especially so early in the year. Looked like two boats going in opposite directions would be very tight getting by each other.

Guy coming out of the launch said he was bumping bottom out to the lake. He had a 17 footer with a stern drive.

[rob-c]

1 hour ago, Steuben Jerry said:

Haven't been there in the last two years. Drove by the other night to check out the launch on the way home from work, and was surprised how narrow the channel from the launch out to Waneta has gotten from weed overgrowth, especially so early in the year. Looked like two boats going in opposite directions would be very tight getting by each other.

Guy coming out of the launch said he was bumping bottom out to the lake. He had a 17 footer with a stern drive.

We haven’t been up or by the lake in many years, The weed problem in that lake has always been a issue . Heck I met my wife when I was 20 and they were bad way back then. Surprised he was hitting bottom with all the rain we’ve had. 

[Nytracker]

Channel has always been narrow and shallow.  Many many moons ago I launched my 17 foot aluminum   by myself and boat slid off trailer  crossed the channel and got stuck in the mud  on the other side ... had to tie off the boat to the trailer and tug it off with truck..

[TreeGuy]

Show us the pics already !!!! Lol

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[Steuben Jerry]

Had her out today on Waneta Lake for a maiden voyage/shakedown. Went out for about three hours just cruising around and getting used to it. So far, so good. Flooded it a bit when I started it at the dock, but it recovered quickly and started strong. My fault, guess it doesn’t need much gas to start. 

Idles a bit rough at 800-900 rpm and stalled once while idling. Idles smooth and steady at 1000-1100 rpm though. I’m sure a tune up won’t hurt. 

Had it up to 40 mph and it had a bit of throttle to go, but probably not much more. Trimmed nice at 40 mph and handled choppy stuff softly enough. Gets up on plane quickly and cruises nice at 30 mph. Now I have to get it rigged for fishing!

Edited July 5, 2019 by Steuben Jerry

[grampy]

Very nice boat Jerry! And you got a great deal on it too!

Have fun!!

[Moho81]

Sitting in my office right now A/C is broke temp is up to 87 degrees. Windows don't open, What I'm saying is i'd pay to be on a boat right now. 

[BizCT]

Sitting in my office right now A/C is broke temp is up to 87 degrees. Windows don't open, What I'm saying is i'd pay to be on a boat right now. 

Sounds like an OSHA violation. If you die, I’ll sue for $


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[BigVal]

Awesome I was on that launch last week! Love it out there.

[TreeGuy]

Sitting in my office right now A/C is broke temp is up to 87 degrees. Windows don't open, What I'm saying is i'd pay to be on a boat right now. 

I know a guy.....

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[TreeGuy]

Had her out today on Waneta Lake for a maiden voyage/shakedown. Went out for about three hours just cruising around and getting used to it. So far, so good. Flooded it a bit when I started it at the dock, but it recovered quickly and started strong. My fault, guess it doesn’t need much gas to start. 
Idles a bit rough at 800-900 rpm and stalled once while idling. Idles smooth and steady at 1000-1100 rpm though. I’m sure a tune up won’t hurt. 
Had it up to 40 mph and it had a bit of throttle to go, but probably not much more. Trimmed nice at 40 mph and handled choppy stuff softly enough. Gets up on plane quickly and cruises nice at 30 mph. Now I have to get it rigged for fishing!

Awesome !

My buddy has the same era Merc 115. Touch of throttle, choke till it farts, choke for a second then let off while cranking. They all have their routines, you'll get it. You run some stabilizer / seafoam through it ?

Beat that motor like it owed you money, and she will treat you good!

Sweet machine!

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[Moho81]

Sounds like an OSHA violation. If you die, I’ll sue for $


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Thanks buddy!


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[Moho81]

I know a guy.....

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Is he just as strange as all the others?


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[First-light]

Nice clean boat....now catch some fish to dirty her up!

[TreeGuy]

Is he just as strange as all the others?


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He's been called worse

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[Steuben Jerry]

Long update; getting to be a saga..

Found that the grease seals on the trailer hubs were blown out from the previous owner overfilling his bearing buddies. Took it to the local boat mechanic and had that all gone through. Seals, bearings, etc. It sat for almost three weeks before they could get to it (their busiest time of year). But at least I now have full confidence in the trailer, especially with the new stiffer tires I put on. Got a fresh spare tire too.

The starting/idling problem got worse and I couldn’t get it to start again reliably at home on the garden hose. If it did catch, I couldn’t keep it running without feathering the throttle. Seemed like it was starving for gas. I changed the plugs (old ones were burned up a bit) and first fuel filter and found the filter to be moderately contaminated. Then I drained the tank of 12 gallons of old gas with debris in it, flushed it with another couple gallons, and replaced it with new 90 octane ethanol free gas with Seafoam additive. Started better, but still not idling 100%. 

The primer bulb didn’t seem to pump up as hard as previous outboards I had, so I changed that. When I looked at the fuel line it was disintegrated on the inside with bits of plastic liner falling out of it. So I replaced that too. Hooked it up to the hose and boom, started like a champ! Smooth idle after warmup. Turned it off, and restarted it a couple of times with just a tap of the key - alright!

Picked up a Minn Kota Powerdrive trolling motor for the front, and got that all installed this past Saturday. Looking forward to getting out and doing some bass fishing yesterday with everything all shipshape and took it to Waneta Lake. Perfect day. No wind, and we had the place pretty much to ourselves. The motor started great, ran great and we idled up the channel. Throttled up when we left the channel, and while it ran smoothly, the motor seemed to be laboring a bit to get up to speed. Flew out to the middle of the lake and looked for a place to fish. Went to run it closer to shore, and it had a hard time getting on plane. Got about 75 yards from shore and got ready to fish.

As my wife mentions “I don’t remember seeing that much water in the splash well”, I realize we seem to be awfully low in the water. I peek in the bilge and HOLY CRAP we’re taking on water - lots of it!! Why isn’t the float switch turning on the pump?! I flipped the manual switch and thank god it works and is pumping. And pumping and pumping, and pumping. I seem to be gaining on it, but slowly. Finally as the water level drops, I can see water rushing in from the livewell pump mounted to the transom. We get most of the water out and haul ass back to the launch a mile away. Didn’t have any planing issues and the motor didn’t labor a bit without those couple of hundred gallons of water in the hull - lol.  Motor ran great all the way around back to the dock. 

Poked around when we got home and found that the livewell pump was split open and the previous owner gobbed silicone all over it. The wiring looked shady as hell with automotive splice taps used and silicon gobbed all over those too. The livewells didn’t work when we bought the boat. I wasn’t worried about it at the time and figured I’d address that in the off-season. Well now I know why they didn’t work, but I wasn’t considering the possibility of sinking! The float switch worked when I bought it. No idea why it failed now when I needed it the worst, but that wiring looks shady AF too. 

After realizing I need to be a micro sized person to reach down there and work on it, I dropped it off at the local boat mechanic again today. I’ll have the pump replaced and all the wiring redone the correct way, and get the float switch issue repaired. He may be able to get to it next week sometime. Ugh.

Its pretty apparent this boat had little to no maintenance in its life but slowly but surely, I’m getting it to be shipshape. 

Owned it for two months - zero bass boated. But it looks good - lol.

Edited August 5, 2019 by Steuben Jerry

[Nytracker]

It's always something when you own a boat . Got to love backyard want to be mechanics. I actually like to tinker but cant stand fixing stupid. It will be nice when you get it the way you want it .

Edited August 5, 2019 by Nytracker

[Otto]

I had same types of issues when I bought a used boat, you will eventually work through them, hopefully without any big surprises!  I had a bearing blow in Canada and that was a chore getting fixed in the middle of nowhere.  

Nice looking barn too!  Looks like you have a cozy place for all your toys.  My wife calls my barn my Tony’s Toy Box.

 

[Steuben Jerry]

2 hours ago, Otto said:

Nice looking barn too!  Looks like you have a cozy place for all your toys. 

Thanks! The row of flags hanging from the ceiling hide 80% of the clutter.

[Steuben Jerry]

2 hours ago, Nytracker said:

It's always something when you own a boat . Got to love backyard want to be mechanics. I actually like to tinker but cant stand fixing stupid. It will be nice when you get it the way you want it .

Thanks, hopefully this will be it for a while. At least the livewells should be working too. I was going to put that off until next year. Been boating for 35 years. Never had a situation where I was taking on serious water.

I was pretty relieved to hear the bilge pump come on manually after the float failed. It crossed my mind for a second that sinking was a possibility.

[Otto]

34 minutes ago, Steuben Jerry said:

Thanks! The row of flags hanging from the ceiling hide 80% of the clutter.

It’s not clutter if there is a 50% chance you will need it at some point in the future!

[tarheel95]

I hear you. I spent the better part of Saturday changing the alternator belt on one of the engines on my father's boat. I remain convinced that they hung the engines from the air and built the boat around it. Always remember the fun you have had / are going to have on it when crap like this happens.

 

As I crawled out of the engine compartment, covered in grease and muck, he looked at me and said one day this will be yours. I told him not to do me any favors.

 

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[ApexerER]

I still say it sounds like you got an awfully nice boat that runs well for the money. Few little issues are to be expected with anything that is used....

[The_Real_TCIII]

Ive got that same trolling motor, let me know how you like it. The GPS can be added for around $400

[Steuben Jerry]

26 minutes ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

Ive got that same trolling motor, let me know how you like it. The GPS can be added for around $400

I actually tried it out while we were floating there pumping out. It seemed to move the boat even with an extra thousand pounds of water weight.