What a Bad Weekend

[illMATTic]

when i see other posts of boats doing this, they were usually in rough water. the chop caused the hull to flexx enough to split it in two.

 

[JUPITER PULSARE]

Here's a lesson I learned from Tommy of "Chief" engines. He was asked to do a survey on a 38' Fountain Fever that I was selling. When I dropped off the boat at his shop the first thing he did was take a wood hammer handle, crawl under the trailer and procede to tap on the entire underside of the boat while listening for a change in sound. He said you can hear delamination or seperation of balsa core by tapping on the glass. He then took me to an older hull in the yard that had problems. From the outside, the hull looked solid. I could distinctly hear a difference when he tapped on an area by the stern below where the motors would be. He then took me into the boat and showed me the engine compartment. The Balsa core was completely rotton where he had tapped with the hammer handle!!!

 

[F150GT]

OK show of hands, How meny of us are going to check our hulls tonight. I'm gonna.
Good trick to know if the untrained ear can tell. I wonder if it makes much of a diffrence with the boat sitting on a bunk trailer?
F150GT

 

[ante-up]

no question

the core is bad. I can stick a wire hanger between the glass layers as far as I can reach.
I'm in the process of stripping the boat of as much weight as I can. I built a cart for it to sit on upside down. Once I get it on the cart I'll get some pics

 

[WILDMAN]

Sh-t happens, and before it does, usually no one knows it's gonna. I've had a bodyshop for 26 years. Sometimes I'll paint a car and 6 months later people may come back and say they have rust. Well, rust comes from the backside. If it's not through when I paint it, I can't fix what I can't see. Same goes with boats. Stuff happens. You just never know whos gonna own it when it does. Repair it from the inside if you can. Just my opinion. WILDMAN

 

[Lang]

I feel for ya.
I purchased my boat, THEN found out that I had to get an engineering study done before getting insured....this runs at about 10 bucks per foot.

I drive the boat to this guys house, he comes out stumbling and smelling like scotch (no offence I like scotch myself...just true), he buts some hydro-meter on the transom and says she's no good.

I had the transom professionally rebuilt and the total cost of the boat DOUBLED just like that....the boat didn't even get wet yet.
I felt like I was taken for a ride (not comparing stories here, you just have to feel like that at the time when it happens to you) and also felt like that was a bad weekend....There were and will be other bad weekends to come.

Looking back I think of three things;
1.) Kinda glad it didn't get wet and possibly had a very scary (or worse as you say) experience on the water.
2.) I looked at the price of a new Pulsar 1600BR...kinda the same as my total cost....so what r ya going to do?
3.) I've running the boat now for almost 5 years...I think it would be wise to be very careful at this point...and check it out. Having other people onboard, such as you own kids changes your prespective on such things.

It's stories like these that make you wonder if you're going raise the white flag and quit.....NO WAY.

 

[175checkmate]

I hate to hear about bad stuff. But I can relate to the problem with a boat. There are times that no matter how hard you look there is still something wrong that you can't find or see. My trimate is a prime example of this very problem.
Here is the story. Looked at the boat. Nice. Taped the hull everywhere. Core OK.
Had 250lb buddy jump up and down on the lower unit while looking for transom movement. Nope, checked OK. floor was the same way, I did find one soft spot in the floor about 6"x6". I excepted that. Drooped the boat in the water. Ran OK, it did have a miss. The boat had been sitting for a year in a hay barn. Since I turn wrenches for a living I figured it was a clogged jet.
Paid for the boat and took it how. Was there problems, yes.
What I found later was.
Blown piston on #5 cylinder.
New power head time.
After that was completed we ran the boat for a summer. About the end of that summer all the rotten wood had shown its ugly head and it was time to start the over hull. If you have not see my thread on the rebuild process, its in the overhauling section.

Moral of the story. There is chance in everything we buy and risk associated with it. New or used. The story is the same.