05/08/2024
I have always been a project guy. I love making old things new again. A few years ago, I bought my first boat. The Trophy Wife had a sudden urge to have a boat, despite the fact we were in the middle of COVID lockdown and used vehicles were being sold as if they had gold plating on them. We paid $5k for a $1k boat and the adventure began.
I dug right in and stripped all the old seats and interior completely out. The resulting hull was actually quite nice, but the floor was very "soft" and eroded. I took out all the bad parts and rebuilt the floor using marine-grade plywood and Gorilla Glue. I went through most every part and either repaired or replaced them. Did a full restore of the trailer, repainted hull inside and out.
Took it out on Jordan Lake and it ran pretty good. The one thing I noticed was that during take off the entire boat seems to "bounce" or "shake". I figured it was just the engine not being tuned right.
Then, one day we were out tooling around and I heard a "thump" and then the propeller wouldn't engage. The engine was running and I could hear it go into gear by the prop didn't move. Turns out, the driveshaft completely snapped in two. That takes a huge amount of force to break. Not sure what we hit but it didn't seem that big. It felt like maybe we hit a plastic cooler or something. There weren't any marks or anything on the hull or drive housing. Long story short, I ended up buying a brand new SEI outdrive, upper and lower, that came with a 2 year warranty.
I took the boat out again the next Spring and it ran great. I only took it out a few times due to other commitments.
Fast forward to 2024. By this time, the outdrive warranty has expired although it only had about one hour on it. But at least I knew it was in perfect condition. Again, taking off the boat seemed to shake. I thought about it and wondered if maybe the propeller was too aggressive for the engine. It has a 23 pitch stainless steel prop that is super heavy. I bought a new aluminum 17 pitch 4-blade prop to try out. But before doing that I took the boat back out for one more trial of the engine. Again, the engine shook but it also backfired and had a noticeable ticking noise.
I tore removed and tore down the engine and it seems ok but it does have a small hairline crack in the valley near the top of the deck. It was also making gray milkshake. So I figure the cam got worn out due to poor lubrication and that is what was causing lack of power and ticking.
At this point, I have spent way too much time and money on this thing and to be honest I don't even enjoy boating that much. It was an experiment to see if the "Break Out Another Thousand" saying was true. It is. I have way more into this boat than it is worth, and to be honest I am financially stable so I'm willing to take a loss and let it go for pennies on the dollar so someone else can maybe get it over the finish line and enjoy it.
