Life's short. Do it anyway.

Gunny456 said:

---

Not meant to de rail the original OP but to comment to Stat, AggieAngler and Mouth.... I enjoy conversations with you guys on boat stuff. You all always have good knowledge.... would be fun to get together and talk and run boats together maybe someday!
When in doubt, trim it out!

---

I'd be all over this. I love talking about, driving, and just being in boats in general. I am thinking about leaving for POC at noon today, just to be on mine this evening. I think I've done enough Mother's day duties. I learn something new everytime I am on the boat. It's just very relaxing for me.

I will admit that I had a docking snafu last time we were out. The guy from the repair place was with us and when I was dropping him off back at the dock we had about 10 boats and 2 barges, coupled with a weird current and cross-wind combination. I joked that it was my first time to dock a boat.

I don't think I would get close to an outboard with 1960 hours on it. That just sounds expensive on the face of it! I was leary of the last one I bought with 500 hours. So far, knock on wood, it has been nails. And don't buy an Evinrude no matter how low on hours. They went under and parts are a ***** to find according to my buddy. Had steering issues repeatedly and ended up having to repower due to lack of parts.

Sound Solid Wisdom spoken!!

There's a primo refurbished deal in Bastrop for a pontoon boat right now. $1700 boat, trailer, outboard, supposedly all titled.


https://austin.craigslist.org/bpo/d/bastrop-1988-starcraft-20-foot-pontoon/7617482597.html

Total refurb job I am sure but if the trailer isn't junk and the aluminum parts of the boat are decently sound, the rest could be redone, even upgraded. The outboard May or may not be junk/parts.

That looks to be well made. You put a new motor and new controls on it and it might be a solid boat.

I'd check the steering cable and condition of the deck.

You probably looking at repacking the bearings and probably trailer tires, some trailer light issues. Probably bunks.

That motor might still run. You never know, but will be a salvage operation to get going if sitting for a long time.

I 2nd what Stat says on checking the steering cables and helm. Hardly any pontoon companies were using Delron or other composit deck floorings yet in 1988 so it probably has a wood deck that needs to be checked for rot and same check for transom. The console and seats probably had wood in them as well.
The Force engine was one of the worst marketing ideas that the Brunswick (Mercury) Corp ever did. Everybody in the industry called it a Fn Old Repainted Chrysler Engine. (From when there was Chrysler outboards)
Hence FORCE. They were built strictly as a cheap price point engine. They were really bad.

Rental fleets replace their boats every 2 to 3 years. So that 1900+ hour boat was probably due to be sold in 2020. The market was so tight in 21 and 22 they just kept running it. So now they got a boat with 1900 hours which is not ideal for seller.

The thing about rentals is that are typically on some type of preventative maintenance program and are run frequently. Sometimes the worst thing for a motor is to have it sit.

In any event it would be a crap shoot on the motor. It could run another few thousand hours, you never know. Rebuilding outboards tends to get uneconomical fast. So a lot of motors that could get rebuilt get abandoned or sold for parts.

I'm sure you are right. It is a 2017 Harris Solstice 22' tritoon with a 150hp Merc. If it runs for a year or 2 with no problems and then I rebuild it before it craps out, it might a good deal.
What are we talking for a rebuild ~$3K?
It has been for sale for a while so I am just going to keep an eye on it while I keep looking.
We probably put less than 50 hrs a year on our boat.

Gunny456 said:

---

Stat.....I am sure you have done this, but if anyone wants a good laugh and some entertainment go to You Tube and look up the "Chit Show" I guy named Albert Maldonado films at the Black Point Marina in Florida. They have 10 docks and five boat ramps there and it is on an canal that has current and usually windy. He sits on the bank on the opposite side and films people coming into those docs and loading boats on trailers. You will see evrything from 14' technical polling skiffs to multi outboard powered performance boats.
There are crashes, fights,...you name it.... it makes you understand that there are a bunch of folks who have no business owning a boat. Really entertaining.

---

I didn't know anyone else watched the Chit Show. It's amazing how dumb some people are

Fwiw, I'm running a 2000 Yamaha that was originally owned by a hardcore bay fisherman before I bought it. And I do a lot of fishing by trolling. It had huge amounts of hours on it.

Then again it has also been well maintained and is a simple 3 carb 3 cylinder 2stroke outboard.

If a good engine is properly maintained and not abused it should be able to run for a very long time.

In making calls to some of my dealers this morning to try and help TMfrisco find a boat I have asked them what the going rate is to rebuild a 150 of any brand.
Shop rates are now $100 -$110 per hour. Of the three dealers I have talked to they said a total power head rebuild will be range of $4500-$5800.
Two of my dealers market to commercial applications along the gulf. They said it is not uncommon for their customers to run F150 Yamahas over 9,000 hours..... even some to 10,000. Proper maintenance schedules are paramount.

Gut feeling is that you'd be pushing $3K in labor alone.

Another issue is that things tend to get damaged during disassembly and reassembly. Plastic parts get brittle due to the heat and cold cycle. So you go to take things apart and something comes apart in your hand. If it done't get put back together exactly right, then you got a want of a nail situation.

The key on this kind of a deal is getting a reliable compression test using the procedure mercury recommends. Also pulling the data from the engine using mercury's proprietary software called G3. If you take it to a dealer they'll be able to pull a full report that will show you pending codes, history and most importantly whether it's been overheated at any time.

Lastly, I'd look to see whether there's any evidence that the powerhead had ever been removed. So if it looks like there's never been any intrusive work done on it. The report and compression come back good ... that motor could run indefinitely if well maintained and you give it clean, non-ethanol fuel. It's a matter of getting an expert assessment.

I had already told him about having the report run from the EDCM on a previous post but also suggested that a dealer can also access any registered service history done to the engine by serial number as well.
I worked with some LEO's on recovery of some stolen engines and the EDCM data had been wiped but registered service data was still accessible through the manufacture portal. Having access to that info was invaluable.

TM. I have found a boat you might be interested in at one of my dealers.
Can you give me an e-mail that I can contact you and give you the details?

It's particularly bad in Florida, and with Yamahas especially. There's gangs down there that will get into repair yards and strip the lowers off of engines and sometimes make off with whole engines. A lot of that stuff is loaded on containers and sent to the Caribbean / SA.

Seen thieves get into repair yards at night, get underneath a covered boat and steal all the stereo equipment, electronics, expensive wakeboards and so forth.

Gunny - Not to hijack this thread...but can you help locate good deals on other used boats? Like bowriders? May be in the market soon for Houston area lake boat... Happy to email, DM, etc. if preferable...

As I have posted before I have been on the manufacturing side of the business for just at 39 years..... in the realm of high performance boats and bass, multi specie, and saltwater boats. I have called on dealers, engine manufacturers, and other vendor of OEM for building the boats.
Have been blessed with developing great relationships and friendships within this segment of the marine business.
I love what I do and proud to be an Aggie....
so I feel like I should " pay it forward" to in some small way help my fellow Aggies in where I can within my wheelhouse.
I don't have any skin in the game other than putting forth the effort to help if I can.
In answer to your question, yes, I have relations with fellow colleagues in that segment of the business, both dealers and manufacturers.... be glad to help.
Send me an email and I will respond and when ready you can give me your parameters of what you might want.
I don't expect any type of compensation from my fellow Aggies or the dealers, manufacturers, etc. that I can help.
Those colleagues and dealers have already given me enough in this business over the years.... nothing else expected or needed.
Just hoping I can help my fellow Ags have fun out on the water.... cause I sure have.

Tim dot muench at sbcglobal.net

Thanks

Got it. At a dinner. Will PM you later tonight.

I really appreciate Stat Monitor and Gunny's insight and recommendations about boats…. Very helpful for those of us looking to buy or sell boats. So thank you very much.

For those of you in the market, you can also search YouTube for "Boat Buyer's Secret Weapon"… this contributor seems to give pretty good advice about pontoon boats, motor size recommendations, etc.

It's been five days, we have given him tons of great advice and still no OB invite on the new boat?

As soon as we get one!

Gunny -

Thanks so much - I'd really appreciate it! Very generous of you. Can you share an email?

You are welcome.

We owned a 26" Party Barge with 60hp for many years, we could load it down with kids , ice chests, ski equip. It would run 23 mph. That speed is perfect to ski, knee board, and tube. My boys all learned how to barefoot by riding the side of the pontoon and dropping off with a short ski rope tied to the railing. Man I miss that boat. We also bought a boat like you presently have and your father's right, it doesn't have the room. 60-70 hp is perfect to pull or putt around the lake and carry on a conversation with your family & friends. Now I have grandchildren that I could be pulling around the lake in the same pontoon boat that I pulled my kids on. It was a screw up by me not thinking down the road! Listen to your Pops!

Your kids must have been pretty little to barefoot ski at 23 MPH. If you were going by the old water pressure speedo back then they were horribly inaccurate.

Gunny456 said:

---

Your kids must have been pretty little to barefoot ski at 23 MPH. If you were going by the old water pressure speedo back then they were horribly inaccurate.

---

Boat didn't have a speedometer, a grown man I'd say around 160#'s was the 1st to try it, I couldn't believe either until I saw it. His wife was running next to us in a Ski Natique Official puller and yelled at us that we were doing 23. He jumped off with a short rope with handle on his back, got planing on his back then turned feet forward put his feet in the water and popped up. After that the boys did it all day. Darndest thing to see.

Gunny456 said:

---

Life's short. Do it anyway.

---

Ain't it true!

Wow! Just Wow. Bet that was something.
Sounds like your kids had fun.
That's what it's all about.

Who doesn't want to do 97mph in a tri-toon?
https://instagr.am/p/Crqr2LcgeUt

https://instagr.am/p/CtJydNeLdee

3x 300s