This is my long story of how last summer a friend and I decided that we wanted to get a boat. So we went halfsies on an aluminum boat. We already had a trailer all we needed was a motor. We got the boat from a local marina for $400. It had a lot of water in it from previous torrential rains that summer. Needless to say, the wood floors were pretty soft. We took out what was in the boat before and re-constructed it our own way. Here are some pictures of it, unfortunately no pictures of it before we tore it apart (trust me it was nast).

After stripping it down and a nice power wash

All new wiring and new 1x2 treated splines

New floors, not yet treated

Friend building steering console

Console mock-up

New upholstery

Carpeting finished

Console panel wired up

All done with console

Battery box / storage area

First time on the water

My dog Henry enjoying the boat

Everything was finished. It was now time to take it out on the water. At first everything was fine, but after a couple (literally a 2 times) times out on the water we found ourselves paddling back to the pier with a dead motor. This was 2 weeks after we got the motor.

We took it back to the marina and they replaced the coils, choke solenoid and did a little wiring. The total came to $700, we weren't too happy because we had bought the motor 2 weeks before. So we did a little complaining/explaining and they knocked $150 off our bill. Before we took it in we also had some over heating problems and told them to check the impeller and the cooling system out. Apparently their top rigging technician took it out for a "2 hour" water test.

We got the motor back and took it out on the water and wouldn't you know it died again, so we had to be towed back to shore. By this time we were pretty furious. We just got it back from the shop and not even an hour on the water and it is over heating.

Took the boat back to my house and called them. Asked them if they checked the impeller and the cooling system, "out top rigging tech took it out for a 2 hour water test". We were thinking, no way he did this. I then took it upon myself to investigate.

I took off the lower unit and found that the impeller was fine, but no water was coming from the water outlet?? I then proceeded to check over the lower unit and found that there were two strainers in the water intake and that one had melted from all the heat. Apparently they didn't check the cooling system after all. Here is a diagram how it looked, kinda.

Here is what happened to the piston after constant overheating

We went back to the marina and worked out details. We now have a 2002 yamaha 50hp two stroke. The gave us a deal on the motor and gave us free rigging of the motor and replaced the impeller.



end of story

please excuse the sideways pictures. Photobucket is being chitty.

man nice build! my brother and I went through the same ordeal with the motor we bought form a marine. I t just about broke everytime we went out, so we just wound up buying a brtand new yamaha motor.

drftsil8ty wrote:man nice build! my brother and I went through the same ordeal with the motor we bought form a marine. I t just about broke everytime we went out, so we just wound up buying a brtand new yamaha motor.

hey thanks. The old force pos took a ****e on us every time we went out, but once.

Tony-

Holy determined! Good job! The dog looks pretty happy though! Cheers Wayne

whanse02 wrote:Holy determined! Good job! The dog looks pretty happy though! Cheers Wayne

thanks! Welcome to nico btw

good job! Im sure the dog's having the time of his life now.. hehehehe... congrats on the new boat

jbracefan1977 wrote:good job! Im sure the dog's having the time of his life now.. hehehehe... congrats on the new boat

He loves going out on the boat

You should have taken the Mystery Box.



Seriously, that is cool

So how does it run now?

bobotech wrote:You should have taken the Mystery Box.



Seriously, that is cool

So how does it run now?

Its perfect. 50hp motor on a 16ft boat, fully loaded we get around 35mph. Also new for this season is one of these sweet things.

35mph? That pretty quick for a fishing boat.

Could you actually ski behind it at that speed?

I would love a nice fishing boat, I love to fish.

bobotech wrote:35mph? That pretty quick for a fishing boat.

Could you actually ski behind it at that speed?

Yea I think so. We are looking at getting some sort of board, inflatable for the boat to pull people on.

Logan76 wrote:I would love a nice fishing boat, I love to fish.

They are really nice. I never had one when I was younger. So this is my first boat and the fishing is much better on a boat!

nice build

Wow, nice work!

Sweet build man. I always wanted to make my own wooden canoe.I got a 17' center console, i could be out on the water fishing 24/7 if i could....

RuskeyJDM wrote:Sweet build man. I always wanted to make my own wooden canoe.I got a 17' center console, i could be out on the water fishing 24/7 if i could....

Thanks man. A center steer console is one of my fav boats, this one in particular. Get out there and fish!

tonis56 wrote:
Its perfect. 50hp motor on a 16ft boat, fully loaded we get around 35mph. Also new for this season is one of these sweet things.

Awesome work man! Congrats! I was curious, do you have GPS on your depth finder that tells how fast you are going? I've got a 14 1/2 foot bass boat with an 85HP Evinrude on it and the speedometer says we are barely hitting 20, and I know it's a lot faster than that. Just curious...?

EvillE423 wrote:
Awesome work man! Congrats! I was curious, do you have GPS on your depth finder that tells how fast you are going? I've got a 14 1/2 foot bass boat with an 85HP Evinrude on it and the speedometer says we are barely hitting 20, and I know it's a lot faster than that. Just curious...?

Yup we have a gps and it tells us speed. You should definately be faster than 20 with a 85hp on a 14.5 foot boat. Im guessing that the boat is a little overpowered (compared to what the placard says)? You may have too much weight in the back thus not being able to get on plane, and slowing you down.

tony-