thebaldeagle655
Cadet
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2005
- Messages
- 8
I've been lurking and reading for quite some time and decided I had better share my experience with everyone. In December I bought an 87' model 22' Marathon Cabin Cruiser. When I bought it I knew I had a major chore as the engine had a bad knock, the upholstry top-deck was rotten and basically none of the electrical worked. In what little free time I had I had the engine rebuilt and replaced it and got the electrical troubleshot and repaired or replaced. First time I took it out on the water boy was a disapointed! Anxious to try it out I took it on a day that looked like a storm would happen any second. Launched it, started out on the lake. Could not get it to plane out, top speed about 10 naughts, checked engine compartment, uh oh, WATER, WATER, WATER. No, the plug was in, (I did that one about 30 years ago). Sure enough, bad looking clouds and started raining. So I had 4 problems, 1) engine not running right, 2) water rapidly filling the bilge, 3) bilge pump I had just replaced was NOT working and 4) girlfriend on board screaming WE ARE GONNA SINK. Got it back to the trailer and made the trip home. Had the carb rebuilt (knew better than not to in the first place!) Next weekend took it back to the lake. This time, it planed out slowly but then topped off about 30 naughts. 4.3 OMC outdrive by the way. Cruised around about 1 1/2 hours, did a little fishing. Headed back to the dock due to a storm approaching (seems to be a pattern here) and about 1/2 way back it lost a lot of power, dropped to 8 naughts max. Limped it in and took her home. Opened the engine compartment and found a spark plug wire off that I had missed on the water. Today I took her back out. WONDERFUL, took off well, planed out, cruised excellently. Caught a nice mess of Crappie (cruiser not the best fishing boat for small lake though.) Decided to try her longivety out. Got to the South end of the lake, 8 miles from the dock and she started cutting out. CAN'T be out of fuel, guage shows 3/8! WRONG. Good news, you can use the trim tabs to tilt the boat to the left to pick up just enough fuel to make it 7 1/4 miles. Bad news, was 8 miles away. Got a tow, ran into station and refilled. Ready for another day. Will work on the fuel guage first though!!!
