Bob Bismal
Cadet
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2005
- Messages
- 14
Howdy, First a little history so you know what a newbie I really am. I've only been in a boat 2 times in my life and those were about 20 and 25 years ago. Now I've got 2 boys and really want to take them fishing. I live on an island (with three roads going over the canals) and we've been just about the only people in this city without a boat sense we moved in about 7 years ago.<br /><br />Well now I've bought a boat. It's a 1978 Starcraft Holiday Closed bow, with a 115hp Johnson outboard. Everything on the boat is original and in pretty good shape. I paid $1900 for it. Good price? Now for the real questions.<br /><br />1. I know you need a battery to start the motor, but do outboards need a battery to run?<br /><br />2. It came with a Humminbird 4X6 fish finder and a radio. Should I worry about killing the battery if I run these while the motor is running? Or with it off? As far as I can tell the manual that came with the motor says it has an alternator, will that charge that battery / batteries?<br /> <br />3. I took it out yesterday for about 4 hours and when I got it home and pulled the bilge plug it had about 5 gallons of water come out. The bilge pump wasn't working, and I plan to fix that before I go out again. I's that much leaking normal or something I should fix asap?<br /><br />4. The tachometer doesn't work. Is that a big deal? I'd kinda like to have some idea what the motor is doing.<br /><br />5. Many more questions to come, just can't think of them right now so just tell me anything and everything a newbie might ask. BTW, when I took it out, it ran awesome. Nice, quiet smooth ride, started right up and went like a bat out a hell.<br />Best pic I've got so far<br />
<br /><br />Thanks in advance for all your help.
<br /><br />I'd like to say that's too much water, but I'm pretty sure I'd get that out of a 4 hour run as well. I have a winter project in mind to fix it, but I think it is just a case of an old hull and a lot of loose rivets. Get a working bilge pump, with a auto float, and save finding it for when you decide to pull the floor up. Not everyone will agree, but I think you will be chasing your tail trying to sort out leaks with the floor still in.<br /><br />I had my rectifier go (actually one wire broke) and it prevented charging AND made the tach not work.<br /><br />You want to keep the motor connected to the battery to charge it. It will run without, but no reason to.<br /><br />A fish finder will take a long time to run down a battery. I leave mine on.<br /><br />Any idea how fast you got the boat going? DO you have a speedo (or better a GPS)?<br /><br />I love my boat but am tracking down a couple of motor gremlins. When I find them, fishing season will be over (water gets kinda hard here in the winter) and am pulling the floor out. My plan is to tighten up the loose rivets and then paint the inside bottom of the boat with stuff you would paint on the roof of an RV. It's cheaper then truck bedliner, more flexible and will give me a nice waterproof seal insie the boat. I expect this to solve 90% of my water issue. A new floor and I have a boat that's as good as new.