Hello,
Been lurking on this site for YEARS & have found a wealth of knowledge here along with plenty of good reading material of which I'm Very Thankful.
I did a HUGE No-No 3 weeks ago in buying this Procraft without first taking it out for a river run. The young couple I purchased it from seemed nice enough and simply wanted a bigger boat for their growing family.
I questioned the guy pretty thoroughly & he insisted that he was asking a fair price for a TURN KEY boat that I could TRUST to perform well.
After hearing the 150 Black Max run & seeing all the recent receipts for current maintenance & repairs ... well, it was pushing dark thirty & I had a 130 mile trip back home so I decided to take a chance on the boat.
A few days later after registering the boat in my name, my daughter & I decided it was time to see how it ran out.
I live 10 minutes from Lake Guntersville in north Alabama & have owned & sold several boats over the years so I really should have known better.
Anyway, we get the boat launched, engine warmed up, head out about 1/2 mile into deeper water. I stopped the boat to play with the fish finder & suddenly water starts coming up thru the floorboard drains
So I fumble around looking for the bilge pump switch & finally see a solid stream of water pumping out. Then I open a rear hatch & see water POURING into the boat around the lower engine mount bolts & transom.
I get the engine fired & head for the dock, Thank God we weren't to far out & the ramps were empty. I told my daughter to get out of the boat & hold onto the bow line until I could get the trailer under it, by the time I got that done I had to wade into the boat to drive it on the trailer.
My V8 truck struggled pulling it out & water poured from the hull for a solid 6 minutes at the ramp ... but at least it was out of the water & nobody got hurt !
The outside transom is busted thru the glass completely around the bottom of the engine mount about 1/2 way up on both sides ... yes ... LOTS of water will come thru a hole that big.
I called the guy I got it from and he immediately tells me that the boat wasn't that way when he sold it, duh, I'm sure the fiberglass wasn't broken yet, I would have spotted that ... but come-on ... a transom doesn't ROT within a week !
So he continues to curse me and says over & over again that I bought the boat AS-IS & that it had to be me that caused all the damage, ... he asked if I'd backed over something when I had it out ... please ... spare me
I had already emailed pictures of the damage, it was obvious that the boat had not been ran aground or anything of that nature and I offered more pictures of the hull ... but allas .. it was all my fault according to him & he didn't need anymore ****ing pictures.
We exchanged a few heated words & after I told him that I'd found some real FRESH silicone smeared all over the inside of the transom where it broke away. He denied doing that & what do I know anyway, I've only been pulling a wrench for a living for over 35 years now so I guess I shouldn't know what fresh silicone looks like ... how ridiculous !
So he hangs up on me & a few minutes later his Wife calls & wants to know just what would satisfy me. I told her that he didn't give me the chance to tell him all I wanted was for them to split the cost of repair materials needed to fix the boat right & that I'd already decided to remove the cap & fix the transom with Seacast or Nida-Bond.
So she tells me to figure it up & let her know & she will send their 1/2 of the funds and she did just that.
_________________________________________________________________
Now here's where I stand on the boat repairs.
I removed the bumper rail & screws, ran a blade between the hull & cap seam & feel no resistance all the way to the top of cap. Removed the seats, batteries, emptied the gas tank, disconnected all hoses , & everything that I could get off myself including the engine & trolling motor.
I found one area where the storage and fish boxes are joined to the hull with glass mat along the bottom edge so I cut thru that with a small sawzall but it feels like something is still connected somewhere around the center of the hull because the front feels loose & the rear corners as well, so I'm at a stand still until I can figure out what to cut or whatever next to finish removing the cap.
Oh & by the way, when I removed the batteries I found tons of rot underneath & some fresh plywood the previous owner had put down because it was so weak it wouldn't hold the weight. Not hiding anything, nope, uh,uh !
If ANYONE here has ever dealt with this particular hull design & can offer some suggestions ... IT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.
Sorry for the long RANT ... but I feel better already
Thanks
Been lurking on this site for YEARS & have found a wealth of knowledge here along with plenty of good reading material of which I'm Very Thankful.
I did a HUGE No-No 3 weeks ago in buying this Procraft without first taking it out for a river run. The young couple I purchased it from seemed nice enough and simply wanted a bigger boat for their growing family.
I questioned the guy pretty thoroughly & he insisted that he was asking a fair price for a TURN KEY boat that I could TRUST to perform well.
After hearing the 150 Black Max run & seeing all the recent receipts for current maintenance & repairs ... well, it was pushing dark thirty & I had a 130 mile trip back home so I decided to take a chance on the boat.
A few days later after registering the boat in my name, my daughter & I decided it was time to see how it ran out.
I live 10 minutes from Lake Guntersville in north Alabama & have owned & sold several boats over the years so I really should have known better.
Anyway, we get the boat launched, engine warmed up, head out about 1/2 mile into deeper water. I stopped the boat to play with the fish finder & suddenly water starts coming up thru the floorboard drains
So I fumble around looking for the bilge pump switch & finally see a solid stream of water pumping out. Then I open a rear hatch & see water POURING into the boat around the lower engine mount bolts & transom.
I get the engine fired & head for the dock, Thank God we weren't to far out & the ramps were empty. I told my daughter to get out of the boat & hold onto the bow line until I could get the trailer under it, by the time I got that done I had to wade into the boat to drive it on the trailer.
My V8 truck struggled pulling it out & water poured from the hull for a solid 6 minutes at the ramp ... but at least it was out of the water & nobody got hurt !
The outside transom is busted thru the glass completely around the bottom of the engine mount about 1/2 way up on both sides ... yes ... LOTS of water will come thru a hole that big.
I called the guy I got it from and he immediately tells me that the boat wasn't that way when he sold it, duh, I'm sure the fiberglass wasn't broken yet, I would have spotted that ... but come-on ... a transom doesn't ROT within a week !
So he continues to curse me and says over & over again that I bought the boat AS-IS & that it had to be me that caused all the damage, ... he asked if I'd backed over something when I had it out ... please ... spare me
I had already emailed pictures of the damage, it was obvious that the boat had not been ran aground or anything of that nature and I offered more pictures of the hull ... but allas .. it was all my fault according to him & he didn't need anymore ****ing pictures.
We exchanged a few heated words & after I told him that I'd found some real FRESH silicone smeared all over the inside of the transom where it broke away. He denied doing that & what do I know anyway, I've only been pulling a wrench for a living for over 35 years now so I guess I shouldn't know what fresh silicone looks like ... how ridiculous !
So he hangs up on me & a few minutes later his Wife calls & wants to know just what would satisfy me. I told her that he didn't give me the chance to tell him all I wanted was for them to split the cost of repair materials needed to fix the boat right & that I'd already decided to remove the cap & fix the transom with Seacast or Nida-Bond.
So she tells me to figure it up & let her know & she will send their 1/2 of the funds and she did just that.
_________________________________________________________________
Now here's where I stand on the boat repairs.
I removed the bumper rail & screws, ran a blade between the hull & cap seam & feel no resistance all the way to the top of cap. Removed the seats, batteries, emptied the gas tank, disconnected all hoses , & everything that I could get off myself including the engine & trolling motor.
I found one area where the storage and fish boxes are joined to the hull with glass mat along the bottom edge so I cut thru that with a small sawzall but it feels like something is still connected somewhere around the center of the hull because the front feels loose & the rear corners as well, so I'm at a stand still until I can figure out what to cut or whatever next to finish removing the cap.
Oh & by the way, when I removed the batteries I found tons of rot underneath & some fresh plywood the previous owner had put down because it was so weak it wouldn't hold the weight. Not hiding anything, nope, uh,uh !
If ANYONE here has ever dealt with this particular hull design & can offer some suggestions ... IT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.
Sorry for the long RANT ... but I feel better already
Thanks
