Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

[Capt. Mike]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

I am 47 and I have had a lot of boats some I got into and realized I was over my head. I didn't have a web site like this when I started there was no WWW.

The thing I have been preaching to everyone never take a boat to the shell unless you know that you know what you are doing. Not many boats that strip it to the shell get her rebuilt. We see that some have, but most don't. But this can be ok because we have to learn some how. So what we need to realize is it coast a lot of time to rebuild a boat, and a lot of money.

If you are buying a boat to rebuild to save money DON"T. If you rebuilding a boat to save the boat thats thats ok, but don't do it to save money.


http://web.mac.com/tanyard/iWeb/My Old Boat/Blank.html

 

[ddrieck]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

Holy cow....and to think my project is 16'....and its still an overwhelming project at times:redface:....Looks good Capt. Mike...one question? How do you keep your sanity on a project of that size? Myself, I would be in the nut house in no time

 

[i386]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

Yea, I'm slack jawed in amazement. Now that's a project!

 

[Darren Nemeth]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

http://web.mac.com/tanyard/iWeb/My Old Boat/Blank.html

I tip my hat off to you!

 

[littlebookworm]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

About 6 years ago I picked up a 1980 25' Classic Sportscruiser. It needed everything redone, but the lines were gorgeous. Got it home and blocked it up alongside my garage. Spent 3 years rebuilding everything. Kept only the outdrive and the hull intact. Got it on the water and loved it. The second season developed an overheating problem we couldn't solve. (The engine was a rebuilt). Unfortunately, overheated once too often and cracked the engine. She was at the marina, on the hard, last year when I was getting ready to put it a new engine. I climbed inside the cabin to check something and noticed the floor felt strange. Checked outside and found the forward keel had collapsed around the cinder block mound. The balsa core was rotten. Spent three days stripping the boat before she was scrapped. I had only put 35 hour on her. Did I learn my lesson. Nah. I bought a 1986 20' SunRunner from the marina owner who seized it for nonpayment of bills owed. I'm now refurbishing it and hope to have it in the water by the end of June. It needs a motor (bought one), and some other stuff repaired or replaced, which I've already started doing. Oh, the keel is not balsa; I checked. Safe boating, all. Hy

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

She's very pretty... I just have to cringe at having a wooden boat that size though. I do hope to own a metal (steel) boat like that someday.

Erik

 

[Coors]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

Lol, it happens to all of us.
Take a break, and start plugging away again.
I have a 1970 Duster on jack stands, since 1987, just now getting back to finishing it. And this will take 3 years.
Take a break, it helps.

 

[whitetailfreak]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

I've got two Lunds and two Crestliners sitting here in the back yard in the process of beind rebuilt. As of now they are ready for someone else to tackle. I thought I would save money by buying a used boat that need some work. I am very capable of fixing any fiberglass boat as I've been in the business for 30 years. But as you get older a person doesn't want to fix things anymore you just want to fish!! There are so many good boats for sale out there right now that there is no point in fixing an old junker unless you have lots of time and money. Lets go fishing!!!!

 

[Old Tyme]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

I find it interesting to stumble upon this thread.

I bought a 69 Cruisers 22' Mackinac about 4 years ago for $1K. The boat was in pretty nice condition other than it needed new paint. It had new upholstery and top. The engine was supposed to be only a few hundred hours old post rebuild.
I did find that there was a little rust in one of the cylinders which prevented it from rolling over. (the starter had locked up also).
The biggest drawback to the entire package was the trailer. VERY ugly!!

Anyway, since we were living in a city neighborhood, I wanted something that I could fix up and keep at our local conservation club...which has a marina. To me, the idea of a weekend get-a-way to the boat would give me the peace and serenity I needed.

Since beginning the project, we bought a different home with more room for me to play and the desire to have the boat in the marina lost its glamor.
Now, if I decide to finish it, I will need to invest in another trailer, as I will want to haul it back and forth to the lake. Prior to that, the trailer wasn't a concern. I would keep it on the ugly trailer and store it at the club in the off season.

Besides, the price of gas has me concerned also. My wife wants me to finish it so we can take to the lake for sleepovers or a little cruising, but I lost interest. So here I am...undecided....

 

[zach103]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

capt mikes and the guy with the paddle boat have us all beat.

ive come close to giving up.. alot of thimes this week i wanted to just get rid of it and buy a bigger better boat. . so i just decided to ask for help.. now ive got three of my buddies helping me figure it all out

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

I gave up on one just this week, I've been trying to sell a nice, clean 1971 Trihull with rock solid floors, a factory rebuilt Merc 120 (both motor and drive), all new controls, seats, nautilex flooring, and clean original trailer but no takers, not even an offer. I started it at $1500, turn key boat, tried as low as $1000 but nothing, one guy offered me $200.
It was a really nice boat but I just didn't need another boat and it was too heavy for me to tow and launch with a small pickup, so it had to go.
I got tired this week of tire kickers and people complaining that they only wanted an outboard boat. I stripped it and sold it in pieces.
I got $750 for the motor (including all attachments and riser, $400 for the outdrive, $120 for the new fuel tank, $60 for the controls, $90 for the two front seats, and $400 for the trailer. I crushed the hull and took it to the dump which cost me $35. I also sold the Fish finder, got $40 there, sold the two spare props for $40, I got $32 for a misc. lot of hardware from the boat as well, and I sold the power winch off the trailer for $110, (I sold the trailer with a manual winch I had laying around that I didn't like since it had no full release position. I sold the bimini top for $75. The total take was $2082, and I kept the rest of the parts for other projects.
What hurt the most was taking apart a perfectly good boat. I found nothing that was bad, seized or damaged in that boat. The hull was perfect, the motor and drive was mint, and the trailer had just been painted and had brand new rims and tires.
I actually had one buyer that was half interested, I unwinterized the boat, took the guy for a day on the water, the boat ran absolutely perfect.
At the end of the day, after remarking how new it felt and how well it ran for an older boat, offered to trade me for a lawn tractor that needed a motor.
He went on to say that he really wanted an outboard boat but didn't have the cash to buy anything. If he had said that prior to docking and reloading, I think he'd be swimming home.
If anyone wants it now, they can buy it buy the pound at the local recycling center and dump.

While I would rather have just sold the boat or even traded it for something I could use, and I would rather have not had to spend a day stripping it, I did come out ahead in the end. If I had known it wouldn't sell, I'd have done it this way a year ago or more and saved the space in the garage for something else.

 

[jddenham]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

How sad but true. Vintage items are often worth more scrapped out then as awhole, but sometimes it is worth it for personal reasons to keep it alive.

I frequent the forum at www.yamahaenduro.com and it's the same kind of mentality.

If anyone wants to join over there, use me as a referral - 'JamesD' !!

Have a safe and happy 4th !!

 

[Downwindtracker2]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

Yes,a fiberglass Chestnut canoe.I loved the way it paddled and handled.You could almost dive off the gunwale.The wooden gunwales had rotted and the hull was busted.I learned to love Cold Cure epoxy. Chestnut could build great canvas/cedar canoes but fiberglass was beyond their understanding.Just moving it,another cross rib cracked.Out the door it went and I called Bob to pick it up.He patched it,cursing my epoxy repairs and fiinished it for another friend using aluminium gunwales. It really died on the same rock my aluminium canoe got wraped around.The aluminium came out better than when I bought it.

 

[Ezrider_92356]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

i havent givin up on a boat yet but i have only owned two so far. first one was just a small 14 ft alum crestliner, put a new motor on it and did some small stuff to it, then i bought my current project boat. i started on it and then it sat most of the winter now im pluggin away on it pretty good now, i plan on having it back on the water within a month i only started on it last fall! lol

 

[idrownworms]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

It wasn't my fault I gave up on the boat, honest.
back in the late 60s early 70s I decided I wanted to drive my dads old boat.
it was a ( I was only like 10 so my memory might not be right) 14 foot chris craft runabout wooden boat with a fiberglass covering on the hull. I got as far as getting it rolled over right side up cleaned up and up on a trailer and wondering how i was going to get the motor on it. My grandpa saw what I was doing and came over with an ice pick and started poking it through the hull ( yeah it was that rotten) then he pulled it off the trailer poured gas over it and burned it. Well we did pull all the hardware off first
All the boats since then were just upkeep no real restoration
jamie

 

[Bama7474]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

This is my first project, but I also know that I'll never be completely done with my boat! There is always something that you're going to want to fix or repare or change...I will always keep my first and sell the rest, but don't think I could make enough time to work on two at the same time.

 

[zaroba]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

my first project boat is the one i have now, and i plan to finish it since its also my first boat.
as with the firsts of everything else, it holds that special place in your heart

 

[jonesg]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

I never start a job I can't finish. It takes a lot of thinking, looking and sometimes just plain running away from. But if I start it. I will finish it.

Thats the trick, research the job, have clear goals in mind...
then set yourself in motion and keep yourself in check.

 

[GO OVRIT]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

I've got one right now that I would give to anybody that wants it. I had big plans for it, but I have 2 other boats to keep me busy for a long time. I can't bring myself to junk it, but it needs a new grazing spot...either on my property or somebody elses.

 

[proshadetree]

Re: Has anybody started a project boat and gave up on the job?

Iv not given up on mine but both are on hold for a short getting the wallet in order time.Iv owned 1 for 11 years the other for 3 to 4 months.Bought the 2nd to be in the water in 30 days.Its not funny man.Ok it is now.Will be floating by warm weather.Quit laughing im serious.