I recently bought a 1969 mako center console with a 115 johnson. The boat is in rough overall condition but is a very sturdy , very fisherman friendly craft. I never test drove the boat and it looked to be sea worthy, also the motor ran good. However, the first time I went out I noticed that upon planing off it nose dive pretty steeply and stayed tilted to the right. This made the ride feel like I was constantly plowing and fighting the steering wheel. At times crashing into oncoming waves so hard that it seemed like I might get thrown out . I adjusted the power tilt/trim but really didn't do much other than over rev the motor. Some one familiar with this boat told me that the rear of the hull (stern) was "warped" downward causing the problem so when I got home I checked it out . Well.. first of all the keel had a pretty sizeable crack which let in alot of water ( maybe 20 gals give or take ) and the stern hangs off the back of the trailer about 2 feet. The left side (port?) has a downward curve (aka hook) as does the other side . I do believe this could definitley be the major part of the problem but not sure . My question is how would I go about fixing this so the boat rides correctly ,is it major structure damage? something That a do it yourselfer could tackle? I will try to get some photos and download them to give more perspective. Thank you !
