I'm a new 89 Maxum owner, now I have regrets.

[scottmm73]

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Recently the wife and I decided maybe we should buy a boat, I tried to inform my self as much as possible in the art of boat purchasing and thought we found the right boat for our family. The boat and engine seemed sound and we thought it was a good deal, so we purchased the boat and returned home with it (8 hour round trip).

Once we got it home and had good daylight the next morning, I began having buyers remorse. I thought I did a good job in checking the deck but failed to notice a small soft spot under one of the aft storage compartments. I also realized I never checked the exterior of the boat. I crawled under the trailer and my heart sank, the keel looked as if the PO attempted to beach the boat everytime he had it out on the water and I also found some areas where the gel coat was rubbed off exposing the underlying fiberglass (pictures attached). After doing some research, I'm no longer concerned with the keel as it appears a keel guard, such as keel shield, will protect the keel. The other areas are my concern. How should I go about fixing these areas? Can I just cover it with an epoxy, so the family and I can have some fun before the summer is over or am I looking at a medium scale repair that needs to be done? Please advise.

http://flic.kr/p/cy46Mj
http://flic.kr/p/cy47is

 

[trophy boat]

Re: I'm a new 89 Maxum owner, now I have regrets.

Those are minor issues. A little gel coat and you are good as new. The soft floor however could be a small spot or huge problems. Others will chime in. You will have to do some checking into the stringers and transom.

 

[Brenn]

Re: I'm a new 89 Maxum owner, now I have regrets.

like trophy said,touch up the gel coat and you will be good there.as far as the floor goes,how soft are we talking and how big of an area? if its not to bad run it this summer and fix it in the fall and winter

 

[Pmccraney]

Re: I'm a new 89 Maxum owner, now I have regrets.

Do you know how the boat was stored? Docked, outside, or garage kept? I agree that the keel rash, though not a pleasant discovery can be fixed pretty easily.... If you are handy, you can do it yourself (you just may have to order some glassin' materials). I'm not an expert but I think it would probably be more advisable to repair the area before throwing a keel guard down on it as is... If you want to see what is involved in doing a keel repair, check at Bear_69Cuda's Imperial thread. He just did a keel repair supplemented with a keel guard and it turned out great.

The soft spot in the deck is, unfortunately, not a good sign, as it is usually the first evidence of some cancer lying underneath.... The cancer could be rotten stringers, bulkheads or both (depending on age of boat and how it is made) as well as a soft transom/engine mounts (if you have an i/o). Your boat is an 89, so its got some years on it and unfortunately has had plenty of time to develop the bad stuff if it sat wet or some water has been seeping through that keel rash for long periods.

I'm assuming this is an i/o... I would pull on the transom/outdrive to make sure it is strong. move the drive up and down and see if you see any noticeable flex in the transom.... Tap it with the handle of a screw driver (or rubber mallet) and see if you notice any "dead" sounds... Looking around your transom assembly from the inside of the boat behind the engine and see if you see any rot. Tap on your engine mounts...

Lift up your ski locker and any other covers to sub-deck components and see what you can see down there... Again, do a visual and tap test anywhere you can... If you see rot or get a lot of soft "thuds" then you may have a problem...

Don't over-react or panic at this point.... Just do a thorough inspection and report back with lots of pics, etc...

 

[scottmm73]

Re: I'm a new 89 Maxum owner, now I have regrets.

I'm just going to do a quick reply as I'm putting together a gun cabinet for my birthday.

The boat is an outboard (85 Force, seems strong and good to go). The transom is solid as I did a lot of tapping in that area and my inspection prior to purchasing the boat was checking for softspots in the deck. I've been frequenting here didn't want to find rot. However, I did not check inside the storage spaces (always learning). Once I got it home I then checked the storage lockers. The aft right storage locker (right side of transom) was described as a cooler by the PO (this should of set off alarms), I found a crack in the fiberglass resin and upon pushing it I found it was soft, the area in total may be (without pulling the floor) may be a square foot total, I know once I pull the floor I may discover more.

So as for the gelcoat, can I just cover with epoxy in the interim(summer)? Or will I have to grind down, lay some resin and glass and recover?

 

[scottmm73]

Re: I'm a new 89 Maxum owner, now I have regrets.

Well an update is definitely needed on this thread. I've been working diligently on the Maxum to hopefully have a few runs with it this summer before in needs to be put up (Northern PA) for the winter. I finished some quick hull work and repaired the keel rash with Marine Tex and a Keel shield. I was able take it to the lake (Cowanesque) to check and see how she sat in the water. She sat there pretty much all day, tied to the dock, and not one leak thankfully.

I did run into problems with the engine though however (which I originally thought was the best part on this deal, now it seems the trailer is). She ran fine on the muffs, but when we attempted to get her running at the lake she would not stay cranked. I ended up taking her back home to do some work on the carbs and was able to take her back out later that night. We eventually got her going and was able to leave the dock. Initially when attempting to go WOT she would hover around 2200 rpm and eventually stall out, I attempted this about 3 times before she finally went passed 2200 up to 5000. We clocked her at 32 mph (by GPS) which seems low with the prop I have installed (stock 13.25/17). I throttled back as I was doing a 180 by the dam and planned to head back to the dock and she began hovering around 2200 rpm again. I attempted a couple more times and she would not get above 2200 so I settled her down to 2000 and returned to the dock. When we got her back on the trailer I realized I forgot to lock the engine down. Could this have been the cause of the slow mph? I also found when working on the carbs that I needed to rebuild the #3 carb. Idle needle was damaged and the float needle was damaged, obviously causing the carb to leak. I finally received the rebuild kit and fixed it and no more leak from the #3 carb. Since I was doing that work, I figured I would do a tune up on the engine and discovered that the #3 cylinder will hold about 25 psi, #1 and #2 both held 120 psi. I'm hoping it is just a blown head gasket because the #3 spark plug has a small groove next to the electrode, which causes me some concern. Initial inspection through the spark plug hole shows a lot of fouling (carbon) on the piston but nothing major so far. Tomorrow I will pull the head and take a closer look.

As I was checking spark, the boat decided to stop turning over. Using a voltmeter, I checked voltage from the battery (12.2 v) and was receiving the 12.2 up to the terminal block on the engine, however at the batt term (B) on the ignition switch I was only receiving 1.2 v, so this means I must have a ground/feeder fault somewhere between the switch and terminal block. Correct? I have a red wire at the B term on the ignition switch, but there is no red wire leaving the term block. What wire from the engine feeds the ignition switch?

As far as the decking, I've done some probing and discovered that the area in question is about 1 square foot in size, I do not doubt that there is some floor rot, with possible rot in the aft stringers. I have not found any indication that the transom is rotted (drilled probing holes). I've decided to let it go for now, because my wife and I made this decision to purchase the boat for family fun. My oldest will be graduating HS soon, so I'll keep an eye on the situation. The winter season after her graduation the plan is to do a full rebuild/restoration of her (we'll start saving our bennies now) unless the situation worsens and she needs the rebuild sooner.

I'm sure there is something I've missed but I will get back to you on it later. Pictures of the boat are pre-work after we initially got her home. I'm thinking of calling her "Money Taker", sort of an om-age to my CH-47 Chinook (Money Maker) I took care of while stationed in Hawaii. So far she is keeping up with the idea. Last pic is the Money Maker in Afghanistan (05-06).