tlzimmerman
Petty Officer 3rd Class
- Joined
- May 21, 2010
- Messages
- 82
Hello everyone, I didn't see a specific forum for introductions, so I thought I would just post it in general. If I missed it, feel free to move this please and thanks.
New member here, and as noob as they come but I am eager to learn. My background in boating is just 2 boats, we had an old 14' fiberglass invictus tri hull with a 40 horse johnson growing up. We mostly fished, with an engine that small it was hard to ski, and our parents preferred fishing. I am the youngest of 6 kids so we could never all fit on the boat, dad would leave some of use on the bank with the older kids, and take a couple out, we always had cb's in case we needed him.
My parents bought them a 17.75' lund in 1998 (saved for over 10 years extra money and their christmas presents from their folks), and its a great boat. We always took great care of the old fiberglass, and dad sold it for more than he bought it for, the guy has left it outside ever since and hardly used it...its trashed now. My mom passed away in 2000 of breast cancer, but we still go fishing all the time. I am the youngest and am now 24, but someone is always coming back to go fishing with pops.
Long story short I am now married, and the first kid is due any day now, the family is big enough when we go to the lake as a group, we need more boats. We have a local free classifieds my company puts on (we are an ISP). Last week while moderating ads, I come across a boat by my old home town with a rotted floor, and 115 horse evinrude engine that should run (even though it hasn't in about 10 years). Its a 1969 Mark Twain V-Sonic Tri Hull 16'. They wanted 300, I went and saw it that night (turned out to be an old family friend, heck my older brothers have went skiing in this boat a time or two back in the day). I bought it that night, they had others coming to look the next day. We nursed it to my dads shop on its old tires (it was about a 15 mile trip) and I am going home this weekend to see if we can get it running, and haul it back to my house in hays about an hour away. I wasn't in the market yet (was saving to pick up a running boat in the 3k region next summer), but I thought this was a deal..maybe maybe not. The floor and seats are bad.....but the engine looks like it will run (it was winterized before put away the last time), no dry rot on any wires, turns by the flywheel and feel like it has decent compression. The transom feels good and solid, but we will see when I get the floor out all the way. If the transom is good (I wailed on the engine...it didn't flex) and the engine runs.....wow replace the floor and some seats and I got a BOAT! If not...well maybe I'll regret it LOL. I think it would be fun to do a full resto (i enjoy working on stuff like this), I don't have a shop though so I'll be doing all the work outside and covering in between.
Do you guys think I did ok? I have already gleaned a great deal of information from the forum...so thank you everyone already. I will start a resto thread when I get her home and get some pictures taken. I am a complete noob with glass work, but honestly it doesn't look all that hard.
Thanks for everyones great info on the forum.....I will do my best to not ask too many dumb questions without searching good and hard first LOL.
New member here, and as noob as they come but I am eager to learn. My background in boating is just 2 boats, we had an old 14' fiberglass invictus tri hull with a 40 horse johnson growing up. We mostly fished, with an engine that small it was hard to ski, and our parents preferred fishing. I am the youngest of 6 kids so we could never all fit on the boat, dad would leave some of use on the bank with the older kids, and take a couple out, we always had cb's in case we needed him.
My parents bought them a 17.75' lund in 1998 (saved for over 10 years extra money and their christmas presents from their folks), and its a great boat. We always took great care of the old fiberglass, and dad sold it for more than he bought it for, the guy has left it outside ever since and hardly used it...its trashed now. My mom passed away in 2000 of breast cancer, but we still go fishing all the time. I am the youngest and am now 24, but someone is always coming back to go fishing with pops.
Long story short I am now married, and the first kid is due any day now, the family is big enough when we go to the lake as a group, we need more boats. We have a local free classifieds my company puts on (we are an ISP). Last week while moderating ads, I come across a boat by my old home town with a rotted floor, and 115 horse evinrude engine that should run (even though it hasn't in about 10 years). Its a 1969 Mark Twain V-Sonic Tri Hull 16'. They wanted 300, I went and saw it that night (turned out to be an old family friend, heck my older brothers have went skiing in this boat a time or two back in the day). I bought it that night, they had others coming to look the next day. We nursed it to my dads shop on its old tires (it was about a 15 mile trip) and I am going home this weekend to see if we can get it running, and haul it back to my house in hays about an hour away. I wasn't in the market yet (was saving to pick up a running boat in the 3k region next summer), but I thought this was a deal..maybe maybe not. The floor and seats are bad.....but the engine looks like it will run (it was winterized before put away the last time), no dry rot on any wires, turns by the flywheel and feel like it has decent compression. The transom feels good and solid, but we will see when I get the floor out all the way. If the transom is good (I wailed on the engine...it didn't flex) and the engine runs.....wow replace the floor and some seats and I got a BOAT! If not...well maybe I'll regret it LOL. I think it would be fun to do a full resto (i enjoy working on stuff like this), I don't have a shop though so I'll be doing all the work outside and covering in between.
Do you guys think I did ok? I have already gleaned a great deal of information from the forum...so thank you everyone already. I will start a resto thread when I get her home and get some pictures taken. I am a complete noob with glass work, but honestly it doesn't look all that hard.
Thanks for everyones great info on the forum.....I will do my best to not ask too many dumb questions without searching good and hard first LOL.
