Hey Everyone.
I have been a boater for all of my 24 years and I have been coming on this forum for awhile now and have learned so much from all of you and for that I would like to thank you all. Now it is time to start my own project and I thought I would share my progress on here.
I bought my boat which is a 17' Century with a Merc 165 I/O (love this motor) in June 2010. I kind of lucked out as the previous owner had just bought a new sea-ray and needed to unload this boat quick because of lack of room for both boats in his driveway.
Anyways beside the motor being good he also did a good job maintaining the boat and installed a new floor, stringers, motor mounts and transom. I was a bit leery that he had done everything he said he had when I spoke on the phone with him but when I showed up to see the boat he gave me a folder full of parts receipts for these projects and I was able to check it all out and it really was solid as a rock.
The downside to this boat is that it's general appearance is worn out and old. The paint is really rough and looks like it has had at least one repaint and it was not done by a real over achiever if ya know what i mean. Also there are a few cracks and gouges in the fiberglass and all the hardware and wood trim are in pretty rough shape.
So off I went with my toy in tow. I took it home and made sure I had all of the safety gear on board and had it running good. I then enjoyed the summer with my new toy and the only problem it gave me was a broken throttle cable which was not big deal and i rebuilt the carb as it was running a bit rough.
I put the boat in the water at least 5 times a week all summer long which is probably more than it has seen in the last 5 years combined, and it never missed a beat so I am convinced it is worth putting money into it, to get it to look as good as it runs.
Anyways tomorrow I will start stripping the boat down so hopefully I will have some more pics for you but for now here is the before pics.
These are taken the day I brought it home.
Steve


I have been a boater for all of my 24 years and I have been coming on this forum for awhile now and have learned so much from all of you and for that I would like to thank you all. Now it is time to start my own project and I thought I would share my progress on here.
I bought my boat which is a 17' Century with a Merc 165 I/O (love this motor) in June 2010. I kind of lucked out as the previous owner had just bought a new sea-ray and needed to unload this boat quick because of lack of room for both boats in his driveway.
Anyways beside the motor being good he also did a good job maintaining the boat and installed a new floor, stringers, motor mounts and transom. I was a bit leery that he had done everything he said he had when I spoke on the phone with him but when I showed up to see the boat he gave me a folder full of parts receipts for these projects and I was able to check it all out and it really was solid as a rock.
The downside to this boat is that it's general appearance is worn out and old. The paint is really rough and looks like it has had at least one repaint and it was not done by a real over achiever if ya know what i mean. Also there are a few cracks and gouges in the fiberglass and all the hardware and wood trim are in pretty rough shape.
So off I went with my toy in tow. I took it home and made sure I had all of the safety gear on board and had it running good. I then enjoyed the summer with my new toy and the only problem it gave me was a broken throttle cable which was not big deal and i rebuilt the carb as it was running a bit rough.
I put the boat in the water at least 5 times a week all summer long which is probably more than it has seen in the last 5 years combined, and it never missed a beat so I am convinced it is worth putting money into it, to get it to look as good as it runs.
Anyways tomorrow I will start stripping the boat down so hopefully I will have some more pics for you but for now here is the before pics.
These are taken the day I brought it home.
Steve

