It was a real pain getting the boat hooked up. The drain hole was plugged up, and there were at least 4-6 inches of water in the bottom, I could see it coming up over the floor. Since the boat was on a hill facing down, I couldn't lift it to put it on the truck, and had to use my floor jack to lift it and then back the truck perfectly underneath it. And with the truck cap all fogged up and the fact that it was too close to the road to come in at it straight, it took me 15-20 minutes to get it on the truck. I am glad it didn't tear my hitch off; if I couldn't even budge it, the tongue weight was likely rather high.
When I got it back to work, I poked the drainage hole with my umbrella and got it to start draining. I went inside after about ten minutes and it was still draining like this. I am guessing this is why I couldn't lift it since I was trying to lift a hundred or maybe more gallons of water with it too. With that much water in it, I would guess that the hull is watertight.
The transom is clearly junk.
The interior doesn't look terrible, but the floor is broken and falling in up under the front platform. That likely means all the flooring needs to be replaced.
There is a spare rim in the back, though I didn't verify it fits on the trailer. A lot of junk too.
This was the only damaged fiberglass I saw. Should be easy enough to fix. There are a few holes where there used to be things as well.
The trailer is a nice Karavan galvanized trailer. The passenger light is busted, but the driver light worked. The tires hold air, though one of them was low. Taking the hundred gallons of water out of the boat will help though. I will just drive slow when bringing it home.
I apparently forgot to take a picture of the whole thing, which I will later. I didn't really need another project, but I have one. If the boat really is junk, then I will just crush it and throw it in the dumpster and just sell whichever trailer is leftover. If it isn't, I have another project for next year (I already have too many for this year).
UPDATE - Here is the whole boat.
The front platform. I am really not sure what the platform is for. If it were a fishing platform, I would expect to see a seat post or at least holes where a seat was mounted.
The broken passenger light. I might for now just put my spare light on it I have in the shed. It isn't a submersible light, but should survive for a while.
The fender wells are gone.
The control center of the boat. It has a surprising amount of things for such a small boat.
It has been a couple of hours since the initial post. The tire that was low looks much better now. It is weathered, so it will eventually need replacing.
The fish finder appears to still be there. Considering everything else has been stripped from this boat, I am really surprised this is still here. The sensor was still on the back as well.
It was apparently a Columbian boat, though this is literally the only branding/decal I saw on the boat and was oddly placed on the splash well. Google suggests Columbian made fiberglass boats in the 60s, but they weren't a long lived brand and there isn't much on them.
Even the coupler is in good shape. The wiring will need replacing sooner or later, there are far too many patches in it for my liking.
One odd thing, the trailer doesn't have a winch, just a chain to hook on the bow eye. I will definitely put a winch on it at some point.
When I took the second round of pictures, I was able to shift the boat around on the trailer by hand which supports my theory that most of the weight was water, though it was still far heavier than I expected.
That style hull was usually a bowrider. If the former owner was trying to convert it to just fishing, the front platform would be covering the seat bases.
ReplyDeleteeither that or the previous owner converted the front to a platform to avoid replacing the floor. The platform is fairly fresh construction (the wood still has tags on it), but the floor in the front very clearly needs to be replaced.
DeleteWatch for icebergs.
ReplyDelete