thomas15

I have mentioned this before, when I was a kid we had a 14' bay skiff that we used in the Bays and it was in the Atlantic Ocean several times. It was a tiller. But personally I enjoy having a console much more but that is just me.

Glad to hear this BCB. Wish you the best of luck with your new wessel. How did the launch go?

I've had both and in my opinion, the only negative with a console is that it takes up some room.

I haven't put my boat into service yet and have only hit the bank twice for a total of about 2 hours. So I hope to get out this weekend but the weather doesn't look good. And I have a few small issues to resolve with my motor. So my spring has not been one of great joy, sorry to say. But I have my fingers crossed!

I think as others have said it's not the actual number as much as how close are the numbers relevant to each other. I have a 2005 merc 50 HP 2 cycle and mine are between 114 and 118 which I thought were low but I have a good friend in another state that is a mercury repairman and he told me this is fine. I have been told that Mercury doesn't publish compression numbers. I know that the factory service manual doesn't mention numbers. At least I cannot find them, the manual is disorganized somewhat. The Seloc book give a few random numbers that are not set in stone and the lowest is a 4/5 HP at 90 psi. Most are around 120. I would make sure you are using the tester correctly and that the throttle is wide open. You can kill the ignition by either pulling the dead man lanyard out or grounding the spark plugs to the block. Personally I would look deeper into this and/or try again. If you haven't already check youtube there are a bunch of outboards being compression tested.

Good thread. Thanks.

I can relate somewhat. I have a long list of small things I want to do to the boat and I did get most of them completed. So that's a good thing I guess. I installed a new sonar and also one of those fake wood blocks on the transom to mount the transducer and the spedo pitot tube. Also a new bow seat, fixed the running lights and the TM which worked but needed some attention. So now I need to get the motor to idle properly, I had the carbs off and I think something is interfearing with the linkage. Clean up the hull and change the gear oil. All small stuff but I'm anxious to get out on the water. Again I hope you can get it fixed soon and that there are no other big surprises.

I hope you are able to get it fixed and out on the water soon. Last week I decided to change out the water pump impeller and instead of it being a 60 minute job it turned out to be a two day job. I think I have it back together now but this weekend is shot. Maybe next weekend?

Not even KVD line conditioner?

I put one in my tackle bag today.

Every time I'm in WalMart I pick up something, be it plastics or a hardbait.

OK I wound up the reel with Pline 25# Cxx and did a few practice runs in the back yard using a 1 oz weight. So far so good, I'm liking this set up. Casts a mile and no backlash (so far). The only surprise is the diameter and stiffness of the line. I treated it with line conditioner and will give it a go this weekend. Thanks for all the help.

I don't mean to sound like a broken record but the words "fun" and "inexpensive" do not belong in the same paragraph in a discussion about a 30 year boat left out in the weather unprotected for several years. To put it bluntly, at best, the boat is worth zero dollars. It could be less than zero dollars value if you have to pay to have someone dispose of the body. I'm glad to hear that you took a pass.

Get them both, it's only about $16.00 ea.

I can tell you in all seriousness that I really like my boat also but..... I think it all depends. Size wise it is small. Two can fish it ok but three is really pushing the envelope. Speed wise I get anywhere between 32-36 miles per hour, just depends. That speed is fine for this size boat and if you have little or no experience with boats at first you will be like wow this is fast. But there are no shortage of high speed boats out there so yes you will pass some but others will get by you before you even know they were on the same water with you. I'm trying to come up with a rod holder system. I like to carry a bunch of rods and I sometimes enter local tournaments and between me and my partner the rod lockers are no where near enough. I also have two storage compartments up front that do not hold enough tackle. I chose Aluminum for the same reason, more value and lighter towing weight. But compared to a glass boat the ride is harsh and vibrations from the motor are more noticeable. You do get blown in wind conditions but still I don't regret getting aluminum. I know that you don't want to hear some of this. I think having a boat is great and you son will be very excited. I don't know how much fishing you have already done together. When my son was his age we went fishing but usually not for long. Even when we were killing them he would reach his time limit fairly fast. This is not going to change just because there is a boat in the picture. In fact it might get worse. From a time perspective a boat uses much more time in prep work. You are going to eat up a hour here and an hour there getting everything ready, towing, launching and getting to your spot. At the end reverse everything time wise. Maintaining the boat eats up time and money also. Yes many times you come home, clean up/store everything, put the charger on the batteries, cover the boat. Done. But then there are times when you break something or just do routine maintence and this is a time factor. So in summery this boat will be great for what it is, a small starter boat. But it will have shortcomings so it's hard to say that you will not be looking, scheming, plotting to get something bigger in a few years. I think you will. But you will also quickly come to realize that even small fairly modest boats are still money pits and this is what has kept me satisfied with my boat. For now that is. I decided to replace the water pump and a few other things on the boat this past weekend. I did some work on the TM (which btw, a 12V 40 pound TM will work fine on this boat), that work went well. Then the water pump, I broke the horizontal shift rod and so a new on is on order. This is costing when it is all said and done $170.00 to replace a $35.00 water pump that wasn't even broken and now the boat is out of service for at least another week. This is an example of the daily life of a boat owner. There is always something that needs fixed. Always.

My boat is almost an identical StarCraft. We have two tow vehicles, one is a Ford Ranger 4x4 with a 4.0 Ltr motor and a factory towing package with class 3 receiver hitch. This pulls the boat no problem and I have pulled much heavier loads from NE PA to Wisc. and back no problems. The other is a 2011 Ford Escape with 4 wheel drive but a small 2.5 Ltr 4 banger. I installed a class 3 hitch and have towed the boat with no problems in the Pocono Mountains of NE PA up to maybe 60 or 70 miles one way without incident or issues. I wouldn't make a habit of going that distance with that particular vehicle though. Oddly enough the Escape has a factory installed transmission cooler. Usually I tow the boat literally 2 miles from home to ramp.

It doesn't really matter how much you plan to use the boat, if it is waterlogged under the deck then the boat is not worth anything period. Think about it if the boat motor functioned well and the hull was sound two years ago then why wouldn't the owner at least put a $40.00 tarp over it? Of course it is speculation on my part but my guess is if you are very lucky then a few hundred dollars to get the motor functioning properly but the chances that the wooden stringers and transom is whooped is very high and then you would still need to get the electronics, cosmetics (carpet/seats/ect...), TM, batteries, safety equipment, any trailer issues and so forth paid for. I seriously doubt this would be a low cost fun boating experience but I'm not looking at the boat, nor do I know it's history, instead I'm looking at a computer keyboard. When a boat sits outside uncovered then leaves and debris collect inside and clog up the drain. This assumes the plug is out. If the drain plug was not out or the drain clogged for what ever reason then there is a very high percent chance that the guts under the floor are waterlogged and the transom/stringers basically shot. This makes the boat un-sea worthy by definition. Not trying to be a pain the the *, just telling the truth.

The 50 HP ELPTO Merc weighs 200 pounds.

I don't know anything about this particular boat but a 30 year boat that has been collecting rain water for at least 2 years is going the be a complete rehab. In other words, complete demo, rebuild and restore. Figure 2 years of work and 1000s of dollars if you do it yourself. This is the very definition of a project boat. If the owner wants to give it to you and you have the desire to do a lot of work and have a place to do the work then it might be worth it. Otherwise, no.

Collect 'em all!

Oh I see. Too bad but at least it wasn't a big financial hit.

I'm going to give swimbaits a more than fair amount of my time this year. From late last year and over the winter I put together a small collection of swimbaits and also a rod/reel combo. One of my baits is the smaller 7" MS Slammers which is supposed to be a great bait but also has the hand made look. I have some Spros and Hudds and a few more. At the moment I really cannot do much, my outboard is waiting for a few parts and I'm not sure I will have it back together next week, mentally I'm thinking 2 weeks before first splash for the year. In the meantime I have a few small things to fix of the boat. And I need to get my tackle organized and new line on my reels, both will require a lot of time. Plus I installed a new sonar at the console. I installed one of those composite boards to mount the sonar transducer to the transom and the glue/sealer needs 7 days to cure (3M 5200).

May I ask what actually happened to your old TM? The reason I ask is I spent a good part of Saturday bringing new life into my TM and it really didn't cost that much, mostly my time.

The monkey always wins. Always.

I have a friend that when we go out in my boat and once we get to the place we are fishing he just goes up front and drops the TM. No discussion, just right to it. It's actually for the best because he is better at it than I am, in fact he is a better all around fishermen than I am.