OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
A couple of years ago my dad picked-up a Four Winns Sundowner I/O for a good price in Georgian Bay. Boat was in reasonably good shape. However, it's been a bit of a "project".
When we bought the Supra, we knew it had some cracks in the fibreglass that we thought were probably superficial, but had checked by a fibreglass shop who confirmed that was the case. We were out the boat for a season while that was remedied, along with a few other things like the input shaft seal on the transmission. I also replaced the fuel sender with a floatless one, which now works perfectly. I've done the vast majority of the work on the Supra myself, save the fibreglass repair.
The Four Winns ran like a bag of a$$ and it was determined that the weights in the dizzy were seized. The marina my dad had working on it replaced the distributor along with the fresh water pump. It still wasn't running great, but it would at least come up on plane. When it was dragged down to the house to get wrapped for storage, we tasked the place where we store it with also giving the carb a good going-over, which they did and it ran significantly better last year. They said we'd probably want to get the floor dealt with, as we seemed to have a carpenter ant problem.
This brings us to the end of last season where the alternator packed it in and showed 16V charging. The gas gauge has never worked (it has an integrated cluster) and upon disassembly of the cluster, I found significant corrosion and told dad he might need to buy a new cluster from the states. So, we parked the boat with the tasks for the marina:
1. Replace the alternator
2. Replace the floor and carpeting
3. Fix the gas gauge/cluster issue
It seems that only #2 was dealt with along with replacing of the bellows and gimble bearing, which we were told needed to be done only a month ago when dad had planned on picking-up the boat which wasn't ready for this season yet.
The floor was replaced twice because apparently buddy used the wrong carpet glue the first time around? It was during the floor fiasco, which he decided to do at the beginning of the season, rather than, you know, during the winter when it would have made sense.... that he advised dad that the bellows and gimble bearing needed attention. Fine, dad approved. This imposed further delays. Luckily, we had the Supra at the cottage, so it could stand-in for the cruising boat.
Well, we finally get the boat back on Wednesday. I come over, the trailer tires are completely shot, the prop clearly needs attention and neither of these things were brought up to be addressed during the off season. Friday, we fit new tires to the trailer and dad takes it up to the cottage. Get it to the lake, the battery is dead. Boosts it, it's charging at 16V still, they never replaced the bloody alternator. I'm guessing the gauges are still buggered up too.
Dad is understandably upset that the work he had originally outlined hadn't been done. New work, that should have been identified, wasn't, and that it somehow took the better part of a year just to do the floor because it wasn't started when it should have been, putting him in a position of being without his boat for the duration of the season and with a $4K bill for work that only covered 1/3rd of the tasks given.
Not sure if he's going to take it over to the marina that first worked on it to have them do the alt or not.
I feel awful for him. He's recently retired and in no shape to be trying to wrench on a boat. I'm busy with work, so I'm not able to deal with these things and it is particularly aggravating to discover that what was supposed to be done, wasn't.
When we bought the Supra, we knew it had some cracks in the fibreglass that we thought were probably superficial, but had checked by a fibreglass shop who confirmed that was the case. We were out the boat for a season while that was remedied, along with a few other things like the input shaft seal on the transmission. I also replaced the fuel sender with a floatless one, which now works perfectly. I've done the vast majority of the work on the Supra myself, save the fibreglass repair.
The Four Winns ran like a bag of a$$ and it was determined that the weights in the dizzy were seized. The marina my dad had working on it replaced the distributor along with the fresh water pump. It still wasn't running great, but it would at least come up on plane. When it was dragged down to the house to get wrapped for storage, we tasked the place where we store it with also giving the carb a good going-over, which they did and it ran significantly better last year. They said we'd probably want to get the floor dealt with, as we seemed to have a carpenter ant problem.
This brings us to the end of last season where the alternator packed it in and showed 16V charging. The gas gauge has never worked (it has an integrated cluster) and upon disassembly of the cluster, I found significant corrosion and told dad he might need to buy a new cluster from the states. So, we parked the boat with the tasks for the marina:
1. Replace the alternator
2. Replace the floor and carpeting
3. Fix the gas gauge/cluster issue
It seems that only #2 was dealt with along with replacing of the bellows and gimble bearing, which we were told needed to be done only a month ago when dad had planned on picking-up the boat which wasn't ready for this season yet.
The floor was replaced twice because apparently buddy used the wrong carpet glue the first time around? It was during the floor fiasco, which he decided to do at the beginning of the season, rather than, you know, during the winter when it would have made sense.... that he advised dad that the bellows and gimble bearing needed attention. Fine, dad approved. This imposed further delays. Luckily, we had the Supra at the cottage, so it could stand-in for the cruising boat.
Well, we finally get the boat back on Wednesday. I come over, the trailer tires are completely shot, the prop clearly needs attention and neither of these things were brought up to be addressed during the off season. Friday, we fit new tires to the trailer and dad takes it up to the cottage. Get it to the lake, the battery is dead. Boosts it, it's charging at 16V still, they never replaced the bloody alternator. I'm guessing the gauges are still buggered up too.
Dad is understandably upset that the work he had originally outlined hadn't been done. New work, that should have been identified, wasn't, and that it somehow took the better part of a year just to do the floor because it wasn't started when it should have been, putting him in a position of being without his boat for the duration of the season and with a $4K bill for work that only covered 1/3rd of the tasks given.
Not sure if he's going to take it over to the marina that first worked on it to have them do the alt or not.
I feel awful for him. He's recently retired and in no shape to be trying to wrench on a boat. I'm busy with work, so I'm not able to deal with these things and it is particularly aggravating to discover that what was supposed to be done, wasn't.