42 Pontoon^ & Deck Boat July^2017 http://www.pdbmagazine.com
Maintenance Making the most of your time on the water
Boatwrench
http://www.boatwrench.com
Centerville Marina
http://www.centervillemarina.comNational Association
of Marine Surveyors
http://www.namsurveyors.orgSociety of Accredited
Marine Surveyors
http://www.marinesurvey.orgTIPS FOR BUYING USED
Check message boards on older models; ask lots of questions
about durability, quality and reliability.
If you can, steer clear of rigs older than the mid-90s. Quality
and features have come a long way in the past 15 years or so, and
rigs built in the 2000s will be more reliable and easier to maintain.
Excellent outboards include all the modern brands: Mercury,
Evinrude/Johnson, Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Tohatsu. All of
these engines are quite good and have reliable service histories.
Mercury MerCruiser and Volvo Penta are the only brands to con-
sider if you’re looking at stern drive rigs. If you stick to engines
made 10 years ago and newer, you’ll be buying reliability and
newer technology.
Try to find boats and engines that have documented usage
hours. Typically, anything over 400 or so hours should be con-
sidered carefully; the lower the usage hours the better, with good
maintenance and upkeep records. Later outboards—those four-
strokes and direct-injected two-strokes built after 2000 or so—will
typically last far longer than older models. It’s not uncommon to
buy newer engines with well over 500 hours that are still in excel-
lent condition, and will last another 500 hours or more easily. Older
two-strokes built before 2000 are usually at their lifecycle limit at
this point.
Spend a little extra to hire a marine surveyor. This reveals any
anomalies with the boat, and lets you know if you’re simply buy-
ing someone else’s headache. Surveyors can be found at the
Society of Accredited Marine Surveyors (SAMS) and the National
Association of Marine Surveyors (NAMS) websites.REPOWERING
Most times, the boat outlasts the powerplant. If your boat’s still
seaworthy and you feel no need to replace it, consider repowering.
Outboard hulls are great for this, and are often repowered many
times in their life before they’re put out to pasture. There are many
large outboard dealers who specialize in repowers. Rob Gina,
owner of Boatwrench in Orlando, Fla., notes, “We repower hun-
dreds of outboard and stern drive hulls every year.
It’s a viable option considering the cost of a new boat.”
When repowering, consider upgrading related systems; for
example, perhaps upgrade from cable to hydraulic steering,
and upgrade the controls and dash instruments for the newer
engine.FOR MORE INFORMATION: