Re powering a boat

[RD9]

Re powering a boat

So I'm looking at boats. Interested in the Grady 300 marlin, 295, 285 whaler conquest models. All the ones in my budget are late 90's early 2000. My issue is that most have 2 strokes with higher hrs. I am entertaining go to a little older boat and re powering it. Just looking for an opinions of whom ever has done it. 

 

 

[MCF]

You have a PM

[bandrus1]

I think its a great idea if you can afford it

[Sk8man]

I don't think you can go wrong doing it with a Whaler and I've seen dozens of them on the Cape as well as the lakes around here that have done it with ones smaller than you are considering. The big drawback to other older boats is the wood integrity  in the transom and stringers. Having a solid motor is 90 percent of the game in my view.

Edited August 23, 2017 by Sk8man

[bobrusso]

Be careful with older boats with wood in the deck and transom

[Bozeman Bob]

  Outboard repowering in the hp rating your looking at is expensive and then some. Rebuilding them is right up there as well. Now if you went with I/Os or straight inboards a 350 long block, will run you anywhere from 2500 to 3500 which is a fraction of the cost of a new outboard. Most used outboards will have just as many hours as the one's hanging on the boat your looking at and still set you back 5-10 grand per. Depending on how much you want to spend, may dictate a outboard or inboard setup. A saltwater outboard is a time bomb vs a closed cooling system inboard if your going that route.  All the hulls you mentioned have wood in them, including the whalers transom,< along with the closed cell foam sometimes getting waterlogged. Gradys used to have some stringer and transom issues ,not sure if or when they may have been corrected, maybe google the models your looking at and see what pops up from boating forums etc.  I would get a survey done and base any purchase offers on the boat passing a survey.

[John E Powell]

Re powering is pretty standard. Buy a solid boat and run the engines it comes with and you can repower down the road. My last boat was an '89 that was repowered in 2002. I originally planned to repower it again with new 4strokes some day but I decided to go for a bigger boat instead. Just be aware of the economics of putting new engines on an older boat; it doesn't make sense unless you will keep the boat for a long time.

 

 

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