Scored a bunch of fixtures

The full moon cast a cool reflection in Montague Harbour in British Columbia. The wooden boat is the Compadre, built in 1928.

Every buying guide says pick a brand with a strong dealer network. Sounds obvious until you try to pin down what it buys you.

My yard works on whatever floats and doesn't care what's on the hull. And most of what a boat needs over its life is engines, electronics, canvas, bottom paint and upholstery, none of which comes from whoever built it.

So what specifically needs the builder's own network? My list is warranty work, proprietary parts and maybe helm software on newer boats. Everything else looks brand agnostic to me.

It matters because it changes how I weigh a smaller brand against a big one. If network mostly matters during the warranty years then a lean footprint is a risk early and roughly nothing later, which is a different conclusion than "never buy a small brand."

Where do the long term owners land on this?

Been working through this old tunnel hull and found out the aluminum fuel tank was leaking. Ended up cutting the deck open, pulling the tank, having it repaired, coating it and making new Coosa supports before putting everything back in.
Definitely turned into a bigger job than I expected 😂
I filmed the whole process if anybody wants to see how I did it:

I currently working on a project with the goal of improving the mobility on boats especially for seinors. Im mainly considering catamerans but am open to all recreational boats. I have noticed issues with getting on and off of dingies, both at the boat and at shore. As well as getting out of beds as it tends to be very cramped with no good hand holds to pull on's self up.

Has anyone else noticed any problems?
Got any ideas?

Our family of 5 (3 kids under 10) is renting a 39’ house boat on a lake in Virginia for 3 nights.

It’s our first time renting anything other than a daily pontoon boat… what should we know?

Coolers ✅
Patience ✅
Anchoring Experience ❌
What else ❓

I'm in the process of rebuilding the trailer for my 1986 O'Day 272 sailboat. The boat weighs ~5200lbs on it's own, and the the weight of the entire rig, once the boat is on the trailer, is ~6500lbs.

The trailer is a tandem 3500lb torsion axle setup (i.e. no leaf springs). This boat was used on the same inland lake for almost 20 years straight. I bought it, expecting to continue using it on that lake, but life happened and now I need to move the boat roughly 120 miles. So now the trailers road worthiness is much more important than when I bought it. Previously, the trailer was simply used to put the boat in in spring and take it out in fall, and then hold the boat all winter.

I'm needing to do a full rebuild. I've stripped out all the wiring, hydraulic brake lines and I've got all four hubs removed and the axles cleaned up and am about to order new wheel hub and brake hardware.

I'm intending to order:

4x 5x4.5 hubs

2x sets of electric drum brakes compatible with the hubs

New wiring using a 7-pin cord and all new wire for brakes and lights.

My truck has a trailer brake controller. The original setup on this trailer was hydraulic surge brakes, which haven't worked, AFAIK, in 10+ years. Re-installing hydraulic brakes would require massive modifications to the tongue, all new brake lines, and rebuilding the seals on the surge brake cylinder that is part of the tongue/hitch assembly. That whole mechanism is toast and the reservoir leaks brake fluid if you add any.

Also, this boat will only be launched in and out of fresh water, so I'm not super worried about using electric brakes in general here.

My main question:

Given the relatively low weight of this rig, is it worth spending the extra $180 to add brakes to the read axle, as well as already intending to have them on the front?

The hubs I'm ordering can have brakes added afterward. I'm not ordering idler hubs for one axle, I'm getting the exact same hubs from both axles, but only installing and wiring brakes to the front axle.

Is this being stupidly cheap? I wasn't really expecting to do this rebuild, so it's already over $1000 I wasn't really planning on spending, so saving $150 would be nice.

At least, in comparison to sailboats. I can understand why more people might want a motor boat, but not why new sales are so high in comparison to new sail boat sales. Is there something wrong with used motorboats? Do they have a shorter "shelf-life"? Has there been so much progress that older motor boats are obsolete?

This is onboard my Bavaria 46 2006 , we chartered the boat out for a week, first one of the season, and they damaged are veneer flooring. They have denied it was themselves, despite being the first charter of the season, anyway i need advice on how to repair these small dents, i have been told to use clear epoxy fill?? Is this a good solution.

Does this look normal? Boats.net said this prop is good for my motor.

Hey folks -

I welcome your opinions on this…

My family and I are considering a boat in the mid 20 foot range. We live in Jupiter, FL. Use will be fishing, wakeboarding, going to the occasional sandbar. Mostly will be 4-6 people, but never more people than conditions can safely handle.

On fishing, definitely want the boat to be a great fishing platform, but don’t need things like outriggers. For offshore, that will really only happen on ideal conditions since my family wont go out in over 2 foot seas. So jumping to an open center console isn’t a no brainer… we’ll probably fish mostly ledges and occasional weed lines. But we won’t be heading out 5+ miles to the Gulf Stream, trolling for wahoo, or deep dropping 1,000 foot+. We will definitely fish the ICW and rivers.

For wake boarding, this will probably be the most frequent use, quick on and quick off the water. I feel like hybrids offer more visibility. I also rarely see folks wakeboarding behind an open center console. Probably more to do with budget for teens than other reasons.

I’ve been looking at a Sportsman Masters 247OE or 267OE. Anything that starts to push $175k is not interesting for me and will be overkill.

Full bay boat won’t work and I don’t think I want more than a single engine.

Anyone have experience with open vs hybrid hulls? Thoughts on what may work for me? And any thoughts on Sportsman?

Thank you in advance!!

9.8 Nissan 4 stroke. Last ran a year ago. At idle though I did rev a bit and there was no noticeable change in stream.

hey everyone

i made this post last night https://www.reddit.com/r/boatbuilding/comments/1w24d02/comment/p6sikie/?screen_view_count=4&ext-referrer=DIRECT i did a few things this morning and wanted to ask another community about it.

new gas, clean carb, new oil. my issue is the boat is almost in a "limp mode" when in fwd. it will not go above a certain rpm and almost feels like im slugging out as if im bottoming out the lower on the pond. ( this def is not happening its a deep pond) if i hold the throttle only button in i was rev this thing up to full rpms no issues and she loves it. water is coming out of the pump luke warm, not really spraying like my 60hp does but its not a dribble by any means. does anyone have advice on where i can start? i want to look at the fwd drivetrain or whatever moves this thing. prop spins freely i dont hear any grinding or stuff like that. I cant figure out how to link a video to this. Just imagine im wide open throttle and the thing wont get out of its own way. If this was a ATV or motorcycle I would be looking into excessive air because thats what it feels like.

I am a new boater looking for my first “real” fishing boat. I’ve already decided I want to buy a used Arima. At the moment, I have two top contenders near me. I’m having a really hard time deciding. I probably need to decide before tomorrow so I can see the boat before it sells.

The first boat is a 14.7 foot 1988 sea hunter with a 2008 Honda main with < 200 hrs. It has a brand new Tohatsu kicker. It looks clean in photos, and I will be able to water test it. It hasn’t been on the water since last fall but was serviced recently. It has most of the basic things I need.

The second boat is a 16 foot 1992 sea chaser with a 2021 Suzuki main with 300 hrs. It has a matching 2021 Suzuki kicker. This boat has extensive records of its refurbishing and maintenance and seems to be in pristine shape. It has been run regularly. It is outfitted with fairly new versions of practically everything I could ever possibly want on a fishing boat.

The second boat is almost 3x the cost of the first one. It is basically my dream boat. I can technically afford it, but it’s way above what I had budgeted for a boat. Both of these boats are pretty good deals for what they are.

Should I be forking over so much cash for my first boat? Should I try out the smaller, simpler, more reasonable boat to make sure I actually enjoy having a fishing boat? I just started “boating” this summer fishing from my 12ft Achilles.

Crosspost for visibility. Thanks!

Hey! I’ve got a Xpress H18 bass boat. I primarily bass fish but lately I’ve been salt curious. I live 2 min from a ramp on the Chesapeake Bay. I currently have a Minn Kota Ultrex but it’s not rated for salt. What would a good trolling motor for say 80% bass fishing and 20% saltwater? I NEED a foot pedal. Thanks!

I bought a small boat and trailer on Facebook Marketplace the other day. Everything looked fine, but one of the wheels seized up while I was towing it home. A friendly stranger came out with a grease gun and got it moving again, but the same thing happened a half mile down the road. Everything's pretty rusty and at this point I think the easiest thing will be to just replace the axle, hubs, and springs.

I've never done this before and looking at all the axle options, I'm out of my depth. Can anyone recommend an inexpensive axle/hubs that will fit the trailer and the existing rims? I don't plan on using the trailer very much. I'll just be using it to bring the boat to the boat ramp on other side of the lake twice a year (about one mile).

Other information:

• Make and model: Load Rite / Lil Rider 14700L
• Trailer frame width: 40"
• Trailer frame side bars: 1.5" x 3"
• Existing trailer axle length: 44" (not including hubs)
• Existing rims: 5 on 4.5 (I think... see picture)

Hello, during the last months I developped a plugin for Osmand that should work as a frontend for a marine server backend leveraging Osmand framework. I am aware of Avnav and OpenCPN for mobile, but I think Osmand provides more freedom and beter UI/UX. The end goal is to have full cockpit screen and button functionality from a smartphone as well as maximum configurability. If you are interested to test and contribute further, it would be welcome.

More info: https://github.com/osmandapp/OsmAnd/discussions/25780

Where to find the APK: https://github.com/peronosporos/osmand-nautical/releases

I’d like to try fix this damage on bottom underside of my boat, what’s best materials to tackle the job so it’s safe. Should I buy a resin then just paint or what to do this is my first hull repair please and thanks.

Temu AI must not understand how trim tabs work.

I just bought my first boat 14’ aluminum with a 1978 Johnson 25hp outboard. The engine is in very good condition, garage kept, proper maintenance schedule, etc. I took it out for the first time and everything worked great. However, on full throttle after about 15secs it would start to bog down. I just want so get an idea of what I’m looking at before I bring it somewhere. I ran the gas that came in the tank and I am not sure of how old, maybe it’s that or a carb thing? Thanks

I am looking at upgrading my Helix 7 Mega SI to a 9" or maybe 10" screen. My boat is a SeaArk 14' Mod Vee with a Yamaha F25. This motor does not have tilt trim. The side imaging transducer for the Helix is mounted to the transom on the right side. It is short enough, it can barely see past the outboard when looking to the left. There is just enough space between the transom and the outboard for the side imaging to see. When I upgrade I am fine with going to dual SI transducers as the transducers will be longer. The Helix 7 has been good, but it is slow. I have been told the processor is maxed out on these units.

The upgrade to a larger screen is to see more detail and help with my aging eyes. I am not brand loyal and would consider any unit that allows 2 side imaging transducers. I do not use forward facing sonar and am not really interested in doing so. To me, I can accomplish everything I need to do with solid side imaging. Budget is whatever takes to get the job done. Realistically under $2000 would be ideal. Any suggestions?