New 1979 240 Weekender

[rvatorsteve]

I just adopted a 1979 240 Weekender. It has a yellow hull and a 260 Mercruiser with the Alpha 1 Drive. The hull, as well a the rest of the thing, in general, appears to be sound and in very good shape for its age. Right now, I'm the process removing Mickey Mouse garbage the previous owner stuck in there. My boat does not have a wood floor in the cockpit; it appears that foam was leveled and glass put over the top of it. Is this factory? My plan is to restore it and set it up for fishing & diving. It appears to originally have had the factory soft top with the camper top. Where can I find the drawings for this?

 

[imcc]

I acquired a '78 Weekender last year with the yellow hull and 260 Merc with the Alpha 1. Only had it in the water twice but it is a great boat. I've spent the winter putting in new stringers as the port side had been completely rotted out. Mine does have a thin plywood deck that was glassed over. I would suspect that if the wood is gone, the deck should have some give but the glass is pretty thick and would easily support your weight without wood underneath. You should be able to locate the holes the large holes (about 2 inch diameter) that were drilled to load the foam between the stringers and bulkheads beneath the decking. From there you can probably determine if there is any rotted wood or if the deck is still good.

 

[rvatorsteve]

The cockpit in my boat is solid except for a small soft spot on the port side adjacent the transom and engine bay. There is also a rot area around a through-hull on the transom that was not sealed properly. The cockpit floor has a series of one inch holes that appear to have been used to inject foam. What stringers did you need to replace? Are you talking about the sides of the fuel tank bay or were they between that and the chine?

 

[Justin Nichols]

I'm wondering if any one would know that kind of range I should be getting if keeping boat on plane. It has a 65 gal tank a Ford 5.8352 Winsor Engine. If any one has any ide how hpg/nmpg/miles on one tank I should get? I don't even know how to begin caclulating it. It doesn't have a flow meeter.