New Boat Owner & New-To-Us 18' 1988 Searay Seville Bowrider

[BostonBay]

Wife and I finally bought a boat. After several years of talking about it & watching CraigsList, we bought a decent 18' 1988 SeaRay Seville Bowrider with the 3L Mercruiser inboard. Dang, there's a lot to learn. We are still getting used to everything. At this point, the most difficult thing is gently beaching her so I can get out at the landing to get the truck & trailer. Our local landing has only one dock with guard rails all around, so only one boat can load & unload at a time. During the busy weekends, getting to the dock can be difficult!She does need a little TLC. The vinyl seat covers are cracked and needs to be replaced in spots. There is a little pesky oil leak somewhere; after each trip there is a little oil in the bilge. When running at about 4000RPM for a few seconds, sometimes, there is squealing from the engine compartment and overvoltage. Bringing engine to idle brings things back to normal.Here is a pic of my better half and the boat as we relax in the Mississippi River backwaters.

Honestly, now we ask ourselves why we waited so long to buy a boat... SO much fun just cruising around.

 

[dvx216]

Welcome to the club . If you are shoring the boat it will not take long until you will have any gelcoat left unless you have a bow guard installed.As much of a hassle it is you are better off to use an anchor off the back to keep it off shore and then tie the front.

 

[BostonBay]

Thanks. The previous owner, as well as myself have put a few scratches in the gelcoat by beaching her. Hate doing it. The nearest good dock is up one pool in the Mississippi - meaning I would need to go up through the locks to get there... meaning on a good day, maybe an hour extra just waiting. Small boats are low priority to the lock masters if there is barge traffic, understandably.I may need be more creative with my loading and unloading.