newbie question about older 300 weekenders

sledboy

New Member
Feb 7, 2007
5
Lake Simcoe
Boat Info
1987 270 Amberjack
gps /radar/auto pilot/windless
Engines
twin 205 4.3 alpha
As a newbie must say how much i have enjoyed visiting this site.
Have just sold my old Caver and am looking at 1987 to 89 300
weekender. Layout, look and features are perfect for my needs.
Is it posible to find boats of this vintage with dry hull and stringers
or am i dreaming ? Also will inboards be more problems than i/o
in shallow sandy areas ? Thanking you in advance Sledboy.
 
sledboy said:
As a newbie must say how much i have enjoyed visiting this site.
Have just sold my old Caver and am looking at 1987 to 89 300
weekender. Layout, look and features are perfect for my needs.
Is it posible to find boats of this vintage with dry hull and stringers
or am i dreaming ? Also will inboards be more problems than i/o
in shallow sandy areas ? Thanking you in advance Sledboy.

I have a 1987 300 WE. I love it. I have only had one full season. I also heard all the horror stories of rotten stringers with the sea rays of that vintage. It is possible to find good ones. But, it is a must to have a good surveryor check it out. What I did was ask the surveyor to check the stringers first, if bad, no need for him to do a complete survey. He then only charged a nominal fee.

The inboards are great for dockinga and close quarter handling. They are tunnel drives, so you shouldn't have any problems getting into shallow water. You only need about 30" of water.

matt
 
I owned an 86 w/er for 9 years and put lots of hours on it cruising Lake Michigan. In many ways this is one of SR's best models. It's a classic that handles rough water surprisingly well given its not very fine entry. It does have a nice deep deadrise, around 21 degrees if memory serves. It is easy to dock and does quite well in big following and quartering following seas. It does less well in quartering head seas and it is a wet ride in those conditions. The horror stories are true. Rot issues occurred frequently in the stringers but don't forget the transom. That was a problem as well. The windows leak too. My 86 is still going strong but it had stringer work after I sold it. If you find a nice weekender, one of the first upgrades should be dripless shafts. I've never seen a 300 that was dry in the bilge for any length of time without them. You should also glass the limber holes when the shaft logs are dried up. This will help prevent stringer rot.
 
sbw1 said:
I owned an 86 w/er for 9 years and put lots of hours on it cruising Lake Michigan. In many ways this is one of SR's best models. It's a classic that handles rough water surprisingly well given its not very fine entry. It does have a nice deep deadrise, around 21 degrees if memory serves. It is easy to dock and does quite well in big following and quartering following seas. It does less well in quartering head seas and it is a wet ride in those conditions. The horror stories are true. Rot issues occurred frequently in the stringers but don't forget the transom. That was a problem as well. The windows leak too. My 86 is still going strong but it had stringer work after I sold it. If you find a nice weekender, one of the first upgrades should be dripless shafts. I've never seen a 300 that was dry in the bilge for any length of time without them. You should also glass the limber holes when the shaft logs are dried up. This will help prevent stringer rot.

Glassing the limber holes is probably something I should look into before spring launch. Is it a difficult job? Which limber holes would you glass, all you can access? Is this something the average DIY'er can accomplish?

My 300WE already has dripless shafts, so I am lucky there. I have made an effort to keep the bilges dry and clean. I suck them out with a small shop vac every weekend. I love my boat, and I do not want to face the dreaded stringer rot... :smt009
 
The glassing part is easy. Working in the confined space is not if you are a tall person. Essentially what you do is make sure the area is completely dry. Use a Dremel tool to clean up the area all around the limber holes in the bilge. You need resin and fine glass mesh cut to fit. I saturated the holes with resin and let that completely cure as the first step. Then I went back a day later and laid up saturated cloth over the holes and laid it to the surrounding stringers. I used strips that overlapped each other like flashing on a roof. When it was smooth, I let that cure for a day. Then I went back sprayed a little grey gel coat over the areas to hide the repairs. My 30 foot w/er was the motivation for doing this on my 37. The 30 was a wet boat but I was not aware of the limber hole issue. The second owner had to deal with the issue when the boat was 9 years old. I did my 37 to avoid his experience. It's important to fix this problem. Good luck with the project. i assume you have determined there is not rot currently in the stringers.
 
Thank you both for the info. Weekenders are scarse in my area and
those I have found were over priced at the 50k mark and truly not
worth looking at. Two of the four boats up here had recent surveys
that were so bad I could not believe they showed them to me! I made a three day road trip all over Michigan in late fall and saw about 14 boats all with more realistic pricing and most in much better condition. The two front runners in my quest are both equiped with drippless shafts. sbw1 since you are in Michgan area
would you be able to recomend a good surveyer in the Traverse City area? Thanks again and Im sure I will need to pick your brains in the future as the search goes on. Regards Sledboy.
 

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