Nickle and dime...

[Steve Arnold]

Just a month ago, I bought a SD240 from my in-laws. Great boat, we are having a blast.

One thing I notice though, is that when it was my father in law's boat, it sure never had little smudges, and defective latches, and... and... and...

Of course, they were there, but when it is YOUR boat, you tend to notice more, right?

So, my question: Not one of the little defects is worth a service call or anything, but I wonder about all the little things added up. Should I save them all till the end of the season and pay someone to fix them all at once? How does one go about taking care of these little things?

Specifically, I am talking about:
- the latch on the head door doesn't always snap shut when we close the door.
- The locking latch on the aft ski locker is loose (spins freely, making it impossible to lock).
- The latch on the central locker that stores the cooler (just forward of the cockpit) is loose. Looks like the screw has worn away at the fiberglass, causing it to have nothing to grip.
- (and this might be a bigger issue) - The speakers on my wakeboard tower that worked fine a month ago, are not working at all now. The microphone that operates the PA system may be the culprit here. It is worn out.

Our boat is stored on a lift in a slip at a private dock (not a marina), if that little tid bit helps.

Thanks for your advice!

-Steve

 

[quailrunner]

My own experience... Boatyard people are so busy at the end of the year with winterizing that they do not have time to do this sort of repair. If your climate allows, they might do it in the "off season", but other than that, a good strategy might be to try to get the boat ready early in the spring (before there's a lot of traffic) and have them do it all then. Also, my mechanic does not really do this type of work; you might need a repair shop with some special expertise in fiberglas work.

 

[gregkjones]

What I try to do is use the hell out of the boat in the summer and just write up all the little problems on a notepad for later, that way I know I wont forget but in the meantime, I can enjoy the boat for the nice summer months with family and fix all the little unimportant for safety or fun things later, and the list does grow. But like you said, its mostly little things that could be improved or strengthened or look a bit better; not worth blowing a nice boating day or family time working on it, plenty of crappy days later in the year to work on it.

 

[moparlvr4406]

most of those issues sound like a couple of hours of light work for anyone with some mechanical aptitude to me....could be wrong though

 

[Larry&Leisa]

I had the latch issues that you did.. all easily fixed or replaced ( go ahead and just replace the head latch ) The speaker issue, well maybe you'll get lucky that it's just a loose connection. But as was mentioned I'd just wait til inclement weather to work on those lil things. Definitely not something to call in someone unless you just don't have the time.