Sea Ray owner from Australia

[Jesterarts]

Hi all,

My names Raf and I'm from Victoria in Australia.

I recently purchased a 1996 SeaRay 210 BR Signature with a 5.7 Merc (repowered in 2005) in it.

Very happy with the boat and have been enjoying this summer mostly fishing on it, as well as some beach hoping.

Thought I would join this forum as it would have the most specific information to my boat, as well as the most knowledgeable members.

I do have two quick questions I hope I can throw on in this intro post:

1. Do I have a solid or cored hull? About to install a new chartplotter/sounder in the boat this weekend and I haven't been able to find a definitive answer to this question when it comes to that vintage and model of boat.

2. What are the common issues I could look out for? At the moment, there isn't anything obvious I can see, however having come from a automotive modification background, the issues that bite the hardest are the ones that aren't obvious until something goes 'boom'

Cheers!

 

[JimG]

Not sure about your hull... I think most are cored with either plywood (like my 1999 was) or plastic (like my 2007 is).

Congratulations and welcome to CSR!

 

[Chris Nowell]

Welcome aboard Raf. I do believe the hulls are solid fiberglass with the exception of the transom, which is cored. I'm wondering why you're wondering? Is it to do with embedding the sounder transducer into the hull with epoxy or is it to do with sealing the core in the holes that you will be drilling? I've heard that the transducers won't shoot through cored hulls properly, but I don't think you'll have to be concerned about that. I'm sure someone with some real experience will chime in here,,,,, eventually. Sometimes it takes some time.

 

[Jesterarts]

Thanks for the responses.

In regards to the hull construction question, it was partly to do with the installation of a transducer and partly just to know as I understand there where some issues at a time with balsa cored boats.

 

[jthatcher]

Welcome aboard!

 

[Chris Nowell]

Thanks for the responses.

In regards to the hull construction question, it was partly to do with the installation of a transducer and partly just to know as I understand there where some issues at a time with balsa cored boats.

Raf,
As far as I know, the hulls in the smaller boats are not cored. The way I learned it was that coring was used in the larger hulls as a way of keeping cost or weight down. Now, I could be wrong here because this info wasn't backed up with any objective evidence however, I have avoided certain brands of boats throughout my life time because of their cored hulls, and SeaRay wasn't one of them. Never owned anything larger than a 260 though. As far as drilling through the transom goes, you should see wood shavings when you drill you first hole if the transom is cored with wood. Regardless, I would drill oversize, fill with epoxy, and redrill to accommodate whatever fasteners you'll be using, just to be absolutely certain. I don't like taking chances with submerged parts of my hull. Good luck. Other more qualified opinions will follow,,,,, eventually.