I have a lead through a lady at my wifes job. She is hurting bad for money and has a 17' Olympic Boat with a 90 HP Mercury motor. The only thing she told my wife is that there are problems with the steering colum and the motor needs a tune up. She is asking $1200.

I think this is something I can not pass up. The motor itself is well over the price she is asking for it.

Anyone ever done steering colum work and or tune ups? What would it cost me to get this thing on the water? No other specifics as of now. I am looking at the boat on Saturday.

I myself am not in a finacial situiation to be spending alot of money on a boat but with this offer I may have to dig deep.

A boat can usually always be an endless pit of money. Sometimes you get lucky, but sometimes you don't with used. The big key with the steering cable is to look at where it's located in the boat and is it accesible without lifting motor? Just helped my girlfriend's Dad take one out of his, and you could NOT get to disconnect the cable without unbolting the motor. But he has an inboard. But, sounds like you have an outboard, so shouldn't be too hard at all. Tuneup is fairly easy, clean out the carbs, change the plugs, water test, a few misc. things. I did it all on my sled I had.

Sounds like it isn't too bad. If you go professional on tuneup, you're talking some $$$, I do believe when I was looking, they were asking between $300-$500 for a boat motor tuneup. I ended up buying a book and doing it myself. I'd say find a person who can do any mechanical/structural assessments on the boat. Will only cost you about $75, but in long run is alot cheaper then buying a boat that will cost you $2000 in repairs to make seaworthy. I'll see if I can find the # of guy I used. He did a good job, and steered me away from some REALLY bad boats.

When buying a used motor the FIRST THING you should ALWAYS do...

Compression check

Then,

new head gasket
new impellor
lower unit oil
plugs. Always NGK


total cost varies but usually $120 +/-

It's some of the easiest preventive maintenance you can do to a motor and it will add years to the life of the motor.

You can do all of the above in about 2 hours the first time you do it. After that it takes an hour...

Sounds like a sweet deal. Jump on it.

BOAT= Bring Out Another Thousand!

What kind of problems with the steering column?

Looks like a good deal. As stated do a compression check, look at the spark plugs and take a peak at the lower unit oil. These three things will tell you a lot.

Assuming your compression turns out okay, if it runs rough, idles poorly, bogs down on acceleration - most of the time the problem is solved with a carb rebuild and new plugs. Since you are low on cash, get a manual and do the work yourself.

You may want to put a post on here for SEACAT. He has an Olympic and had the steering replaced a year ago or so and he may be able to provide some precise information for you.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Another thing, What questions should I ask the owner and what specific things to look for when considering a used boat?

I have until saturday for my first look.

How old is it?
How long have you had it?
How often did you use it?
How often did you run it in the salt?
Do you have the freshwater flush adapter?
When was the last time it was in the shop?
How often did you wax it?
Ever taken on water?
Ever had electrical problems?
Was it covered when not in use?
Does it catch fish?

Those are just a few I can think of. Don't forget to take a good look at the trailer, too. You can check the value of the boat on the net. I can't remember exactly where, but it's boattrader.com or something like that.

Good luck.

www.kbb.com
Kelley blue book site

Traderonline.com will get you to the boat trader site. If you don't buy it let me know, I am in the process of a top end rebuild, and feel that I need to punish myself... i mean I would love to have one of those...

Sounds like about the same deal i got about 5 years ago, 1700 bucks for a 70's 16 foot bayliner with an 80 horse merc. I had to get the lower bracket welded on the motor as it had a crack in it. Was like 120 bucks, other then that I have had no probs. It runs like a champ, wakeboards and all that.
You might want to look good at the transom, like reef back on the motor and see if there is any give. If it has been trailered alot they can get weak.
Other then that fire er up and go rip some water, good luck!

I use nadaguides.com when researching boat values at the bank where I work.

Enjoy your new toy!

Andy

Found some facts but still haven't seen it. Going tommorrow.

1971 Olympic
90Hp outboard motor (Black and Red)

She didn't know the year. What year did they change to black and red? Or were they always black and red.

As far as the bluebook value is concerned it doesn't even show a 17' for 1971? Interesting huh?

Oh well thanks to the help of Carl (Easy Limits) we will get down to the dirt tommorrow.

Thanks for all your replies. Looks like to boat may not be worth a lot but the motor may be???

71 olympic is a glass over wood boat that spells dry rot inside. this is hard to find but the insurence company may require a marine survay before you can insure it so you might want one before you by it .

they said my '88 evinrude 15 was worth 300$, try getting a '88 5hp for that much

LIES!!!

Saw the boat today. Thanks everyone for the replies and a huge thanks for Carl "Easy Limits" for his time today.

The boat is a 1971 17' Olympic beast.
Easy Loader trailer has many rust spots and needs work. Motor looks like garbage but claims it runs fine.

All in all this think is a beast and my little truck will not have a good time with this. I am not buying a new truck to buy this boat.

Aunty M, The lady is cool with us giving others a lead on this boat. If you need a number and are interested let me know.

So all in all boat is decent. Needs stearing cable work. Motor as stated above and trailer very worn.

Definitely a project and she is asking $1200

Carl feel free to give your opinion on this topic since you were there as well.

Scott

The exterior of the hull looked to be in good shape (no cracks in fiberglass).

A majority of the trailer (the frame) looked to be in good shape also. The hitch, winch, bearings, and rollers looked like they needed replacing. Trailer lights needed work too.

The motor was the old style (tall and narrow) Mercury 90 Hp. Who knows the condition of the inside of the motor.

The boat had steering problems, we knew that a head of time.

This boat needs a lot of work to say the least. This boat is a good "project" boat.