Free Boat - Great Gift or White Elephant?

My dear father-in-law dropped off an old 18' fiberglass boat with a 35hp Mercury. The boat appears to be in structurally good condition, just needs a good cleaning and seats. The cables for the steering moves smoothly. Haven't tried starting the motor. I don't think I'm even going to try to tinker with it. Just reach my short arms into my pocket and maybe pay someone to go through it.

Where's that anchor wife color blind kraut? How much do you think it'll cost to me?

B - bust
O - out
A - another
T - thousand

There is no such thing as a free boat. Its like leftover bacon ... it does not exist. How old is the Merc, how long has it been sitting still, was it kept in a garage or out in a field. So may things that come into it. Did it run on ethanol fuel last ??? Was it fogged before it was put away ?? Could be a little as 300 bucks to get her serviced or it could be an anchor weight and anything in between.

I know next to nothing. I'll check the year of the motor tomorrow. It was last registered in 2015 and I would assume had ethanol fuel in it. Was kept outdoors in Wisconsin.

Sometime next week I plan on filling her up with water to check for leaks before I think about sending the motor in.

A boat is a hole in the water you shovel money into!

Big Bob has it right. What on earth did you do to pee your Father In Law off so badly that he bestowed an Albatross on you?

Yes. I once bought a boat!

X2 BigBob. My brother is giving up his charter business. 10 yrs. 2 launches. It is time. If he isn’t fishing with the boat. He is fixing the boat. His words not mine.

Did you get the paperwork for it?

An old outboard if can be made to run has value. If not it has scrap value.

An old boat trailer if can be made roadworthy has value. If not it has scrap value.

An old boat ( fiberglass hull ) that floats has value. If not , you have something that you have to pay to get rid of it , no scrap value in a giant piece of plastic. I've known people who had to cut up a boat into small enough pieces in order to save the cost of demolition. Not fun , many hours and plenty of saws-all blades. Obviously an aluminum boat hull has scrap value.

Depending on the brand/type of boat hull and the shape it is in will tell you if it is worth trying to fix up. I would not give you a nickel for a 10 year old Bayliner but a 40 year old Boston Whaler is worth something.

.

Dad gave my brother and I a boat

I got out early with only $200 in the shredder

My brother stayed in a bit longer and lost about $300 . He did get the privilege of towing it from Nevada to Oregon....lol

We never had it on the water

He took it to a boat guy and they gave him an estimate to make it back into a boat .........he told them to keep it ....lol

my boat is called "the offshore bank" kinda explains it all

List it in the local classifieds and be rid of it and pocket some money

Otherwise be ready to empty your pockets many times

Can't be worse than trapping?

I've never wanted to throw my traps away .....lol

The two happiest days in a boaters' life... The day he buys it and the the day he sells it.

Yes. That is so True. I told my brother that one. He really liked that saying.

Sure had a lot of good fishing on that boat. But I was always a client

My 1984 sea nymph still going strong, replaced the motor and trailer in 2016, replaced the floor 10 years ago

You haven't put a picture up of the boat showing what design it is, but a 35hp on almost any 18-foot fiberglass boat seems underpowered by half...

Sounds about right, my boat is aluminum 17 footer with a 50 Honda on it and it isn't a speed demon at all

Here you go.

These guys are all insane. Ive made money on every boat ive ever had. Better than buying stocks during covid. Id get new gas/oil, new plugs and a can of seafoam and see what it does hooked up to muffs. If it runs take it out. If you take that thing somewhere to go thru, youre gonna get beat up.

That motor looks to be an early 70"s model . You won't need more than 35 HP on that boat or it will rattle yer fillings out of yer chompers when it gets a little choppy. Those flat bows don't cut through the water too well.

I have spent a life time of summers on a boat learning from Granddad and Dad. Learned early in life and very costly lessons messing with deals and free boats. I think I used the three strike rule and then bought a new boat, last five years best boating and fishing and no repair bills.

You don't need a huge motor for puttering about on the lake. If you're on big water or fishing tournaments with hard weigh in times, big motors aren't necessary.

Big motors just burn more gas. Right sized motor you then do not need extra kicker motor for trolling.

just start your account at Jamestown distributors now!

or if you get down near Milwaukee visit Kendor in Franklin

I bought my boat for 400 boat, motor, trailer

a 1990 northwoods 14 foot aluminum

I got a good deal on it .

I have
400 initial purchase good motor , solid transom, with a very rotten floor
150 in tires they were ugly bad weather checked
370 at kendor for paint , cleats , resin , and other hardware and rivets .
100 in new flotation foam
400 plywood 4 sheets 1/2 inch birch that was 200 then in acetone , sand ing pads and other stuff at home depot I maybe didn't need all of it but that's what that trip cost
200 more in paint from james town, I could have made it on another quart of 40 dollar primer and 40 dollar paint , but if I needed one more ounce I would have more in quarts than gallons I have 3/4 if a gallon left of each
60 for an air rivet gun although I can use it on other projects
40 more in rod holders
300 more for a gps and sonar
50 for switches
50 more in wire
30 on a crush rivet driving set fort my air chisel
100 there were other incidentals at the hardware store
50 for a new hub when I found a bad bearing

2K for a boat that is very fishable isn't too bad you can't buy that at the store

about 120 hours between my son and I over 2 months

I had one guy ask if you had to pay yourself what you make an hour how would you come out probably close to a wash if you figure loosing a 1/3 to taxes , but better when you figure half the labor was my son who wasn't working at the time

my other issue is they only let me work so many hours , and I hate my self a little bit when I do 12 days strait and have 90-100 hours


Priceless is the project and time we spent together and the education of rebuilding a boat so we could take a 2 week fishing trip before he heads off to college and keep fishing rivers and lakes for years.

he learned a lot , and it is a little scary to drill 50 rivets out of your boat that doesn't leak so that you can replace all the wood

we resin coated all the cut and fitted wood , which makes it very stiff , then it got primed and painted with marine topside paint I learned a lot about fiberglass in the process using fiberglass resin on all the wood

if it has a solid transom and a running motor I would probably do that project

the only thing is I wish I had a bigger boat but it is an incredibly fishable 14 foot even with the 2 of us in it being a bit larger than average

the 25hp on my boat will push the 2 of us 600# and fishing gear 20mph on smooth water about 17 on a good chop , if you start counting waves in over a foot much slower. which isn't setting any speed records but it gets you to a fishing spot decent provided no big waves.


do you have pictures of the boat

Yup change the plug, fresh fuel, charge the battery and fire it up with the muffs on.
Make sure if it runs your impeller is working, you will see water coming out of a discharge hole
If you put it in a lake. MAKE SURE THE PLUGS IN! every body has done this once if they boat alot

I see the pictures now , those older tri hulls don't need much motor , they are light

it looks in pretty decent shape

check the bearings and tires

get that motor running and take it for a spin

fiberglass is actually very repair able if it needs it

there is a guy on YouTube Boatworkstoday does very good videos on fiberglass repairs

A friend of mine had an old fiberglass tri-hull with an old Evinrude on it. At first he ran an ad: 1st $1,000 takes it. No takers. His next ad was: Free. He couldn't give it away. He ended up paying some junk yard to haul it away. Had it been aluminum, he might have gotten something for it, if nothing else aluminum scrap.

Yup, that has to be the lightest design of a fiberglass hull...I'm not even sure I call it a true tri-hull as it's almost skiff-like. So that late 60's ish 35hp Kiekhaefer should be fine. I have had a couple similar in the 50hp. It should be 2 cylinders single carb if I remember correctly...As others have said, fresh fuel, carb kits, impeller, and those also have a timing belt you may want to change...

That doesn't look so bad. It looks to be in pretty decent shape for a boat that's been living outside. Is that a Mercury on it?

Yes its a Mercury.



And the tab that connects to the stearing cables is broken. Can I weld that?

And the tab that connects to the stearing cables is broken. Can I weld that?

Can you weld aluminum?? If not, you have a bit of a problem...That is an important component...For safety concerns, you may not want to cob that fix...

you can probably find a non running motor same vintage and remove the mount from it for cheap and them mount your hopefully working motor up to it

I'm reaching out to my welder buddy who I believe is set up to weld aluminum.

because your using the old pully and cable steering a bracket made to fit the mount that is left might be fine.

the single cable system on newer boats only grabs in one spot , yours grabs each side and only pulls

Pete, are you sure there are two points? I'm thinking there is only one tab with a butterfly underneath that allow "s" hooks from both corners to attach...

I am beginning to see why this boat stopped being used...Pike, you have a way to go before that boat gets to the water...Be careful with your funds...

good point , need more pictures

I'm no expert on welding, but it seems to me that a welder uses a Heliarc to weld aluminum.

Neither am I, thats why I reached out to an expert.

If the motor works well or can be made to work well without to many parts you have a winner for a fishermans boat......jk

Pike, if this was dropped at my place I would look at it in this order:

Before spending a dime, I would pull the plugs and crank it over to see if both cylinders had spark. If they do, I would then check the lower unit oil just to be sure it had oil and it's not full of water or a milky mixture (water and oil). If the oil looks okay (would not even change it yet) I would get a barrel of water under that outboard as is. At this point, you can try cranking it with a fresh two-cycle mixture using a good fuel tank or simply hand-feed it good gas. All you would be doing at this point is trying to get it to run long enough to see if the impeller is working. DON'T use muffs as they can give you a false positive on the impeller, depending on your water pressure...Just use a barrel...You'll need a barrel for carb adjustments later.

If it runs enough to pump water for you, you have something to work with and it would be worth doing some repairs...

If there is no spark or no water pumping, you may just want to stop there. As I said above. I believe that motor is a Merc Kiekhaefer 350, which makes it no newer than 1969 (I believe)...Proceed from there...

Found an active hornets nest in the mercury..... That was fun.

You're spot on about the motor. I knew it was old but didn't think it was THAT old but I'll take your word on it. Thank you (and everyone else) for all the advice so far.

I used to dispose of derelict boats of all sizes as one of my duties. I've thrown more boats in the dumps then most people have ever seen, lol. Some scrounger would ask if they could have one and I'd say sure...but there's no paperwork so getting it registered is a huge PITA.... I was never tempted to reclaim one and I'm on a boat daily.

IF, the trailer is decent, it's worth something to someone. Old motors are just that, old, maybe you can get them to work, but they'll never have much value, and may give up the ghost at any moment, usually when your on it far from help.The boats always had issues, bad floors, soft transoms, cracked, or delaminating fiberglass, on and on. If your handy you might make something out of it, or give yourself a headache...

There's a reason it was free...