Boat shopping never seems to end. The quest continues.

SeaNile said:
Yep, that's me. Traded offshore fishing for a SeaRay and waterfront restaurants!
Click to expand...
Must make you proud to see the posts over there following where she has gone over the years. Such a pretty, clean, classic. Anyone reading this for the first time should look around for the pictures of her. SeaNile, if you still have posts on the web, post a link on this thread.
 
Creekwood said:
Must make you proud to see the posts over there following where she has gone over the years. Such a pretty, clean, classic. Anyone reading this for the first time should look around for the pictures of her. SeaNile, if you still have posts on the web, post a link on this thread.
Click to expand...

Believe it or not I have no idea what happened to the boat. A guy in Wilmington, NC bought it, had a few issues on the initial trip to NC and then I never heard from him again.

That boat was so fun!
 
Getting ready to send the deposit for the boat. Next comes scheduling the surveys and transport. Hoping to have it at my marina around April 1.
 
SeaNile said:
Getting ready to send the deposit for the boat. Next comes scheduling the surveys and transport. Hoping to have it at my marina around April 1.
Click to expand...

Maybe I missed it...but have you posted pictures of this mystery machine yet??
 
No pics yet, want to make sure all goes well first.

Hull survey scheduled for Wednesday (3/10) with engine survey to follow probably the following week. Placed the deposit for the transport, wiring deposit tomorrow and most importantly bought dock lines.
 
Survey was done today, will pull the boat later in the week to check below the waterline. So far so good. Spoke to the surveyor at length tonight and this is how is went (not to jinx anything), "John, been doing this a long long time and I really had to look for something to find on this boat. The swim platform readings are the same as before which you knew but other than that.....ummm, one pull knob on a cabinet is sticky, I mean the friggin bilge pumps are clean, the engines are clean, the carpets have a carpet protector on them, no wetness around any hatches, none around any windows, not by the anchor area, not around the windlass switches, etc....this boat is as good as it gets."

We are excited!
 
SeaNile said:
Survey was done today, will pull the boat later in the week to check below the waterline. So far so good. Spoke to the surveyor at length tonight and this is how is went (not to jinx anything), "John, been doing this a long long time and I really had to look for something to find on this boat. The swim platform readings are the same as before which you knew but other than that.....ummm, one pull knob on a cabinet is sticky, I mean the friggin bilge pumps are clean, the engines are clean, the carpets have a carpet protector on them, no wetness around any hatches, none around any windows, not by the anchor area, not around the windlass switches, etc....this boat is as good as it gets."

We are excited!
Click to expand...

sounds like you’ve found a good one! I can’t recall, did you already sea trial and do the CAT survey or did you decide against it? I know you were given some costly estimates
 
Strecker25 said:
sounds like you’ve found a good one! I can’t recall, did you already sea trial and do the CAT survey or did you decide against it? I know you were given some costly estimates
Click to expand...

Engine survey and sea trial scheduled for next week, but, in talking to the surveyor he's extremely confident everything is OK. Oil analysis would be an "n of 1" showing no trend, they ran for a while at the dock, looked over all the belts and tension, no belt dust anywhere, checked them out with a heat gun, no smoke, no shaking and will check the shafts, no visible oil drips anywhere, bilge was squeaky clean (OK, probably not steam cleaned clean!) props and struts during the out of water portion. The boat and owner are both well known and every place I call asking questions about the boat, service etc., it's always the same conversation. "Oh, you're looking at X boat, the owners take such good care of the boat, its always well maintained, etc."

Right now the agreed upon Cat sea trial will be a visual inspection, WOT run with EGTs taken, RPM confirmed, etc.

I'm 50/50 tonight on whether to have the Cat technician come out or not. I know, an extremely unpopular move should i decline the Cat survey. The surveyor offered to take the oil samples and send them to the same Cat dealer who would do it anyway.
 
SeaNile said:
Engine survey and sea trial scheduled for next week, but, in talking to the surveyor he's extremely confident everything is OK. Oil analysis would be an "n of 1" showing no trend, they ran for a while at the dock, looked over all the belts and tension, no belt dust anywhere, checked them out with a heat gun, no smoke, no shaking and will check the shafts, no visible oil drips anywhere, bilge was squeaky clean (OK, probably not steam cleaned clean!) props and struts during the out of water portion. The boat and owner are both well known and every place I call asking questions about the boat, service etc., it's always the same conversation. "Oh, you're looking at X boat, the owners take such good care of the boat, its always well maintained, etc."

Right now the agreed upon Cat sea trial will be a visual inspection, WOT run with EGTs taken, RPM confirmed, etc.

I'm 50/50 tonight on whether to have the Cat technician come out or not. I know, an extremely unpopular move should i decline the Cat survey. The surveyor offered to take the oil samples and send them to the same Cat dealer who would do it anyway.
Click to expand...

Man...those Cat's are worth almost as much as the hull. Don't skip the engine survey!!!!

Easy for me to say of course. Not my money :)
 
SeaNile said:
Engine survey and sea trial scheduled for next week, but, in talking to the surveyor he's extremely confident everything is OK. Oil analysis would be an "n of 1" showing no trend, they ran for a while at the dock, looked over all the belts and tension, no belt dust anywhere, checked them out with a heat gun, no smoke, no shaking and will check the shafts, no visible oil drips anywhere, bilge was squeaky clean (OK, probably not steam cleaned clean!) props and struts during the out of water portion. The boat and owner are both well known and every place I call asking questions about the boat, service etc., it's always the same conversation. "Oh, you're looking at X boat, the owners take such good care of the boat, its always well maintained, etc."

Right now the agreed upon Cat sea trial will be a visual inspection, WOT run with EGTs taken, RPM confirmed, etc.

I'm 50/50 tonight on whether to have the Cat technician come out or not. I know, an extremely unpopular move should i decline the Cat survey. The surveyor offered to take the oil samples and send them to the same Cat dealer who would do it anyway.
Click to expand...

Great news! My current boat surveyed similar to that, bristol. I did the engine survey, granted gassers and not CATs, which came back clear. I'd definitely do them again.

The survey cost is a small drop in the bucket in the overall deal. You have the boat locked under contract...I stick with the CAT survey.
 
Maybe a joint agreement between you and the seller to get the overhead before survey and if for some reason it fails a portion of the survey you both own a portion of the bill? I dont know, maybe more hassle than it's worth, but then you get them to do the overhead service that will definitely need to be done and essentially save on the trip charge, then survey once that work is done
 
Last edited:
If you cannot verify that the valves were adjusted at or about 250 hours, then you definitely should not have Caterpillar do an engine survey until after the valves are adjusted. This is because Cat will run the engines at WOT for several minutes to check WOT temperatures under load. The valve lash gets less as the valves wear so the valves will open further and push the valves deeper into the cylinder increasing the risk of a valve hitting a piston. This is why Caterpillar requires the initial valve lash to be set just as the engine get broken in @ 250 hours.

If a valve hits a piston during the engine survey while the surveyor is running the engines at WOT engine survey, you just bought a remanned engine for about $40K instead of a $2k survey because a dropped valve on a 3116/3126 is real ugly.
 
thank you frank, i was wanting to see your thoughts on this

fwebster said:
If you cannot verify that the valves were adjusted at or about 250 hours, then you definitely should not have Caterpillar do an engine survey until after the valves are adjusted. This is because Cat will run the engines at WOT for several minutes to check WOT temperatures under load. The valve lash gets less as the valves wear so the valves will open further and push the valves deeper into the cylinder increasing the risk of a valve hitting a piston. This is why Caterpillar requires the initial valve lash to be set just as the engine get broken in @ 250 hours.

If a valve hits a piston during the engine survey while the surveyor is running the engines at WOT engine survey, you just bought a remanned engine for about $40K instead of a $2k survey because a dropped valve on a 3116/3126 is real ugly.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Frank! That is some good info right there. Have a call into the local Cat place to see what the records show. So far I have "checked and set valve clearances and set injector timing" done to both engines in 8/17 @ 1125 hours.
 
IMG_0508.jpeg IMG_0509.jpeg IMG_0520.jpeg IMG_0525.jpeg IMG_0526.jpeg IMG_0528.jpeg IMG_0531.jpeg IMG_0547.jpeg IMG_0546.jpeg IMG_0549.jpeg

I feel really good about things when the owners spend a week on the boat making sure everything is perfect and getting it ready for transport.

I'd feel even better if I could rotate the pictures!!
 
To keep the pic orientation. When in your phone album, crop the smallest bit. I have no idea, but it keeps the pic right side up when you upload to the site
SeaNile said:
View attachment 101151 View attachment 101152 View attachment 101153 View attachment 101154 View attachment 101155 View attachment 101156 View attachment 101157 View attachment 101158 View attachment 101159 View attachment 101160

I feel really good about things when the owners spend a week on the boat making sure everything is perfect and getting it ready for transport.

I'd feel even better if I could rotate the pictures!!
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Chris-380 said:
To keep the pic orientation. When in your phone album, crop the smallest bit. I have no idea, but it keeps the pic right side up when you upload to the site
Click to expand...

mine behaves when I post in landscape mode as well
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,158
Messages
1,427,428
Members
61,066
Latest member
EricSTP
Back
Top