Intro

[440 Jim]

Hi folks,
We purchased a '89 convertable recently as a family venture with myself, son, and two nephews. Our maiden voyage was approx 250 miles on the outside from NC to Savannah back in October, around the 9th-10th. We had just replaced both turbos and I for one, was a bit concerned, being the "older, wiser" guy in the group.
However, they proved me wrong and we had a fantastic two day voyage, all the while learning the boat and even doing a little trolling along the way. We stopped overnight at Charleston harbor marina and had dinner at the Fish House, then up early and down to Savannah. Best time I have had since I was a kid in Sebastian, Fl. where the wife and I grew up, perfect seas and beautiful skies, boat was flawless.
We live east of ATL and the best location logistically is Savannah, 3.5hrs to the boat. We settled at Savannah Bend marina in Thunderbolt, and I find it to be perfect for the family, lots of grandkids and grand nieces and nephews will be having a time on the boat.
Since then we have been taking our time going through all the systems, some I am familiar with-some not so much. We are a group of engineers and machinists and work together, so not much we can't handle, or think so anyways. Plan is too enjoy it this year, and make a list of what we need to do on the hard this winter, seacocks not maintained well for one, and nav upgrades for sure. Have bolsters off the cockpit getting rebuilt and all the filters, scrrens, belts, etc ready for my next visit.
Been perusing this site for a few months now and must say I'm impressed by the knowledge sharing amd comradery here. Hope to be a contributor and maybe get a little advice every now and then.

Jim

 

[hughespat57]

Welcome aboard!

 

[All's Well]

Welcome to CSR
Sounds like a great early experience, I'm sure there will be many more

 

[Stee6043]

Share some pics of that trip, sounds amazing! And welcome to CSR...

 

[JimG]

Best of luck and welcome to CSR!

 

[440 Jim]

 

[440 Jim]

Coming into Charleston
On the way to Savannah
Coming into Savannah
At Savannah Bend, we took the anchor ball off after arrival, were starting to call her rudolf...
And Marley, our 2yr old lab, who displays perfect marina etiquette I must say.

 

[Carpediem44DB]

Welcome aboard, Its great to have new members like you going into boating with your eyes wide open with a well conceived mission in mind and the resources to meet the challenge. So often lately, we hear of the impulse boat buy and the woes of the inexperienced that got in over their heads. Enjoy your new to you boat!
Carpe Diem

 

[440 Jim]

Thanks for the welcome everyone. Good news is we're not just going into boating, I've had boats my entire life. But this is a good jump in size for us and twins instead of the singles. Loving the twins for maneuverability, makes it nicer to dock for sure.
We'll be there later today for the long weekend, one nephew coming over to help with belts and filters, also need to check out the radar, it is not operational. Its a Garmin canbuss system, which I need to educate myself on, luckily the prior owners kept all records for the vessel, so I have all the wiring info and manuals. We'll start trying to exercise the seacocks with lots of PB blaster, hopefully they will be functional, have not really tried them yet. The bridge has been redone with a new console and switches, but when I was up in the console checking out the Garmin system a couple of weeks ago I noticed all the new wiring looks like fidos ass. Works good, but the routing and organization leaves much to be desired. I'm about 5'10"/160 so I can get in there pretty comfortably. Much of my background was in control system design, when I get done I'll be able to put my name on it, nothing prettier than a neat wiring job.
Still lots of stuff to play with, figured better to do it on rainy weekends so we can enjoy the good ones.

Marley will come to supervise and provide moral support.

Question, our model is a 440CV, not a DA or DB. Meritt Island build, just north of where I grew up, know the old location well. Is the difference the bimini vs hardtop?

By the way, this is our first Searay. So I will be asking alot of Searay specific questions folks.

Take care

 

[Stee6043]

Great pics. Thanks for sharing!

 

[390x]

Thanks for the welcome everyone. Good news is we're not just going into boating, I've had boats my entire life. But this is a good jump in size for us and twins instead of the singles. Loving the twins for maneuverability, makes it nicer to dock for sure.
We'll be there later today for the long weekend, one nephew coming over to help with belts and filters, also need to check out the radar, it is not operational. Its a Garmin canbuss system, which I need to educate myself on, luckily the prior owners kept all records for the vessel, so I have all the wiring info and manuals. We'll start trying to exercise the seacocks with lots of PB blaster, hopefully they will be functional, have not really tried them yet. The bridge has been redone with a new console and switches, but when I was up in the console checking out the Garmin system a couple of weeks ago I noticed all the new wiring looks like fidos ass. Works good, but the routing and organization leaves much to be desired. I'm about 5'10"/160 so I can get in there pretty comfortably. Much of my background was in control system design, when I get done I'll be able to put my name on it, nothing prettier than a neat wiring job.
Still lots of stuff to play with, figured better to do it on rainy weekends so we can enjoy the good ones.

Marley will come to supervise and provide moral support.

Question, our model is a 440CV, not a DA or DB. Meritt Island build, just north of where I grew up, know the old location well. Is the difference the bimini vs hardtop?

By the way, this is our first Searay. So I will be asking alot of Searay specific questions folks.

Take care

CV=Convertible
DA=Sundancer (no bridge)
DB= Sedan Bridge (Mitch had it right. I had a brain fart.)

 

[techmitch]

CV=Convertible
DA=Sundancer (no bridge)
DB= Aft Cabin (Raised Aft Deck)

DB = Sedan Bridge
AC = Aft Cabin

 

[440 Jim]

So is the DB sedan bridge basically the same as the CV except hardtop vs bimini? Just have not seen the CV on the forum as much as the DA/DBs it seems.

Thanks for the information and the welcomes from all you members

We're at SB this weekend. Rainy and gloomy but the bilge is nice and warm. Yesterday afternoon I got the air filters and belts on both motors replaced. Had one aw shit, broke the slide adjust bolt off in the starboard alternator housing. I pulled and it will drill/tap it out today while here if possible. If not, it goes back home to the shop where we have a more professional setup. Nothin new to me, I have a collection of 68-69 fords and are always breaking those old bolts. Pulled apart a '69 M code Windsor to rebuild last week and broke one off in the timing cover. Oh well.

While I was down there I "attacked" the three fwd seacocks (motors,ac) Although they looked a little crusty, I was able to exercise them several times in both directions with minimal effort. Going to replace the plugs with zerks (temporary) and grease em up a bit. But very pleased that they are fully fucntional.
I'll check the aft seacocks today if the rain lets up. If not, I'll be in the bilge doing some clean up and more inspections, and on the bridge up under the console looking at radar unit and wiring. Cool thing is the boat is "computerized"- uses a 25 pin DB connector to a circuit board that drives the factory "onboard diagnostics", which still works as it was intended. Pretty cool for an old geek like me. They loved LEDs back then too!

If ya'll don't mind I'll continue the updates, if you see me getting close to the shallows, throw me a line before I beach myself !

 

[440 Jim]

Definitely a gloomy W/E at SB marina. I really like the classic lines on this beauty. Maybe has something to do with my affinity for classic cars, old fishing equipment, etc.

 

[440 Jim]

Was able to get the rest of the bolt out of the starboard alternator ear without drilling/tapping. I center puched and started drilling and noticed I had a bit over 1/8" sticking out, so I grabbed it with some vice grips and worked it out, soaked in PB all night. All back together, fired 'em up and let 'em warm up and went through various rpms for 4-5min durations. After check revealed all still good,tension, etc.

Living right I guess.

Since this a family project and I have already introduced us, I'm gonna start a new thread on the"general discussion" to chronical our adventures.
We are renaming it "The Office" , and I have the decals ordered, the BoatUS site has a pretty good website for that +10% off.

Therefore, thread will have "The Office" somewhere in the title.

Could.someone contact me about a contribution to the cause. ?

 

[Nater Potater]

Welcome from Idaho! Seeing your pictures give me hope for fair weather. Friday/Saturday brought this to the Boise valley:

 

[Quint4]

Great post and story.....nice looking vessel you got there.