# Bought another boat



## waybomb

Nope, didn't sell Plain Vanilla. Ran across a deal I could not refuse. Bought a 1987 Carver 36 Mariner. 280 hours on 350hp 454 Crusaders. Been sitting dry for a number of years.

Boating is a disease.

No pix yet, have to clean her up and get her in the water first.


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## AAUTOFAB1

yet another reason why we need wealthy people, if you got a boat and need some cash  in a hard economy, the wealthy help you out.

congrats on the new to you boat


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## Doc

Carver's are NICE boats.  Sounds like the engines are barely broke in.  Good find.



			
				waybomb said:
			
		

> Boating is a disease.



So true ....but there is a lot of fun tied to it also.


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## Kane

waybomb said:


> Nope, didn't sell Plain Vanilla. Ran across a deal I could not refuse. Bought a 1987 Carver 36 Mariner. 280 hours on 350hp 454 Crusaders. Been sitting dry for a number of years.
> 
> Boating is a disease.
> 
> No pix yet, have to clean her up and get her in the water first.


Can't wait for the pics.  Everyman should have two boats.  One, an impractical thing made for speed, and another one made for actual cruising.  The Carver should foot the bill.  And speaking of footing the bill, getting that lug up on plane with those twin Crusaders will probably burn more fuel than 'ol Plain Vanilla.

But ya' gotta luv a man with a big carbon footprint.


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## waybomb

Wife and I took the windshield off and the radar arch off so we get it trailered to the marina next door. That was some job.

Expecting to have her floating on 3-4 weeks.

My jobs:
Get the engines and genset running (plugs, carb rebuilds, batteries) pump the gas tanks out, change all the oils, get the hvac working, see what appliances still work, check all hoses, blowers, cutlass bearings, shaft seals, bilge pumps, etc.

Wife's jobs - clean compound, buff, re-boot-stripe, do the bottom, and then ongoing new canvas and cushions.

Have to have the arch resprayed, it's in rough shape. Aluminum, but all scratched up from the old canvass and frame flopping about. And the damn thing is heavy/ When we got it unbolted, at first we thought "uh-oh, we bit off more than we could chew", but we figured it out.

A friend has a similar boat, so my wife will use his canvas as a template, and make new sunbrella for it. She has a portable Husqvarna walking foot and an old industrial walking foot sewing machine, so she'll have those knocked out by the end of the summer.


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## waybomb

Kane said:


> But ya' gotta luv a man with a big carbon footprint.




Yup, I just added 18 cylinders to my stable. Nowhere near Kirk's gazillion cylinders, but I'm catching up!

When the next ice age is averted, you can send me presents.


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## EastTexFrank

Waybomb, I freekin' hate you.  

All my life I've wanted a boat.  Now Plain Vanilla I could probably live without but a 36' Carver with low hour engines .....!!!!!!!!

There's method in my madness though.  It's not just that I deprive myself.  I love to fish and if I had any kind of fishing boat I'd never be home and the place would go to rack and ruin.  If I had a 36' Carver that thing would be down on the coast and I'd be fishing and cruising the Gulf every week so it's not just that the place would fall apart, my wife would probably kick my butt out the door too.  

So, my present method works pretty good, have friends who have boats.  You don't get to fish as often as you want but everything stays together and did I mention, it's a darned sight cheaper.

Congrats.  Great find.  Don't forget the pics.  You lucky son of a gun.


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## squerly

waybomb said:


> Yup, I just added 18 cylinders to my stable.


Congrats!  But where's the other 2 cylinders come from?   Genset?


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## waybomb

Yup, has an Onan 6.5 genset. Hour meter shows 340 hours.


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## squerly

Bet you're jazzed!


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## waybomb

Oh ya, I'm pumped up. 

PV wasn't all that good for vacations. We had a 42 Carver aft (pic below) before PV, but it was pig with gas engines; way underpowered. 

This Mariner is powered right, and now that the kid is grown and out of the house, this will be perfect for vacations.

Probably not this year because the boat needs quite a bit of TLC, but next year will be stellar cruising year!


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## SShepherd

when we goin fishin?


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## JEV

SShepherd said:


> when we goin fishin?


Yeah, me too. I saw the trolling rigs in the pic and started thinking walleye trolling. I can rig planer boards or divers, just name your poison. I first mate on my buddy's walleye boat, so I gotz 'speeryuntz in da boat.


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## waybomb

I got all these damn boats, but I am not a fisherman. 

One time I even want fishin' for tuna off of Ocean City, Md. All I caught was sea bass and a croaker. I went to the Ladysmith area for a week, caught nothing. Went rock fishin' in the Chesepeake, caught nothing. Every time I go out fishin' with anybody, hardly any fish get caught; I don;t get asked out very much anymore. I am fish-jinx.

My neighbors do the fishin', catchin', cleanin', and then deliver to my door. Great guys.


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## pirate_girl

waybomb said:


> Every time I go out fishin' with anybody, hardly any fish get caught <snip> I am fish-jinx.


The fish are on to you Fred.
You've scared the shit out of them because of your time on the water in Plain Vanilla


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## waybomb

We've been working on it since we bought it. Between the wife and I, probably 100 hours or more, and most in this damn heat.

Anyway, go to my photobucket page below, and find the Mariner directory. You'll see pics before we bought, and pics from the 4th.

Sanded the bottom, applied two gallons of bottomkote.
Removed all plastic boot striping, and ordered new.
Cleaned, scrubbed, compounded, buffed, etc. mostly below the gunwale so we can float her.
Rebuilt the carbs and distributors. 
Ordered a bunch of tronics
Radar arch is off for painting

It's getting there!


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## Doc

Looking good.  Lots of elbow grease and it sure shows.  She is cleaning up nicely.   

I can't imagine someone letting a boat like that get in such bad shape and not even clean it up before selling.      I'm sure it worked in your favor though for a lower price.  

What are you going to name her?


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## waybomb

The Carver will be named "Blinkin Eyes" and in little letters "III"

The other Carvers were both Blinkin Eyes. Long story short, named it after our Catalina Macaw. 

I wanted Tequila Sunrise, but it's wifey's boat, so she can call it whatever she wants.


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## Doc

waybomb said:


> The Carver will be named "Blinkin Eyes" and in little letters "III"
> 
> The other Carvers were both Blinkin Eyes. Long story short, named it after our Catalina Macaw.
> 
> I wanted Tequila Sunrise, but it's wifey's boat, *so she can call it whatever she wants.*


Smart man.


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## squerly

Hey WB, hows the new boat doing?


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## waybomb

Worked all weekend last weekend and then all day yesterday, and up until about 10 minutes ago today.

About the only noticeable thing is the new boot stripes we applied.
I uploaded some new pix last night. Here's a link to the album 
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/waybomb/1987 36 Mariner Project/

Did alot of cleaning work inside, and waxed the starboard side again. That's the side that was toward the sun for the last 10 years. It's getting better though.

The painter hasn't started on the arch yet which kinda has me a bit ticked. I told him to get it done this week or from next weekend forward, he gets to deal with the wife exclusively. 

Lota work, but it's getting there.

Bought two new Galaxy antennas, an Icom VHF, a chartplotter, new water inlet, new antenna mounts, still searching for a deal on a radar, contacted Kahlenberg on some air horns, got my Hynautic reservoir and fittings, but now I have to find a supplier of Synflex 5/16 plastic hydraulic tubing, and probably a few other things this past week, just can't think of them right now.


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## waybomb

No new pix to post. Just too darned tired after working on her all Sat and Sunday.

The arch is painted and should be set before this weekend. Then we will reinstall the windshield.

I told the graphics guy to hold off a week with the application of the decals and Di-Noc, so I can really compound the adjacent areas and not ruin the new decals and Di-Noc.

Most of this weekend was buying and installing the backing that is glued onto the inner shell, under the cabin's cushions. 

Used 2 quarts of contact cement to get it all on. Yup, well ventilated, but still strong odor.

Also reinstalled the two side ladders that I cleaned, sanded, and applied 3 coats of Sickens light followed by 5 coats of Sickens gloss. 

Also spent a bunch of time compounding the stainless rub rails that had oxidized and turned gray. Shiny like new now! And tightened all the rubrail screws and window screws.

Maybe new pix posted on photobucket next Sunday.


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## squerly

Wow, this is turning out to be quite a job! Keep at it bud!


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## waybomb

I still have about 300 gallons of aged-in-the-tank10 year old fuel to get rid of. You'd think one of these good ol boys or maybe a farmer would have a waste oil burner and would love 300 gallons of free heat.

Any ideas who else could use the fuel?


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## squerly

Wish I did.  I've got 55 gals in my back yard looking for a home.


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## waybomb

Radar arch and windshield are on. Did a bunch of more waxing and cleaning too.

Plugged in the shore power. Nothing smoked, and the fridge works. Ice maker doesn't start. Microwave works. stove doesn't.

Stove has a switch somewhere in back that breaks the ac circuit if the top cover is down. I'm guessing that switch has failed or corroded from sitting for so long.

Ice maker might not run since I did not hook up to water. Gotta look into that too.


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## waybomb

So, this weekedn was to unscrew all the windows, pull out enough to clean the mating surfaces and then recaulked them all. Then went inside and pulled all the ceiling trim on the outboard side of the starboard side, so we could get to the nuts on the screws holding the railings down, unscrewed them all, lifted the rails, cleaned underneath, recaulks, installed new screws, fender washers, and nylon insert locknuts.

Took the stove out. Yup, the proving switch was full of mung from the previous owners being sloppy cooks. Took the entire stive completely apart, cleaned it to like new, put it back together, reinstalled it, and works fine.

Installed all new snaps on the boat, replaced the anchor light holder that was broken, brought up the enclosure frame and measured for new canvas, tried to fix a hatch part which is nla, but couldn't, so made a drawing and I'll have my kid make some out of stainless.

Got about $8,500 in it and between the wife and I, about 300 hours.

Getting there....


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## fogtender

Sounds like an adventure in boating without going anywhere yet!

Seems to be a heck of a deal though.

As for the gas, put it in drums, paint "gas" on them and set them someplace visible and they will be stolen shortly!  Problem solved and some A$$hole has fuel problems... Win, win!


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## waybomb

And here is the latest set of pics:
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/waybomb/1987 36 Mariner Project/19AUG12/

Check the prebuy pix versus these. 
Found some new lights, installed those. Removed all the handrail screws after removing most of the ceiling interior edging trim to get to the nuts, resealed them, used fender washers as backers, and new nylon insert locknuts.

Saved the upholstery, though we did have to use some off the face of the seat bottoms. We'll either cover that with a new material, or simply remove the old contact cement with acetone, and wax it up.

It is slowly but surely turning back into a boat again!


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## squerly

She's looking great!


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## waybomb

We've got about $8,700 is her now, and about 320 of our hours.


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## waybomb

Took this past week off, and aside from a few "dates", we reupholstered the flybridge cushions.


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## waybomb

Installed the upholstery on the flybridge today.


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## Doc

The new upholstery looks great and that fly bridge has some size to it.  Very nice.


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## OhioTC18 RIP

Looks great Fred!!


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## Kane

OhioTC18 said:


> Looks great Fred!!


+1 on that.  Beautiful!

Here's my next project.  Gonna' take the tourists for "elegant" cruises on Sarasota Bay.  If I can just get the wife to serve cocktails.














1928 F.S. Nock   -   36' LOA
.


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## waybomb

Wood hull? I can't imagine the upkeep
PS-hire some 18 year olds, in bikinis, you'll get more customers


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## waybomb

So the boat was floated finally on Friday. 
Everything is fine.
You can follow the progress on my photobucket album "36 Mariner"
Some pix:


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## Doc

Congrats.  I wondered if you'd get it in the water this season, glad to see you did.  She looks GREAT.  Looks like new throughout.   We had great holiday weekend boating weather.  Hope you did to.  

So did Plain Vanilla get a rest this summer while you worked on this latest project?


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## waybomb

PV hasn't been out this year. Focused on this one since last July.
Next year will be an awesome boating year!

We still need a real bad winter and a horribly rainy spring though. This boat draws 42" and the water way leading to our slips is only 36" at best deep. The area in front of our condos and all of our slips is more than 96" deep, but we can't get to them unless you have a smaller boat or a shallow draft boat.

So we had to rent a slip at the marina next door. Really sucks because I have 3 40' slips in front of my condo, empty!

This weekend did a few things to it, like installed the snaps for the carpet runners and general cleaning, plus played with the new-to-me Furuno chartplotter/fishfinder and the radar. 

And rested. First weekend in probably 60 weekends where we didn't work all weekend on the boat. We have over 1000 hours combined of our time in it between me and wifey.

If the weather is good next weekend, it goes out for the shakedown cruise.

Oh, and put some gas in the boat - $1200 worth. Kinda like a weekend bill for PV!


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## squerly

It looks very nice waybomb, very nice indeed!


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## 300 H and H

waybomb said:


> Oh, and put some gas in the boat - $1200 worth. Kinda like a weekend bill for PV!


 
So Fred how many hours of running two 350hp big blocks do you get on a tank of fuel? And what average speed would you say you would go over all? Yea I am trying to estimate milage, but I don't know why...

Absolutely beautiful job on a boat that need an owner like you desperately. Very cool...

Regards, Kirk


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## waybomb

I have no idea yet. I am guessing somewhere around 0.8 mpg at cruise.
30 gallons and hour, something like that.


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## 300 H and H

waybomb said:


> I have no idea yet. I am guessing somewhere around 0.8 mpg at cruise.
> 30 gallons and hour, something like that.


 
That really is't all that bad, considering the mass you aare moving. Fully laden with passengers and luggage, food and fuel, what might it weigh in at?

With two couples aboard, how long before you would want to go ashore? (assuming everybody got along together!)

Looks like fun times indeed!!

Regards, Kirk


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## waybomb

Dry it weighs sixteen thousand. So, with fuel and stuff, probably twenty two thousand pounds.

If the other couple were women, i might start put at sea got a long time!


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## muleman RIP

Holy crap Fred! It looks super and ready to do weekends fishing or just sporting around. That galley is fabulous. Catch them, fry them and enjoy!


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## waybomb

Thanks everybody!


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