Buying my first used boat today...

[TheGreek]

I bought a used duck boat this past August.
The guy ran the 2000 40hp evinrude on muffs for me in his driveway. Seemed like it was fine and he swore it was a great running engine. First time out on the water i couldn’t get it to run at all and took it to a well recommended boat shop where I live. Mechanic gave the motor a thorough check and told me it was garbage, not worth fixing. I asked him straight up what should I look for when buying a used motor so this never happens again as I’m a total boat newbie, he said don’t buy any motor older than 20 years and don’t buy a used motor without a warranty until you see it run on a boat in the water full out, kill the motor and then see how it starts. He told me you can get anything to run on muffs. I had to buy an almost new motor for that boat which cost me twice as much as i originally paid for the boat and junk motor. I’d have a way better duckboat and motor setup if i’d just spent all that money up front and bought a newer boat and motor the first time. Live and learn.

 

[elkguide]

The two best days of your life.......
the day you buy your new boat and the day you sell it!

 

[ChrisA]

Well, @tp308 how did it look?

 

[tp308]

I’m a boat owner

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[OXN939]

Any boat purchase should always be contingent on a survey by a professional boat surveyor and sea trial. A refundable 10% (of agreed upon purchase price) deposit holds the boat until the above can be successfully completed within the agreed upon timeline. If a seller has an issue with any of that, walk....

100 ton captain and former fishing guide here. This is absolutely correct. The "two happiest days" line is usually caused by a lack of an initial survey on a used boat purchase , lack of periodic maintenance or improper storage. I own a bay boat with the same series Yamaha 115 outboard, and it has never missed a beat in any way.

 

[Fatcamp]

The two best days of your life.......
the day you buy your new boat and the day you sell it!

Totally disagree.

I love having boats. They are work, but having the freedom to navigate water is awesome.

 

[HighDesertDad]

Congrats on the boat! I'm a happy G3/Yamaha owner, as is my dad. I believe your Yamaha is the same generation as mine, so you can buy the Yamaha software and plug off Ebay which will allow you to check hours, operating RPMs, check codes, and a bunch of other stuff.

 

[tdhanses]

I’m a boat owner

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Post up so pics

 

[tp308]

Post up so pics

 

[browning2480]

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Nice!! Boys should win some tournaments in that

 

[tp308]

In a perfect world I would’ve negotiated taking it in to get checked out completely but the boat market (like a lot of things) is nuts. I was the first in a line of about 10 guys… guy behind me was ready to buy it sight unseen. I know it’s a gamble, crossing my fingers that we get lucky!

 

[Salmonchaser]

Have fun, learn to work on them, not that Yamaha needs much. Even with modern electronics they are relatively simple. With 15 boats I’ve seen quite a few problems. Bent prop shafts and the motor for the tilt probably top the list of my frustrations. Oh, and fuel, change your filters often. Great looking boat.

 

[Broomd]

In a perfect world I would’ve negotiated taking it in to get checked out completely but the boat market (like a lot of things) is nuts. I was the first in a line of about 10 guys… guy behind me was ready to buy it sight unseen. I know it’s a gamble, crossing my fingers that we get lucky!

My money's on it being a peach! Congrats.....

 

[roadrunner]

The two best days of your life.......
the day you buy your new boat and the day you sell it!

I agree if you're not a boat guy. Same thing can be said about travel trailers, side by sides, etc...

 

[kid44]

Nice!! Boys should win some tournaments in that

Takes more than the boat to win a fishing tournament.

 

[Outcast2.0]

I’m sure that G5 will do what you need to do!

Now you need to prop it so you can get more top end out of it so you beat out others to spots…. It’s for the kids!!!

All joking aside I wish you the best, I’m sure it should do everything you need it to!

 

[browning2480]

Takes more than the boat to win a fishing tournament.

Obviously. I was just congratulating him on his purchase. Thanks for pointing that out though

 

[Outcast2.0]

Takes more than the boat to win a fishing tournament.

Such an unnecessary comment.

 

[tp308]

Takes more than the boat to win a fishing tournament.

Truth be told, I don’t really care if he ever wins a single tournament… His best buddy and teammate just finished up a year long battle with cancer where he hasn’t been able to do any of the things he loves. If this boat only serves to get them both on the water and encourage them in this passion for fishing than so be it! So many of their friends care only about the next video game dropping. I’m thrilled to help them in this way!

 

[Macintosh]

That'll be a nice boat, congrats! can be worth taking to a really good yamaha mechanic to do a thorough check on it even if you already own it. Not someone who's cheap, someone who is going to do it the right way--you should be able to find a yamaha master mechanic on their website. Replacing bigger engines gets very expensive very fast, so I think its worth every penny to be on the safe side with someone who isnt going to cut corners. If you are new to boats it'll help you get a feel for what you have and what to keep in mind, and if they identify anything wrong then it might help you get in front of it. Someone else mentioned a bent propshaft--example, I believe yamahas have a hard spline that wont slip if you hit something, so motor hits a sunken piling or log and very slightly bends the propshaft, say a couple hundreths of an inch. That causes excess wear on the gears, and a year later you end up buying a new lower unit...for about the price of a decent custom rifle. Thats not super likely, but that sort of thing. IME bass boats are the worst with compression, that crowd (I know, I am one of them! ) tends to start em before the prop's even in the water, not let them warm up, run it like they stole it including launching off waves and associated rpm spike, etc, and then cut the engine without letting it cool down at all, and do nothing but that over and over every time they use it. I've done full leakdown tests on every bass boat I've been interested in buying and out of a dozen or so have only found 2--the ones I bought--that DIDNT have low compression. Probably not as much of an issue on a smaller tin boat, and compression wont kill you, but at least if there is an issue with oil or fuel delivery or something like that the mechanic should be able to check faults on the engine and tell you so you can have it serviced before your powerhead blows up or something catastrophic like that. chances are it's fine, but at least you'll know!