Buying first Ski Nautique, have questions

[ansnodgr]

Hi,
Buying a 96' Ski Nautique. Boat is in great shape, took a loot at it in person and started it out of the water. Sounded great and idled well. It has the carbureted 351 Pro Boss with ProTec ignition. We agreed on $8,800 pending a test drive. I pulled the engine cowling off and removed the floor board behind the engine to look at the drive shaft and exhaust. It all looks clean.

My question is what I should look for during the test drive? This will be my first time owning a boat but I've grown up skiing on them. Is there anything you would check/ test on the water? Want to know what kind of oil pressure and temp most people are getting as well. Any help or advice is welcome!

Thank you

[NautiqueJeff]

Here's a pretty good list. This was created for older boats with wooden stringers, but most of the items still apply.

http://www.planetnautique.com/Correc...nuals/2001.htm

[ansnodgr]

Fantastic, this will help. Thanks.

How hard are the fins on the bottom to replace? One is bent but the seller has a replacement. Looks like 4 bolts

[NautiqueJeff]

Six screws, if I remember correctly, along with liberal amounts of 5200, which makes them fun to remove.

Be sure to seal the new one up with 5200 when you install it.

[Fgroce]

From what I understand you would want to use 4200, because if you use 5200 and have to remove it you will probably remove gel coat with it when you pry it off'.

[ansnodgr]

I'll look into that, thanks all!

[xlair]

Yeah 5200 seems a bit excessive for the application. You definitely want to make it removable


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[Fast351]

One good indicator of how well the boat was taken care of is the interior of the boat. It's hard to tell how meticulous the owner was with maintenance on engine/trans by just looking at them, but if the vinyl is clean and has a nice coat of 303 on it, that's usually a good indicator on how well the rest of the boat is taken care of.

Water test is obviously required unless you know/trust the seller. Make sure the boat idles normal, no knocking noise or other weird engine noises. Make sure the transmission shifts in and out of gear smoothly. The steering should be easy to move. Hard to move steering indicates a cable on the way out. Look for a rusty oil pan and oil drips in the bilge, which is a problem that's not hard to fix but does require removing the engine.

To be honest, if this is the first time you're going to be owning an inboard, I would check with the seller if they would mind having a dealer look at it for you. (On your dime of course). The $200-$300 you'll spend to have someone that's intimitely familiar with those boats look it over will be worth it in peace of mind. A compression test usually indicates a healthy engine. Also, if they have a dealer service the boat, ask if they mind you talking to the dealer to get a feel for the history.

[ansnodgr]

Thank you all for the help, had to pass. Engine had some hesitation and pretty good vibration over 35 mph. Could be the bent fin and seller said the hesitation could be due to water in the fuel tank but I can not verify any of that. Too many flags.

On a side note, I did find a comparable boat with less hours. Vinyl is not in as good of shape and the exhaust risers have rust around where they meet the elbows. Probably as bad seal but the owner was fairly open about the fact he had been running the boat in saltwater. Would this be a deal-breaker for any of you? If I could get a good deal, would it be worth it to replace the risers? I assume the insides are probably rusty as well..

[HVL2010]

I would not buy a used saltwater boat from the pre-saltwater series days...but I live really far inland too.