What to do with my hyrdrolocked 1996 Ski Nautique?

[WLskinautique]

Hey team -

Over the summer, we discovered that our 1996 Ski Nautique is hydrolocked (link to original post) and I'm not sure what do to with it.

I'm done crying and being salty that our previous "caretakers" didn't do the best job of servicing it, but I'm even more done with not doing anything about it thus far.

Do I sell it as is?
- who would want this hydrolocked boat?
- how would I find a buyer?
- how would I even quote it out?

Do I part it out?
- are my parts even good to sell? (dash worked fine, so there's that)
- where would I sell these parts? (facebook groups? ebay? planet nautique?)
- how do i know what to quote these used parts at?

Looking for some insight from the best forum subscribers, let me know your thoughts!

Thanks,
WLskinautique

[NautiqueJeff]

Depending on the condition, I may be interested. Let's see some pictures.

[WLskinautique]

NautiqueJeff the boat is sitting at my cabin in Northern Michigan (upper peninsula), but I'm going back up there next month to close it down. I'll be able to get more photos then, but attached are what I found on my phone (taken over a few years).

906 hours
tandem axle trailer
tower
open bow

[NautiqueJeff]

Sent you a PM with some thoughts.

[bturner]

If anyone could bring it back it would be Jeff.

From my perspective.... I'd like to see someone fix it. The boat seems too complete to scrap it. That said it would have to go cheap for someone to make a go at it bringing it back to life. Not sure what you want to do but here's the quick numbers that I see (no labor).....

• Michigan Motorz is showing a long block Ford 351 for ~$3K
• Jeff would certainly know better on interior prices but based on what I see in Michigan lately I'll estimate this at somewhere between $5K - $7K (feel free to jump in here Jeff or anyone else that has put a new interior in a SN).
• Throw in another $1K for gel coat work cleaning up the hull along with some minor scratches.
• Another $1K for misc. other components that need addressing.
• And add another $1K for materials and stuff you never expect.

So that takes us to somewhere around $10K - $13K which is about what this boat would go for in normal times in good used condition. I'm seeing some of these boats going for close to $20K in outstanding condition but I don't think you'll ever get there even with the new interior. I'd love to take a crack at it but with no pole barn I'd have to start work on it next spring and there's the price of the boat to consider, which is going to be interesting to see what you price it at. I personally would be very low due to the amount of work and parts needed.

Are there cheaper ways to get the boat back on the water? Sure but if you're going down this path I personally wouldn't be interested in cutting corners on the engine and would lose interest with a junk interior. These items together are the greatest risk and costs to getting the boat back together.

Not sure what the boat would be worth in parts but the if you wait long enough and advertise someone will pay good money for both the trailer, the windshield and maybe the trans. The rest I'm not so sure of.

[WLskinautique]

Thank you NautiqueJeff and bturner for the insight - I think I should give a little context to what's going on.

The boat was previously under the care of my aunts and uncles who finally released it to us this past year. It's our cabin boat and it really only gets maybe 20-30 hours of use during the summer. We love this boat, it's the perfect size for our lake and handles so well. We've got 15 grandkids and more coming, so we're in need of a ski boat for the cabin still.

As I said before, this is a cabin boat - so we don't need to wet sand/buff the bottom or go complete overhaul on the vinyl, etc.

Let's say we found a long block Ford 351 for sale, what would we be ballparking it at to get it up and running again? ~$3k for long block, $1k for misc parts and $1k-$2k for labor?

When i posted this question of whether to part it out sell it as is, I definitely should've noted that we still want a ski boat. I have a 2005 Mastercraft X-Star as well, but that's too big for this cabin lake and we want to keep that one near by.

If we were to part ways with this boat, we'd be looking at another 96-2000 ski nautique or a open bow ProStar....

Thanks everyone!

[shag]

I don't think there are a lot of SNOB's around... (open bow)..

[bturner]

~$3K gets the long block from Michigan Motorz if it's a Ford 351.....

https://www.michiganmotorz.com/5-8l-...-marine-engine

No clue about the labor or where you would find someone to put an engine in for you if you provide the motor. I will say beware of backyard mechanics advertising to do this work. Some good but a lot of bad out there, at least around me. With this type of boat I'd be looking to educate myself and do it myself. This is probably the easiest boat to swap a motor on.

[WLskinautique]

bturner I used to work at the Mastercraft shop in Minnesota so I've got a few techs here who would love to help out, which is why I'm leaning towards the rebuild...

[MN Ryan]

Midwest Mastercraft?

[bturner]

You're set then. That's the first place I would go.

[WLskinautique]

MN Ryan - yup

bturner - I'll keep this thread up to date on what we decide to do, appreciate all your input!

[WLskinautique]

UPDATE:

The engine spent the winter getting rebuilt by Wagamon Bros here in Minneapolis! Taking it up to the cabin this weekend and getting it wet, will share some pics.