Well this is a game changer!!
 

Sooo.... this happened today.

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What you are looking at is a 1985 Wellcraft Coastal 23'...and it's in my yard. This kinda happened quick. This boat popped up on our local Craig's for $2800. Advertised as a solid, running boat. I was nearby so I thought hey, why not go check it out. Definitely didn't think I'd actually buy it but I do love the look of it. Saw the boat, seems rock solid. Owner hooked it to the hose and it fired right up. Purred like a kitten.

Now he's got my attention. I was actually digging the boat and trying to decide where I was going to scrape up $2800ish. While it was running she started kinda sputtering and spitting. I thought, here we go...story of my life. Seemed starved for fuel so I pumped the ball and it picked right up. As long as I slowly pumped the ball it would stay running. The owner started flipping out. Was cussing the boat up and down and asked me what I'd give him for the POS. I told him without knowing what was wrong with the motor best I could do was $1000. I figured that'd just piss him off but he agreed to it.

While all of this was going on I noticed a strong gas smell. I pulled he cowl off and the engine was covered in fuel. I pumped the ball and gas poured out of the fuel pump (VRO). There is a small plug on the top of the oil diaphragm and it was gone. I covered the hole and pumped it and it sprayed all around the housing. It appears the fuel pump cracked.

Given this new found information I was sure the owner wouldn't agree to the price now. But he told me give him $1000 and get it out of his yard. I felt bad as he was a young kid 20-21YO, had a wife, nice truck, cute little rancher home and I felt he just simply needed to pay the rent or something. I've been there and done it, parted with something just to make ends meet, it sucks. But knowin I was already going to be in the doghouse for bringing home another boat I couldn't offer him a penny more. I hinted maybe he should try to fix it and sell it again later and he just insisted to sell it to me because he couldnt afford a $400 fuel pump. Best thing I could offer him was an invite to snag up some cobia this summer on her. He gladly accepted.

So now here's the dilemma. The wife... She says somethings got to go. The Green boat is as good as gone. I have a guy coming Thursday afternoon to pick her up. Then I got the cuddy. I told her I'd sell the cuddy as long as I don't lose money on it because of the new motor. As of now I have about $4000 tied up in the boat and motor. I fell if I put a new foot on it ($500ish) I could possible get $4500. But the problem is she doesn't want to sell the motor. So I guess it may get sold with no motor.

Then I got the bare hull in the back 40. My plan is to keep that one and finish what I started, converting it to a center console with a bracket. If I hang on to the Mercury then she will be a perfect candidate for it, though my plan was a small 140-150 stroke. I guess time will tell for that. Getting the green boat out the yard should ease some pressure from the wife. Then we will just see where the road takes us.

As for this boat a new fuel pump is on the way. Ran a compression test and all cylinders cold are 95-105 psi so I'm pleased with that. I've never had a OMC over 90 haha. So I'm gonna put some work into it and get it in the water. Bow light works intermittently, trim tabs don't move, gas gauge doesn't work. It has a Humminbird Helix 5, fiberglass hardtop with molded e-box, power steering, 2 brand new batteries, outriggers, downriggers and I'm sure more I'm missing. I'm just waiting to find the reason the deal was so good but hell even if the motor was junk I still made out good and that big black b**** would look great on the stern, but for now I'm hoping that's not necessary. Here's the pics he sent me. I plan on getting more this weekend.

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nice!

The trailer is a 2000 load rite. Rollers look brand new. Roller hardware looks new. Few u bolts are rusty but easily replaced. Has a CB, CD player. LED deck lights. Man the list goes on and on. Motor is a 99 200hp Johnson. VRO is bypassed and I plan on keeping it that way. The owner said he bought it from the original owner and said the tank was replaced around 2010. I plan on pulling the hatch and inspecting the tank good. Hopefully it's a nice new poly tank that I don't have to worry about.

dam son, you beat that boy's a$$ for a grand. if the floors are solid and the transom is stiff, that's a deal without a motor.

Congrats that is awesome find .

Very nice and a heck of a deal.

You definitely got the fever (boat fever that is).

Thanks guys. I definitely stole her. I still feel a little bad about it. I'm worried karma's gonna bite me in the ***.

Those engines should be in the 110-120 range if memory serves me correctly. The 88-92 engines had idle reliefs, and caused them to have low cranking compression. The 93+ finger port engines normally have pretty high compression. Make certain to do a DEEP decarb on it. That is a MAJOR killer of the big V6 engines is carbon(that's how Bradford's engine ended up in my yard). When they get carboned up, they will stick a ring, and wipe out a sleeve, and most of the time hammer the head from the pieces going through it. Those are supposed to be a SOLID boat at anchor and drift because of the low 16 degree deadrise, but are said to beat you up running any speed in a chop. I started to buy one years back until I did some reading on them. Then again, if I had come across a deal like this one, it would have been in my yard too. Come spring time cleaned up, that boat would bring $4500-6000 all day long down here in Florida.

Nice boat, I owned what looked like that very same hull on my coastal 236. I had the boat for about 11 years, it was an absolute tank, I think you'll be very pleased with it !!

I have a buddy that said he owned the same boat and loved it. He's already tried to double my money.

So now my mind is racing about this VRO deal. I got the part today to fix the pump. Put it on tonight but the kiddos were in bed and the boats right outside their window so I couldn't fire her up. But assuming all is normal, as it was when I first heard the boat run, I'm debating possibly ordering a brand new OEM fuel pump and running the oil tank again (tank was still in the boat). I got spoiled with my Yamaha not having to premix and love the idea of never having to deal with it. I've read the most probable cause of failure is neglect. Neglect to clean the tank and pickup regularly and neglect to check the warning system regularly. Well I'm the kind of guy that checks thru-hulls before every boat trip so adding a couple things to my check list is no problem at all.

Pumps are $369 shipped to the door (gone down a lot in the past few years). Seems replacing those say every 2-3 years is just cheap insurance when looking at boating $$ as a whole.

Also the boy I got it from said he's owned it 3 years and never decarbbed it so that may be a weekend project for me as well. Might clean the rings up a bit and get the compression a little closer to 100. Also when we did the comp check the motor was cold so that may help too, but my last JonnyRude (96 200) had 85psi across all 6 and ran like a champ, just a little weaker than 200hp I'm sure.

Once that's done after a quick lower unit fluid change hopefully she'll be ready to hit the water.

It's your money, but I'll NEVER trust a OMC type VRO oil injection. WAY to many of them EARNED the nickname very rarely oils. Just WAY to many problems, and places for things to fail in that system. And depending on how much wiring was cut to remove it, it may be a pain to hook it all back up. That's my $.02 on it. I know a FEW like the system, but when the fate of your engine rides on a jiggling oil plunger piston, NO THANK YOU!

I hear ya Ferm. Plenty of people out there hate them. But plenty of people (maybe not as many) love them. Fortunately it's just plugging in a wire and hooking up a hose to hook it back up, nothing was cut. My dad runs his VRO and has never had an issue. I kept preaching to him to bypass and he just wouldn't listen, now he's laughing because I'm on the fence about it.

Got the fuel pump put together today. Went to fire her up and nothing. Pumped the ball and can hear gas going into the bowls. Turned the primer nob up and pumped the ball to spray fuel in the intake. Fired right up until it burnt the fuel out. Great here we go...bad reeds?? Bad rings not pulling Vacuum???? I'm about to give up and my dad stops by. Puts his hands over a carb and has me turn it over. Sucked his hand slam up against the carb. He pulled his hand off and it looked like 2% milk coming out. Apparently the tank has quite a bit of water in her.

Pulled the carb plugs and pumped fresh gas through them til it was nice and green. Put it back together and ran it off a remote tank. Ran great. Whew thought I may be putting the Merc on her sooner than I wanted.

I like that boat.

Take the VRO off so we don't have to say we told you so. They work great until they don't.

If you're really lucky (yeah right) you'll have your day ruined by the sound of the no oil alarm going off and have to get towed in.

If not keep your eyes open for a rebuilt powerhead.

Momma gonna love that.

Man, I LOVE your boat!

Looks like my boat's twin...I have an '84 Sportsman. Same everything as yours, except I don't have the hardtop and the previous owner converted to a full transom.

Geez I hate wiring!!
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I'll have to snap a pic of the unnecessary wire pile I ended up with in the day light. Boat should be wired and ready to fire up tomorrow. Not sure it I told y'all but my 200 Merc is now on it. May not tote the mail like it would on a V but should scoot right along.

Beautiful engine for a beautiful boat. Hope to hitch a ride in her someday.

That's exactly what my boat looked like this year in regard to left over disgarded wire, why won't folks just remove the old wire and transducer cables when they replace them? I must have had 200 feet of wire on the deck and two old Shakespeare's antenna masts shoved through the rod storage holders into the gunnels, and as I mentioned once before the previous owner was an electrician ! Go figure. But I know you'll like thathull as much asI did. Only problem I had was it sat very low in the stern because I had a Mercruiser 350 on it and we always stood in an inch of water when fishing straight out the back.you won't have that problem with half the weight in your stern.looking forward to hearing how much you like it on your first trip out!!

I hope to convert this to closed transom. The wide openness of the transom area scares me with my kids. It's a shame because I sold a Stainless Marine bracket a couple days before getting this boat. All well I'll just keep my eyes out for another one.

You know you're always welcome to come back down and we'll put some lines in the water.

You can probably make something like I have for the cutout. It's hinged so you can trim the engine up.

Yea I've been trying to engineer something similar to that. My motor actually comes in over the floor actually but I can definitely make something along those lines.

Got the boat out a little today. Didn't go far from the dock, didn't really run her hard. Just wanted to putt the kids around and throw some lines in the water. Pulled up a few small croaker which the kids thought was great.

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Boat seems it's going to be very practical for my family. Opened the hatch lid and windows and the cabin was a perfect place to cool down. It was at least 10 degrees cooler than in the sun. Boat seemed to ride nice however I need to rewrite the trim tabs as they pretty much are just where they are right now and it seemed to list to starboard further and further the faster we went. I believe I may just need Anne's switch. All in all pretty pleased. It's no V-20 but it will do until I can find a nice flat cap center console, which will be my next boat.

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Truly. a perfect day. Glad the boats running well for you. She's a beauty. Sounds like you need to lower your starboard trim tab just a tad. Great pics of the family and boat....thanks for sharing!!! :clap:

That grin in the bottom right of the last picture isays it all.

Kids are the reason i first got my cuddy, said as soon as they got older, id go back to a center console. By the time they got older, so did I. Now i enjoy a nap in the cabin

I loved my V 18 but the wife wanted a cabin so we bought the Striper. That was no where near the boat my V 18 was but, I knew I didn't want to go back to the CC.