1998 210 Coastal

[paulywood]

Hi everyone. Just found this forum. I am looking for a new boat and will be checking out a 1998 210 coastal with a 350 Volvo. Is there anything that I should be looking for with this boat? It will be used for Great Lakes salmon fishing and comes with an Eagle trailer. I just want to make sure I am informed before I make the 7 hour drive. Thanks for the help.

[Steplift 72']

Originally Posted by paulywood

Hi everyone. Just found this forum. I am looking for a new boat and will be checking out a 1998 210 coastal with a 350 Volvo. Is there anything that I should be looking for with this boat? It will be used for Great Lakes salmon fishing and comes with an Eagle trailer. I just want to make sure I am informed before I make the 7 hour drive. Thanks for the help.

I've made many disappointing drives to look at used boats. Look for signs of flexing showing up in the gel-coat...cracks. Look for cracks in the bottom that parallel the stringers and bulkheads. Tap the hull...especially the bottom, and listen for a dull sound indicating delamination. Look below the decks everywhere you can and look for a tight bond between the stringer/bulkhead system to the hull. Step on the cavitation plate and bounce looking for transom flexing. Step on every inch of the cockpit sole and the decks looking for soft spots. Where you can get to the stringers, tap on them listening for hollow which would indicate rot. Go there with the idea that the trip was expensive, but not nearly as expensive as buying a bad boat.

[spareparts]

have the engine and drive checked out by a mechanic that is familure with the set up, around here there aren't a lot of I/O mechanics, even fewer that know Volvo's. Volvo's are good drives, but their parts are expensive. Is it a AQ drive( off white) or an SX(painted silver)

[paulywood]

It has a silver drive. I checked the boat out this weekend and everything looked good. He had the engine completely rebuilt 2 years ago. The boat looks to be well taken care of with no sign of stress cracks in the gel coat. We are still looking at a few boats but this one is definitely toward the top. Very sturdy, well-built boat. Thanks for the help everyone.

[Monkey Butler]

A 1998 may be a litlle newer than most of the guys around here own...



... but if this is the model that you are looking at then it looks like a nice boat. Only thing I have to add is that be careful of "Complete Rebuilds". I have seen tese where it amounted to either a rattle can rebuild or the guy was just basing it on how much he paid to have a water pump replaced.

[paulywood]

He had all of the paperwork for the rebuild, including parts list. I will get it checked by a mechanic if I decide to purchase it. He said that the waterpump went out and the mechanic said he was fine with just replacing the pump. The engine overheating caused the rubber flaps in the manifold to melt and water entered the block, causing the engine to seize. Other than the engine, the boat looked like it had been taken care of. I know that most guys on this site have older boats but it was the best Wellcraft site I could find. Thanks for all of your help.