3Squids '87 Cuddy thread

[3 Squids]

Well guys I did it. I bought a 1987 Cuddy to go along with my center console. If you've followed that thread you know that project is on hold. Here is the most recent photo I have and will update as things go.


I travelled 5 hours to Wilmington NC to pick the old girl up. I pretty much bought this boat sight unseen with the exception of getting a friend to check it over for me. He gave me a good report and I offered to give the owner a deposit as I wasn't able to pick it up for a couple weeks. I even offered to pay in full as my buddy believed the guy was a good old fashioned handshake deal kind of guy. He declined any deposit and just told me to come get it when I could and it'd be there. I told him I'd come 3/25 and unfortunately couldn't make it due to truck trouble. But I busted tail and got the truck straight and headed out at 0330 to pick it up.

Pulled in right at 8:45 (stopped for breakfast). Soon as I seen the boat I was loving it. The owner was still 5 minutes out so I started checking it out. First thing I did was take a hammer to the transom. I figured regardless I'd find moisture somewhere in the stern. Tapped around and it was nice crisp bouncing smacks of the hammer. But 2 spots, one on each side had that dull thump. It's is exactly in the same place on both sides and about the same size spot. Sure enough it's right where the stringers meet the transom which I found with my '79 is where Wellcraft didn't pay much attention to detail. It is a very weak point of these boats.

I climbed in the boat and reached down under the live wells and tapped the stringers and they seem rock solid. So I definitely believe as far as transom/stringer issues go I may be ok for a while. The deck is very solid with exception of a 8-10" diameter spot right in the center where the step down to the cuddy is. I've always seemed to have floor issues in the past that began in areas where fasteners are however in this area and really nowhere near it is there any fasteners so not really sure where and how the moisture is entering it. I talked to my NC buddy on my ride home and he suggested injecting epoxy resin into the area to hold me over. May be something I'll try.

Now the paint... from 20' away the boat looks great. But it seems lack of prep when painted is now showing through. On the front near the water line it looks as if the paint has just been washed away. Elsewhere along the waterline its chipping off. I used my fingernail and scratched it and it comes right off. It looks like there's no primer. I'm undecided on what to do here but if reprinting is the fix it won't take long to strip the old paint. I've king of tossed the idea around in my head of making a vinyl boot stripe to hold me over for the time being.

The trailer is pretty rough. The tires have excellent tread but the are rotted bad. I took a spare in not much better shape just in case but fortunately didn't need it. There were multiple rollers missing or collapsed. There where even some 4x4 blocks where roller should be. The owner told me he launched it in April every year and pulled it in October pending no hurricanes so the trailer wasn't too much worry. All the hardware is rusted, nuts 90% rusted off. It's a torsion trailer and the torsion area was extremely heavy rust. This all had me nervous the whole ride home but we made it with no issues.

My motor plans are to put my fresh 200 Merc on it and fish it this summer. I've been scouring for side mount controls only to find out that the boat is set up for top mount. So all the rigging will be removed from the Green boat.

This is going to be another fun project that hopefully I won't have to tear into too far. I will get many more pics tomorrow as I know you guys want to see more. Again I'll update the main pic as I go along...here we go....