Hi everyone. I've been reading this forum for a few months now and find it very informative! A bit about me: I live in the Raleigh area and we have a family place in Oriental. The truth is boating/fishing is not one of my primary hobbies as I'm a big golfer and griller/smoker. My parents bought the Oriental place in '08 and while they used it some early on, it has been very sparingly used the past 6 years or so, and realistically, I'm not sure how much more they're going to go. I essentially decided to take over maintenance of the place and am making it a point to use it more often.
They bought the Parker in '08 from the original owner who I believe took good care of the boat. In '08 the engine (Honda 4 stroke 90) had I think appx 135 hours and I dont think even 50 hours have been put on since then.
Due to some hurricane damage, health issues, general life, etc, the boat had not been in the water since I think 2015 until last month. During this time it had been in for service a few times. Anyway, as of this fall we have a working boat, a functioning boat lift, a safe trailer and a vehicle capable of towing the boat. This is the first time in a long time all 4 of these have been working/available in years.
If I'm being honest, this boat will primarily be used for family fun for my wife, me, and my risk adverse 8 year old daughter. My vision is using it for rides over to the Beaufort area for 1/2 days of anchoring at the area islands for sun and fun in the water, going into town for lunch, etc. With this boat I believe I have a pretty low maintenance, reliable and safe boat. Just not the most comfortable of boats (but what CC is?).
I'm also by no means an expert boater. I didn't grow up on the water and I lived in other parts of the country most of the time my parents have had this place. I've taken the NC boat safety class, watched hours of towboat.us youtube videos, but this is all very new to me. I've emailed a bit with the Morehead City area Power Squardron commander, and will likely get together with him for a boat overview and some on the water help. If anyone else has sources for on-the-water instruction, I'm all ears.
I've attached a few pics of the boat, plus a few areas of concern. Most of this is still a foreign language to me, so I'm sure some of the terms I'm going to use are wrong. I'd like to clean up some of the unused older items at the helm, add a toe board where the gunnel lower rod holders were, remove the front swivel seat, replace non-working gauges (only rpm gauge works currently). Currently I don't believe the vhf radio or the navigation lights work either. I want to get the bilge cleaned out and replace pie plates if they're leaking. There's a significant piece of the floor peeling up (not sure if this can be epoxied down or needs to be cut out and replaced). I included a pic of the transom, where it appears cracks to the gel coat are common. Just hitting it with a screwdriver handle, all seems solid, but long term, I'd think gel coat repair should be done.
Unfortunately due to HOA, I can't bring the boat back to Raleigh to store it and work on it over the winter. At a bare minimum, I'll try to get down every 4-6 weeks to run the engine a bit.
Anyways, there's my intro. I look forward to adding this to my daily read forums to go along with golfwrx and the weber kettle club.
They bought the Parker in '08 from the original owner who I believe took good care of the boat. In '08 the engine (Honda 4 stroke 90) had I think appx 135 hours and I dont think even 50 hours have been put on since then.
Due to some hurricane damage, health issues, general life, etc, the boat had not been in the water since I think 2015 until last month. During this time it had been in for service a few times. Anyway, as of this fall we have a working boat, a functioning boat lift, a safe trailer and a vehicle capable of towing the boat. This is the first time in a long time all 4 of these have been working/available in years.
If I'm being honest, this boat will primarily be used for family fun for my wife, me, and my risk adverse 8 year old daughter. My vision is using it for rides over to the Beaufort area for 1/2 days of anchoring at the area islands for sun and fun in the water, going into town for lunch, etc. With this boat I believe I have a pretty low maintenance, reliable and safe boat. Just not the most comfortable of boats (but what CC is?).
I'm also by no means an expert boater. I didn't grow up on the water and I lived in other parts of the country most of the time my parents have had this place. I've taken the NC boat safety class, watched hours of towboat.us youtube videos, but this is all very new to me. I've emailed a bit with the Morehead City area Power Squardron commander, and will likely get together with him for a boat overview and some on the water help. If anyone else has sources for on-the-water instruction, I'm all ears.
I've attached a few pics of the boat, plus a few areas of concern. Most of this is still a foreign language to me, so I'm sure some of the terms I'm going to use are wrong. I'd like to clean up some of the unused older items at the helm, add a toe board where the gunnel lower rod holders were, remove the front swivel seat, replace non-working gauges (only rpm gauge works currently). Currently I don't believe the vhf radio or the navigation lights work either. I want to get the bilge cleaned out and replace pie plates if they're leaking. There's a significant piece of the floor peeling up (not sure if this can be epoxied down or needs to be cut out and replaced). I included a pic of the transom, where it appears cracks to the gel coat are common. Just hitting it with a screwdriver handle, all seems solid, but long term, I'd think gel coat repair should be done.
Unfortunately due to HOA, I can't bring the boat back to Raleigh to store it and work on it over the winter. At a bare minimum, I'll try to get down every 4-6 weeks to run the engine a bit.
Anyways, there's my intro. I look forward to adding this to my daily read forums to go along with golfwrx and the weber kettle club.