advice on new purchase 19.6

[lbcappy]

IM LOOKING AT AN 1983 20 OSPREY W 94 JOHNSON 115....W TRAILER
ANY SUGGESTIONS ON WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR...DO I NEED TO DO A FORMAL SURVEY...I DONT MIND SPENDING SOME MONEY TO FIX HER UP BUT I DONT WANT TO GET INTO A NIGHTMARE EITHER...ILL BE LOOKING AT HER TOMMOROW ANY INPUT THANKS!!!

[scott_gunn]

They're good boats for the most part.  Check to make sure the transom is solid (no flexing).  Also make sure the floor has no soft spots.  If you can get it in the water, see how low it is sitting in the water.  If the scuppers are below the waterline it may have some waterlogged foam in it.

I have an 87 with a 150hp and the scuppers are about an inch to an inch and a half above the waterline at rest.

[Anonymous]

thanks.......from reading your posts...it looks like you and i are looking for the same things in a boat...ie shallow draft with larger boat capability
do you know how new i can go with this model and still keep the shallow draft 12 degree deadrise.....ive got it narrowed down to this or a 18 ft parker


thanks again...this is invaluable infl

[scott_gunn]

Well, in 87 or 88 the production of the boats was taken over by Genmar and a lot of people say the quality went down.  However, the same style hull was built all the way until a year or two ago.  It was called the Aquasport Osprey 200.

I'd get a formal survey done regardless, just because I think it's always a good idea.

[pbailey]

Scott,

We just picked up a 19'6".  This boat would float with the drain holes about at the waterline or a little under.

We also found waterlogged foam under the portside deck.  See post on subject boat.  

We removed about 50 to 70 lbs. of waterlogged foam from console to transom.  The transom does have some damp wood which we will be addressing.

The rest of the boat was checked out as well as we could without tearing the whole thing apart and found all the foam we tested to be dry.  Found one small spot in the starboard side stringer where the seat bolt was mounted and let some water in, about 8-inches long by 3-inches from top of stringer.

I don't think that the weight we removed will get the boat floating as high as an inch above the drain holes.

Maybe I'm missing other places the boat can hold  water.  Could it be in the fiberglass?  The hull is very firm.   No flex that we can find.  When the gas tank hatch was removed, it revealed a dry bilge devoid of foam.

We cut an access hole in the rear starbord side between the cable trough and the stringer, found about one cubic foot of wet foam.  We removed that  forward until we hit dry foam.  Most of it was in the bottom one inch and tight to the stringer.  Front deck has inspection plates that were removed for inspection and everything seems to be dry forward.  Maybe there is the motherload of wet foam between the center rear bulkhead and the transom.


Any thought's

pbailey

[scott_gunn]

I don't know how much a little bit of wet foam will affect the level the boat floats at.  I just know mine, with a 97 150hp Johnson, floats with the scuppers an inch or so over the waterline.