Bought my first boat, ‘93 210 explorer.

[Snapperslayer]

Hello, I’m Brad, I live in southwest Florida. I bought what appeared to be a well taken care of 210 explorer, sadly the more I learn, the more I discover that I made some mistakes along the way. The boat is nice to look at, it has had the hull painted a nice grey color, the deck is in great shape, clean, no soft spots, two biminis. I went around banging on all the sides of the hull and it felt solid, I tried to lift and push the motor to see if the transom moved, I banged on it inside and out and Banged  the sides of the stringers under the fish box etc. everything seemed great compared to the other boats I looked at in this category of boats on the market that I looked at. So I bought it.

Now on to where I went wrong, I believe I bought a boat that had sunk, and sat sunk for some time, the first tell was the bilge is dark and stained, not having any boating experience, I didn’t think anything of it I just figured it was never cleaned, then a bad wire for the trim gauge, it was rotted out in multiple places from water intrusion, no biggie I got a replacement from eBay. Next I have an issue with the fuel level sender, and that led me to pop the round covers and I notice the top of the fuel tank was very grimy, I didn’t think much of it at the time.

Now we’re getting into it, I want to slay some fish so I buy an overpriced lowrance unit and I’m all excited so i remove the old transducer and go to mount the two that cam with my new unit and when I drill the transom.... water spills out! Im working on building an engine shroud like a conch or seavee to block the loud 2 stroke Yamaha noise for my young boys to enjoy the boat a little better, but I still wanted full tilt, so I bought a fixed setback bracket, just a few inches so I won’t have to remove the shroud to tilt, well now I see the lower bolts have sunk into the transom about 1/4”, so now I’m looking at a wet transom for sure, then I start adding it all up, now I’m wondering about soaked stringer foam so I poke my finger in the hole where the fuel hose is run through from the center bilge to the rear, soaked!  no bueno!

Sigh, I like the boat, but given what I’ve learned, I overpaid ($7800) on what I thought was a solid great looking boat. But the market for nice boats under 10k here sucks, they are all beat or soft on the deck, so I’m still somewhat ok with my purchase.

No my question is, how much water would the stringers absorb? How much extra weight am I hauling if they are soaked? The scuppers are still well above the water. Can I gut the foam from the side towards the top in the fuel tank area and the bilge and pour in new foam without cutting out the deck? Maybe it’s not worth it?

For the transom I was thinking of drilling larger holes for the motor bolts and filling with epoxy and filling the sunk in parts then ré drilling them bolt holes and use a big thick plate of aluminum to spread the force/weight of the outboard across the transom.
I know it’s a bandaid, but it’s not a boat I plan to keep for life. Should I just make peace with I’m gonna get hammered on the resale and enjoy it until the transom seems more unsound?

[Snapperslayer]

A few photos

[Snapperslayer]

Mounting the bracket and the electronics, I need to remove the bracket and trim the transom plastic corner trim so that it lays flat on the transom. Surprisingly the motor was bolted on top of this as well, seems that would put all the load on the transom Unevenly distributed.

[RickK]

If you want to post a pic when you talk about your boat, which you should, follow the instructions here http://classicaquasport.com/smf/index.php?topic=12725.0  - don't attach them - you are limited by file size. Uploading them into your "member gallery" is better for viewing.
Spend a few minutes to absorb the instructions. It's really easy. Remember if using a phone to take pics, to hold the phone horizontal with the lens to the left.

If you upload them to your gallery you can rotate the ones taken wrong on your phone and we don't get stiff necks - plus the gallery sizes everything you upload to 800x600 rez.

[Snapperslayer]

Ok, I’ll try to fix that today, thanks.

[Capt. Bob]

Since I own this hull, I have some thoughts but I would suggest before you go any further along that you tow the boat to a CAT scale and weigh it. That will tell me a lot about how much water you may be carrying.

You think it sunk. Could be but also it may have sat with rainwater in it.

I'd pull the tank hatch cover and take a look. If the tank is OEM, it will in all probability need replacing.

We don't see a lot of 210s here but it is IMHO a very good riding Genmar hull.

Get the photo thing worked out.

Good luck.  

[Snapperslayer]

The tank is not aluminum, so I’m assuming it’s been replaced, although it’s on my list of things that need checked because I smell fuel in the cabin, so either the plastic tank is cracked or there is a hose that’s bad. Rain water could be a possibility.

[Capt. Bob]

Just a hint.
Water mixed with fuel over time leaves a black residue. Since your model hull has the front bilge connected to the rear bilge via the tank coffin, the black you see is a strong indicator of same.

[Snapperslayer]

The front bilge is clean, no residue. Could have been cleaned though.

[Snapperslayer]

If you want to post a pic when you talk about your boat, which you should, follow the instructions here http://classicaquasport.com/smf/index.php?topic=12725.0  - don't attach them - you are limited by file size. Uploading them into your "member gallery" is better for viewing.
Spend a few minutes to absorb the instructions. It's really easy. Remember if using a phone to take pics, to hold the phone horizontal with the lens to the left.

If you upload them to your gallery you can rotate the ones taken wrong on your phone and we don't get stiff necks - plus the gallery sizes everything you upload to 800x600 rez.

I didn’t see a way to rotate the photos. At least on my phone anyhow.

[RickK]

Not sure - when you're taking pics on a phone there is orientation added to the image so the phone knows how to show it. Forums don't use the orientation data so the pics taken vertically on a phone show up 90 degrees out of whack.
If you can get them uploaded to your gallery here on the site, we can help you fix them.

[Snapperslayer]

The baffle between the fuel tank section and the rear bilge, is this foam tied into the stringer foam or was this baffle added after the stringers were glassed in? That baffle is where the hole for the fuel line was run through and I could touch wet foam, I’m just holding out hope that my stringers could be more dry. I’m assuming this hole was done by someone replacing the fuel line right? There shouldn’t be any exposed foam if it was done correctly?

[Capt. Bob]

The baffle between the fuel tank section and the rear bilge, is this foam tied into the stringer foam or was this baffle added after the stringers were glassed in?

Since I wasn't at the Factory when they built our hulls, your guess is as good as mine.

I’m assuming this hole was done by someone replacing the fuel line right? There shouldn’t be any exposed foam if it was done correctly?

While the fuel line may at one time been replaced, that hole is factory. It would have been nice had the rigger sealed the hole after pushing the fuel line through but I'm guessing that was the farthest thing on his mind at the time so...

If it were me, I would drill a hole or two (one on each stringer inside the rear bilge) at the base, just a little above where the stringer is glassed to the hull. Jack up the front of the boat and see how much water comes out. If you don't see any, you're golden. If some does exit right after you first drill the hole, then leave it jacked up for a week and see how much drains and if it stops. Thant way you'll know for sure that the strings or either wet or dry.

Good luck

[Snapperslayer]

What size hole is recommended? I’m going to try and hit a truck scale this weekend, do I pull on the scale and unhitch and pull the truck off or do I need to weigh it all together?

[RickK]

I use a local landscape (rock) supplier that has a drive-on scale. So I drive the truck only on, record the weight and then pull forward until the boat trailer is the only thing on the scale and record the weight.