'87 Skeeter Strada F 120 questions

[Skunked again]

Anyone have one? Have one of similar hull ?
I'm working on aquiring one. I've been wanting a project, it might just happen. Looks like it needs a full restore.
Any help/ words of wisdom / tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[OnTRAK]

Words of wisdom: "Buy a boat that doesn't need a full restoration."

[90bumblebee]

Words of wisdom: "Buy a boat that doesn't need a full restoration."

It depends on the end goal. If you are interested in perceived value or re-sale then I would absolutely agree with this statement. I actually think this is great advice for 99% of anglers.

-If you want to get on the water quickly. Don’t restore
-If you want to re-sell the boat down the road. Don’t restore
-If you don’t want to invest in a bunch of tools/materials which will probably be used only once. Don’t restore
-If you don’t have a garage/shop. Don’t restore
-If you’re not crazy. Don’t restore!

All of this being said. I chose to completely restore a worthless boat and it’s been a great experience. My dad and I have bonded tremendously over the entire ordeal, we’ve made many worthwhile friends in the process and we’re close to angling out of a rig which is 100% unique to us. I’m not interested in ever selling the boat. We’re crazy but that was already known.

My advice. A restore will cost three times what you initially suspect. It will take three times longer than you would suspect. People will most likely think you’re very foolish. If these things matter to you. Best of luck Skunked Again. Choose wisely

[Skunked again]

That was the original plan. I wound up trading some labor for it. Boat, engine, trailer. I figure if it goes south, I can cut my losses and sell the trailer and engine.
Amazingly enough, the trailer and bottom of the hull are in great shape.

[willwork4fish]

What's a "full restore"? I've done some partial restorations on 3 boats, 80 something Skeeter F80, '96 Skeeter 150ZX and a '96 Eyra. I basically cleaned them up really good, wet sanded, did carpet on one, pumps, chased electrical gremlins, rewired trailers, painted trailer, got the motors running well and added better electronics and TM's. Put a hydraulic JP on the Eyra. That stuff is easy as long as you have some basic skills, time and a place to work. Can also be done relatively cheap if you wait for the right stuff to come along on the for sale boards.

If you've got transom, stringer, major glass work or motor problems that's where I'd pass. I ended up breaking even on the first two after fishing out of them for a few years each and lost about $1500 on the Eyra.

The F80 I had was fine, it'd scoot ok with the 70hp Johnson I had on it. These hulls tend to porpoise a lot, I added a whale tail and it was much better. Fun little boat, I caught a ton of fish out of it.

[Skunked again]

At the moment, it looks like it needs new transom, im guessing stringers also, floor.
It has a 115hp mariner on it, "tower of power?". Will it run? Your guess is as good as mine.
It has a trolling motor.
Time to do it? Yes
A place to do it? Yes

[OnTRAK]

If the motor runs or you can get it in good running shape inexpensively, and the trolling motor is operational, clean the trailer up the best you can and sell them along with any other salvageable hardware and parts on the boat. Apply the $$ from the sales toward a structurally sound good running newer boat. This Skeeter is 32 years old! Are you sure you want to invest the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and hours and hours of nasty, itchy, dirty, dusty, hot work into it? Additional words of wisdom.

[Skunked again]

Ontrak - This is what I thought when I first saw it. Nothing has been ruled out, at this point.

[OnTRAK]

I'm not trying to discourage you, in fact if you decide to pursue it I wish you the best. I'm speaking from my own experience. I did a small rot repair in the bilge area of my 1984 Dyna Trak. The small pad supports and the offset area below the transom where the bilge drain and livewell thru hulls are had started to absorb water & rot in my boat. Fortunately I found and repaired it before it got into the transom, knee braces, and stringers. It was easy to access without separating the top cap. I also built and glassed in a new 3/4" fuel tank platform to replace the 3/8" original that had bowed & cracked over time. As 90bumblebee stated the cost and time was 3 times the original estimate and the work was nasty, itchy, dirty, dusty & hot even in a well organized and equipped garage. Best of luck on your decision!

[Skunked again]

Ontrak - no worries!
Just to buy the materials to replace the transom, braces, stringers, what would be a rough estimate?

[OnTRAK]

I can't give an accurate estimate. My repair was small in scale compared to that. Check out the uscomposites.com website for their prices on the various glass cloths & resins. That is where I bought mine. There are others that have done what you are facing that will be able to give a more accurate estimate.

[Skunked again]

Thank you very much! And for the website to check out.

[OkieLure]

Rough estimate on mine was 4-600 with me doin all the labor. It was very time consuming, itchy, and seemed endless, but worth it in the end.

[Skunked again]

okielure - thank you. Is the fiberglass/resin that expensive ?

[OkieLure]

I went with the poly and vinyl ester for different applications. The poly was used primarily for the entire project while the vinyl was used for the ponsons. The glass and resins was purchased through either fibreglast or local supplier.

[Skunked again]

Thank you okielure. I just typed in the boat in your signature, to see similarities. Found your transom rebuild thread. Nice job!

[Bassnailer]

I had a 90 Skeeter SF175 that the transom rotted on. Skeeter had a poor transom design during these years, and not only are there many holes where the wood is not encapsulated, but the stringers are also bad about rotting due to the design. I thought I could clean out the wood in the transom and do seacast. That was a no go, as the wood goes all the way across and there is no way to acess it to clean it out without removing the top cap. Then, it would be difficult to know you are pouring the seacast into just the transom because with all those holes that Skeeter cut in the fiberglass back there it could really spill out anywhere and you wouldn't be able to access the areas to shore up the leaks. I ended up finding a newer, structurally sound Stratos hull with no motor for...free. It was a no brainer for me. Dump tons of time and money into the Skeeter or swap everything over to the different hull for mininimal cost. In the end, I like the Stratos hull far more, and my efforts and money were spent making it nice, rather than salvaging the rotted boat. I'll admit, it was hard to take a chainsaw to the old girl and cut her up for disposal, but in my situation, I believe it was the right call. In your case, I would not give a penny more than the motor alone is worth. It actually cost me about $60 to dispose of my Skeeter, so I would even figure in that cost so if you decide to scrap it later you aren't starting out in the hole.