Hey Everyone,
I'm Kyle and I am a new Triton owner, let me introduce you to myself, and my new money pit. Last fall my father and I had been hunting around for an upgrade to our Hyrasports 171 as it wasn't really a very functional tournament fishing boat. After looking at many severely abused and overpriced boats a 1999 TR20 popped up for a reasonable price. The photos looked great, and with boats getting posted and sold same day, we didn't hesitate to jump in the truck and make the 200 mile road trip to go have a look at it in person. It was certainly better than most other offerings in our price range, so we decided on the spot to take it home.
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Once we got it home my father - a very meticulous man, fastidious worrier, and a BBC reader (hi dad!) started combing over the boat, trailer and motor. Boy, did the 23 years of wear-and-tear start showing up once the "new boat" rose color glasses came off... At this point I decided we should document the process of rejuvenating the old girl. While I don't consider what we've going on our hands to be a full "restoration", there is certainly a substantial amount of work in front of us. It seems like the further we look, the more we find wrong.
The top cap was nicely polished (aside from the typical gelcoat cracking), the carpet in relatively great shape for the year and most of the skeg intact, but the lipstick was starting to come off the pig... The first order of business was to do a compression test on the motor. Everything looked great, a nice even spread right around 120psi, until we hit cylinder 6... a devastating 87psi... Put that on the list... Weird oil leaking around the flywheel... put that on the list... Corrosion inside the cylinder walls.. put that on the list...
Next, lets get a better look at the hull, the minor chips we noticed rolling around in the gravel seemed to grow larger and more widespread in the shop, removing the transom transducer revealed multiple holes drilled straight through the hull with little to no sealer underneath. The top cap is separating from the bottom, can you say "water ingress"? What does the gel look like under the bunks? surprise, surprise, our old friend osmosis! and lots of it! The electrical on the boat looks like it was done by Red Green (Any fellow Canadians here?) and none of the lines, hoses or pumps have ever been changed since new. The gear clamps for the fuel lines weren't even on at the tank anymore! It's a wonder this thing isn't on the bottom of Lake St Clair.
The trailer has not faired well through outdoor storage in our Canadian winters either. Lots of corrosion, the hubs are all shot, just about every fastener is rusted, and the wiring is a mess - at least the tires are good, right? So total strip and rebuild there as well.
But, not all is lost... We are in Ontario, so with the lakes frozen, there is nothing to do but drink beer and work on the boat. Fortunately I have an extremely skilled/knowledgeable father with decades of trades know-how and a heated shop, so we are about to get after it, and I thought maybe there would be some people here interested in coming along for that ride with us - heck, maybe even help us out with some information. With that said, here is the first video in the series that we have going so far in the TR20 project series, and I've posted another since. There will be many more to come, I can guarantee it. We'd love it if you check it out, maybe you'll enjoy it if you're into Tritons and/or boat projects.
All the best,
Kyle & Chris