For sale: Pathfinder 2300dv / Suzuki 300 - PRICE REDUCTION (9/30)

[Cooper]

Boat: 2005 Pathfinder 2300dv bought as new 10/2007 (dealer leftover) .

Motor: 2007 Suzuki 300 installed 4/2009 with warranty through 4/2015.

Trailer: 2007 EZ Loader aluminum bunks.

Original asking price: $48,000.

New asking price (8/25): $45,000. I don't want to store this boat over the winter. Make an offer!

NEW asking price (9/30): $42,000. It's gotta go!

I'm selling to make room, time, and money for a 1972 Formula 233 I'm going to restore. I made decisions about upgrades like I was going to have this boat forever.

I've made a number of upgrades over the past 3 years:

- Top was beefed up structurally, sandblasted, re-powdercoated, and installed with nylon washers and tefgel. There is no corrosion anywhere.

- Various rod holders were added to gunnels, console, and top.

- LED spreaders and anchor light.

- Custom switch panels.

- Wiring completely redone from scratch.

- Lowrance HDS-10 with flush through-hull transducer and sidescan.

- Icom VHF.

- 3 AGM batteries.

- Redundant fuel filters with stainless bases.

- Heavy duty cover used only one winter.

This hull came with twin Yamaha F150s, but I believe they were too heavy and their shafts were too long for this hull. I sold them and repowered with the Suzuki in early 2009. The boat sits and rides much better with the big single. Since the fuel tank had two pickups, I kept both fuel filters and have a selector switch. That's a nice bit of redundancy on the water. I also kept three batteries, wiring two of them into a single house bank. No more worries about losing juice when running lots of livewell pumps.

- The engine has 64 hours on it as of 8/8/2010.

- The gas tank holds 190 gallons.

- There's a ~45 gallon livewell fed by two separate pumps under the leaning post.

- There are pitch wells in the corners of the transom. I use these ALL the time and they're great. I'm going to find a way to incorporate something similar when redoing the Formula.

- The fish boxes are pumped out with a macerator pump.

- The bilge pump uses a solid state switch.

- I have a console cover, boarding ladder, Autotether, a case of oil for the engine, an underwater LED light (boat is wired, but light isn't installed), and various other odds and ends worth something.

I've made a ton of upgrades and improvements not listed here. All the little things were taken care of: solid state bilge pump switch, stainless fuel filter bases, etc, etc, etc.

Any questions, feel free to ask. Call me at 954-816-9116 or send an email to cooperrf@yahoo.com. The boat is located in Chesapeake Beach, MD.

Before repowering with the Suzuki:

After repower:

This is with a full tank of 190 gallons:

I made starboard backing plates for all the mounting bolts for the top:

Nylon washers and tefgel were used when installing the top after having it re-powdercoated. There is zero corrosion.

Lots of rod holders were added:

Heavy duty cover:

Electronics, custom switch panels, and four gauges (2 are standard):

Wiring almost complete (need to trim a few zip ties):

Terminal blocks in transom to make switching out pumps *much* easier:

Thanks,

Cooper

Edited September 30, 2010 by Cooper

[Cooper]

Here are some pictures from yesterday.

[Cooper]

Here are pictures of the battery "box". I made this with epoxy, woven roving, mat, cloth, and epoxy concrete paint. It's held closed with 2" wide velcro straps that I sewed together. The goal was to fully cover and restrain the batteries in the smallest possible space, to make the interior of the console more usable.

[Cooper]

When I got the boat from the dealer, the t-top had corrosion under the powdercoating around the bolts and curtain snap screws. I was *this close* to pursuing legal action, but ultimately gave up and just made it right myself.

Here's what happened:

1) I took the t-top off the boat.

2) I overdrilled all bolt holes to allow for thickness of powdercoating plus a buffer.

3) Welder added supports to beef up the top.

4) Welder filled all the holes from the snap screws filled.

5) Powdercoater blasted (not sure what media) all the old coating off.

6) Powdercoater washed the bare aluminum with acid.

7) Powdercoater recoated top.

8) I wrapped all bolts with 8 turns of electrical tape before installing to keep metal from touching the powdercoating.

9) I filled all holes and coated all hardware with tefgel before installing.

10) I used nylon washers everywhere.

11) I reconfigured curtain to use different snaps.

12) I sewed together velcro straps to hold curtain snaps instead of screws into t-top.

13) I wrapped t-top with rubber where rod holders clamp.

Bottom line: NOT A SINGLE PIECE of metal touches the powdercoating. And NOT A SINGLE HOLE has been put through the powdercoating. It is fully encapsulating the metal 100% all around. There is zero corrosion because of these extra steps I took. The top is solid.

Here are the velcro straps I made:

[Cooper]

I have some photos to post. But I need to put up a disclaimer saying the boat is filthy because there's construction going on at the marina. It's impossible to stay ahead of the dirt and dust that get into the boat every week. I try to keep it clean.

I got some measurements.

At the bow, the interior height is 26":

At the stern, the interior height is 23":

The aft edge of the t-top is 78" off the deck:

There are fore-aft support tubes under the rear canopy of the top. The outside two are grab rails and are lower. The interior two are only for support and are higher. I took measurements halfway between the console and leaning post, about where your head might be. Down the center of the top, above where you stand, there is no extra support tube, so there may be an additional 2" of clearance (I forgot to get that measurement).

The lower tubes are 74" above the deck:

The higher tubes are 78" above the deck:

[Cooper]

Here's a picture of the aft edge of the t-top.

There are 4 aluminum clamp-on rod holders. I chose these type instead of welded, because if they were welded I would need to powdercoat them. And how can you protect a powdercoated rod holder from getting chipped? Also, these are aluminum instead of stainless to save weight and reduce stress on the top.

The spreader is one of ScarabChris' LED spreader lights. There's another just like it on the front. It totally lights up the cockpit with a clean white light.

The antenna is a Digital. They're supposed to be the nicest around. That's just a bit of pipe insulation on there to keep it from hitting the rod holder. It doesn't touch unless it's bouncing around.

The canvas is held on with zip ties. That's for a few reasons. 1) It's *way* easier to install. I've done rope in the past and it wasn't exactly simple or quick. Zip ties can be done in 10 minutes start to finish. Also, it's harder to center the canvas when using rope. 2) I think zip ties look cleaner and more sleek. 3) I think they provide some extra bit of redundancy. Imagine your rope rotted through while out on the water. Now your whole top could potentially unravel. If a zip tie broke, you'd still have all the others. Plus it's easy to carry spares, so you'd be back in business in no time.

Also from this angle you can see the various tubes that I measured in a previous post.

[Cooper]

This is the leaning post.

The back rest is removable in case you want to use those rod holders. Again, zero corrosion on the powdercoating.

There is a small amount of tackle storage and a drawer. I keep most of my tackle in large trays in milk crates in the console, and put the common essentials (some hooks, sinkers, jigs, etc.) in the small trays. I refill them from the large trays when they get low. I keep leader, pliers, bait knife, etc. in the drawer.

The livewell is nice. The best of any boat I've owned. It's fed by redundant pumps, each with a separate nozzle in the livewell. I usually use both to fill it (so it goes faster), then run off one or the other on alternating days. The livewell is more than 40 gallons (maybe 47, I'm not exactly sure). It has rounded corners.

This is right after I picked the boat up from the dealer:

[Cooper]

This is the console.

I have a console cover from the factory that fits around the legs of the t-top and is held closed with velcro.

There's a folding foot rest.

The ignition works off a button, so it's easy to start and stop the engine during the day without worrying about the key.

The top half of the plexiglass electronics cover folds upwards and can be removed (breakaway hinges). There's a dedicated spot inside the console to hold it when it's removed. It locks using the two black latches on either side.

The electronics enclosure and cup holders have drains to empty water onto the deck and keep the inside of the console dry.

There are 4 rod holders with knife and pliers holders on each side of the console.

The switch panels are custom. I chose the switch layout, text, font size, etc. These are better than any factory switches I've seen. The components used and wiring job are spectacular. They're made by Scott at Vector LED: http://www.vectorled.com/ The port switches include a horn, nav lights, courtesy lights (wired to terminal strip in bilge, but no lights installed), spreader lights, underwater light (wired to terminal strip in bilge, and I have the light - made my scarabchris, but it's not installed), and electronics.

I have 4 LMF gauges. Normally only 1 or 2 come with an engine, but I bought extras. You can display pretty much any function you want on any gauge. You can see the engine hours are 64.93 on the far right gauge.

The starboard gauges include bilge pump, raw water washdown, macerator for the two aft fish boxes, livewell pump 1, livewell pump 2, and pitchwells pump. Below that are the inidicator switches for the trim tabs. Then the throttle. The throttle is fly-by-wire and is super smooth. There's no tapping it with your fist to reach trolling rpms or anything like that. It moves like butter and stays where you leave it. I can't imagine ever going back to cables.

[Pearl Diver]

Absolutely beautiful boat and amazing attention to detail!

[Cooper]

I have two props for the boat. One is the standard suzuki 3 blade prop. The other is currently a mercury 3 blade tempest, but that may change. I've already tried different size rev 4s and and a hydromotive.

I also have an auto tether. This provides real peace of mind when fishing alone.