Cooper

Somebody on another forums asked about how much of the engine is still in the water when it's tilted all the way up. About 1-1/2" - 2" of the lower unit stays in the water when the engine is tilted all the way up. The water intakes are out of the water, so that wouldn't be a problem. Here's the livewell filling up this past weekend. There are +/- 30 spot (similar to a pinfish) in this photo. Those are all 3-6", to give an idea of size of the livewell.

Somebody on another forum asked about the trailer: The trailer is a 2007 that I drove to VA from FL. Once in VA I've been to the mechanic a few times to raise/lower the engine and get the 20 hour service done. Otherwise it stays at my marina where the trailer storage is a few hundred yards from the ramps. It probably has less than 2,000 miles on it. There is some rust on the brakes, but they definitely work. I know that because they locked on me the other day when I tried to back up without having the plug connected all the way. I take the lugs off every year and put them back on to make sure they aren't rusted in place. The tires have lots of tread left. It's definitely road worthy, but I would have it looked over before any long trips just to be sure everything is cool. That's something I'll do at my expense before a buyer drives off with the boat. Here are some pictures from 12/2008, before the repower:

New price! $45,000 OBO. I want this boat gone before I have to store it for the winter. Make an offer! Here's a shot of the bilge. Sorry for the dirt, the rod holders are open to the bilge and construction has been going on all year at my marina. Dust is everywhere. The hatch door is on breakaway hinges. If you open it all the way, you can slide it off. It's easy to get back on. I like the design and will try to incorporate it into my formula rebuild. On the top left and top right of the opening are 10 micron racor fuel filters. Each is attached to a stainless base (one of the upgrades I made). When I repowered, I kept both fuel filters, but put in a selector switch. It's next to the center rod holder, not visible in this picture. I really like the idea of redundancy on the water like that. One filter gets clogged or full of water, just flip to the other. I alternate which one I use on each trip, to keep the fuel fresh. In the center you can see I attached a drain to the rod holder. That prevents any water from dripping on the wiring in the bilge. All wiring uses adhesive lined heat shrink connectors, but better safe than sorry... On the left side, on the starboard stringer, is the raw water washdown pump. The elevated location means that the pump doesn't get wet and water doesn't sit inside it rusting up the impeller shaft. I'm not sure what the flow rate is, but it's a strong pump. You can just make out the stainless shutoff valves that all pumps and all through-hulls use. These are very high quality parts. Mounted to the bulkhead that makes up the forward wall of the bilge area is the macerator pump. Like the washdown pump, it stays dry and doesn't hold water. It pumps out all three of the aft boxes. Down in the bilge are the other pumps: two for the livewell, one for the pitchwells, and the bilge pump. The bilge pump has a solid state switch (another upgrade). It doesn't get stuck on, and it doesn't turn on with oil or gas. The livewell and pitchwell pumps all run through a seachest. Debris is less likely to get into the pumps and there's only one inlet into the boat. It's a very nice design - something else I'll try to duplicate on the formula. Page 6 of this pdf has a diagram: http://www.mbcboats.com/omanuals/22PC.pdf Not visible in this picture, but up and to the left, is the wiring panel I showed earlier. Every single thing that runs int he bilge or runs through the bilge is connected there using a terminal block. That will make life way easier when chang out pumps or installing lights or whatever. I saw the idea of another forum and I don't think I'll own another boat without the wiring done this way. It was a lot of extra work, but I think it makes sense over the life of the boat.

This is a picture of the drains and transducers. To locate this picture: the visible aluminum is the starboard bunk, the engine is out of the picture to the top, and the front of the boat is down and to the left. The garboard drain plug is stainless. I drilled a hole in the plug and ran a piece of stainless wire to a starboard piece in the bilge so I don't ever forget it. It's held on with a snap swivel if it needs to be removed. The two large through hull drains are both connected to stainless ball valves in the bilge. One of these drains the livewell. The other I'm not 100% sure of. I have been saying the forward 3 in-deck hatches drain to the bilge, but it's possible they drain through one of these through hulls. I'll find out this weekend and report back. The dark thing to the bottom left is the flush mounted tilted element trandsucer. It reads depth and temp and any speed this boat will go. I've marked bait at 50mph. I never lose bottom at any speed. When I installed the tilted element transducer, I routed out the core around the opening for 1/2" - 3/4" and filled with thickened epoxy. And of course there's half a tube of 4200 sealing it up as well. The dark elongated thing to the top right is the side scan transducer. It's out of the water at planing speed. It reads perfectly up to about 7 or 8mph, which is pretty standard because of the super high ping rate of the side scan sonar. This is the preferred mounting configuration for hulls that have a step like this. The side scan is great. I've seen fish off to the side while trolling and been able to turn enough to put the baits in front of them. The side scan transducer is held on with 5200. That means no holes drilled below the water line. On the far side of the keel, not visible in this photo, is a "cheese grater". It's the opening to a seachest where the pumps pull water from. It's a very slick setup that I'll try to duplicate on my formula rebuild.

I was able to get measurements this weekend. The fish boxes are quite long. Here's a drawing I made, since I don't trust myself to accurately describe what's going on. There are two fish boxes in the rear sides, some sort of storage box in the rear center (this is sometimes plumbed as a livewell in other 2300dvs), two boxes on the sides of the console, and another storage box in front of the console. All three of the rear boxes drain via macerator. The other three drain to the bilge.

Thanks, Pearl Diver! I answered some questions on another forum. Here are the questions: 1. Weight 2. Beam 3. dedrise 4. Pics of Fish boxes and how big and how long (inches) are they in stern of boat 5. pic of the bow deck area (is it a flat deck) 6. pics of any and all storage areas on the boat (are they all in the floor) 7. pic of anchor locker open to see how big it is 8. could you put a lifejacket holder under the ttop (one of the custom ones) not a tbag 9. is there a trim tab gauge and a engine trim gauge??? (thats nice!!!!) 10. Is there a stereo with any speakers??? Here are my answers: 1) Weight is listed as 2300lbs. I'm guessing that's dry. Engine and basic gear probably add another 1000. 190 gallons of gas is another 1200 or so. Maybe 5000 ready to fish with a couple people. I tow with my dodge 1500 and used my ford f150 before that with no problems. 2) Beam is 8'6". 3) I believe the deadrise is 21 degrees, but it might be 22. 4) I have some pics of the fish boxes open, but no measurements. In the floor, there is one hatch in front of the console, two on the sides of the console (one on either side), two in the corners of the cockpit, and one in the center of the cockpit. I keep cleaning gear, dock lines, and life jackets in three of those hatches. The rest sit empty and wait for fish or passenger gear. I'll get measurements and better photos this weekend. In the meantime, here are a couple pictures. This is the rear center hatch. The bilge hatch is on the vertical wall of the transom. The fish boxes are on either side. Here's one of the fish boxes. This is on the side of the console. This is in the bow. 5) The floor is flat all the way bow to stern. See above for an aft-facing picture. I'll get more pictures this weekend facing forward. 6) Except for the the console, all storage is in the floor. There are drains and/or gutters around all hatches, so they stay relatively dry. Please see above for pictures. 7) The anchor locker is very large. I keep 600' of line attached to 12' of chain. You can see that it's maybe 1/3 full in this photo. There's easily room for a drift sock and anchor ball in addition to the anchor and rode. 8) I think you could probably have a mesh lifejacket holder under the canopy of the t-top, but I don't know how many jackets it would hold. I keep 6 type III life jackets and a throwable in my front hatch. This picture is a little dark, but here's the underside of the top from a couple years ago. 9) The trim tabs have indicators built into the switch. the engine trim shows up on the gauges. You can configure it to show any number of ways. This picture shows the trim tab switch with indicators. 10) I don't have a stereo with speakers. I have been using a small boombox connected to an ipod that I bungee to the top of the console.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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:

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:

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.

Here are some pictures from yesterday.

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

Please inlude me for a solo unit. Thanks