Hi Guys

Just thought id throw up some pictures and the story of my new boat, its my second boat with the first one being a 17ft - 2007 Revival Cuddy Cab with a 115 Mercury 2 stroke, Great boat for all purposes but due to a new house build and a few unexpected variations had to sell and down size in budget, wasn’t too keen on using a boat yard but in the end was contacted by Joondalup Boat shack, done a quick search on here...seen good reports so gave Rod a go. Very straight forward guy with excellent custom service, I was happy with the sale.

So after sorting a new budget with the fun police I spent the next four months searching for a new boat, $10,000 - $12,000 made life hard after having a boat in excellent condition with all the extras, was looking at Baron, Pacemaker & Swift Craft when they popped up in that price range around the same size. After scrolling past this one several times decided to take a look as it was a bit cheaper and bigger, now iv done a little reading but by no means know a lot about fiber glass or out board motors, I guess after looking at 10 to 20 boats in a Variety of conditions in the last 4 months I started to get a feel for what’s got issues and whats got issues.

So after no sea trial or compression check I bought it, don’t know how these hulls handle or review. The owner and his son came across very straight and being keen fisho's with a new model along side I had faith it had been looked after...plus they stated it had been in the family for the last 3 decades with the motor being on the boat for the last 4 years, this was purchased from a forum member so after a PM I was confident it had had been in reasonable care. Don’t know the year of the hull but would guess late 70's early 80's..It’s a 19 ft Guardian with a 1995 2 stroke 115 Johnson on board with 90lts of fuel capacity, trailer is 1979. Little more deck space than me old one, with a cabin like my last but this time with a hard top. Beside some gel coat cracking and a little peeling in the cabin area everything seemed solid with no major visible repairs or replacements. Straight up it needed money spent on safety gear to get on the water but I took that into consideration.

Once home I stripped the carpet and inside cabin to have a good look over and clean. 

First up i replaced the cabin cushions through foam sales in Myaree, Simon was great giving excellent service and price, this was the wife’s request to keep the kids happy during the Sunday arvo river cruise’s, cabin ply was given a quick sand and a coat of clear vanish. After that and budget in mind I had to keep the lowrance Elite 5 and radio that came separate, but installed a new Furuno 587 fish finder with a 600W tranny to get me on my way. Epird, Jackets, Flares and bilge pump were purchase. Fitted these and checked nav lights etc for working order.

The motor hadn’t had a service for a while and giving its age and the fact I like to get out past the 50’s I thought id give it a once over myself, spark plugs were looking a little average so they got replaced, water pump, thermos and fuel filter also got changed out. The water pump was first, dropping the leg and doing the change out did have me worried, after searching online for parts was glad I went through Chivers, very little price difference with this gear plus the service and advice was so much appreciated, with the manual and most stuff online now days I got it sorted after a few nervous moments, looking back it wasn’t to difficult and am glad I’ve done it.

Was going to give the thermos a miss, but again after speaking to the guys at Chivers, a hundred plus dollars was a small price to pay especially if intending to head out a few miles. Getting these out was the most time consuming thing ever!! Until re fitting the new ones came around. My model on paper shows to be the worse of all models with 2 sets of hands required, so glad I did these though as they were almost non existence. I always thought outboard motors were expensive to service after the first boat, even with experience I believe outboards would have to be one of the most time consuming thing’s I’ve ever worked on. 

Well that’s it so far, the motors running sweat, still looking forward to the first run on the water to clean the carbon out…hope it floats!! Still plenty to do, a good cut en polish wouldn’t hurt but I’m not worried about appearance atm, trailer breaks also need a refit so transits require care. If I do like it more than I think ill give spending big dollar’s on a new tub a miss and give this hull a true refit next winter. Not sure if ive done the right thing here, but was super keen to get back on the water. I have faith in these older builds and this worked out well under budget.

Thanks for reading, any comments appreciated.

Brock