My launch has almost landed.....

[DAFF]

Just a few more hours till I go pick her up. Needs a few odds and ends plus a little work on the bottom side but all in all a great boat:D Needs a radio faceplate, the front sack is missing and a good clean and wax. It has most of all the goodies offered in 2003 Gravity Games Edition. I cant wait to get it on the water and go for a spin.

[DGREEN]

Nice! You gotta be stoked!!

[86 century]

Nice
Congrats

[michael hunter]

Sweet ride congrats .

[Ptownkid]

Didn't it have a big hole in the bottom?

[haugy]

Nice boat man. Hole?

[Diggs]

Nice ride. Congrats

[86 century]

That is pretty. Even comes with it's own kid.

Cool in the right place you could get a few grand of your money back selling the kid

[DAFF]

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. Boat is going to clean up very EZ and look great. Yes this is the one with the 1 1/2" inspection hole drilled in the bottom. Long story short the privious owner bought the boat from a dealer and noticed a small imperfection in the hull. With some further investigation it was determined the boat had hit a rock or something causing the hull damage. Under good faith the dealer gave the money back to the buyer. I can't see any structural issues other than the inspection hole. Going to patch the hole and run her while keeping an eye on the botom. I think it was much a to do about nothing myself and a case of buyers remorse......

What is the trick for backing up one of these new trailer uphill. Had to jam a penny into the slide mechanism to get it up my drive....

[docdrs]

You need a five wire harness with the blue going to the reverse lights. Or you can just turn the connector 180 degrees so you have power to the blue wire. BTW congrats on everything

[DAFF]

That makes good sence. Going to do a seven wire plug on the end. I have no idea why they invented the 5 wire.... To use it you still need a converter to go from 7 back down to 5. Anyone know where is the distribution box for all the trailer wiring is?? One side of the marker lights is not working. One thing I plan on doing is a LED conversion on all the bulbs. Anyone running a 06 and newer Dodge should do the same. Everything runs through a TIPM and trailers with lights can cause damage due to amperage overloading. It is a $1200 fix.

[docdrs]

I think I got my 5 wire at Canadian Tire and wired it into the round 7 or 9 that is on my suv

[docdrs]

yep CT http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/4/Auto/Towing/HitchesTrailerAccessories/PRD~0406812P/Reese+Trailer+Connector+-+5+Way.jsp?locale=en

[DAFF]

I think I will snip the 5 plug off and direct wire a round 7 pin plug on the end.

[wiatowski]

Nice boat... now I don't feel as guilty for buying yours... you sell the comp?

[Ptownkid]

A 1-1/2" round hole...man, that boat was a steal at 10k then.

[wiatowski]

By the way Daff take good care of my future boat. :D

[DAFF]

Went through the boat today. Radio needs some love, fuel guage is not working and bildge pump runs continually. Other than that I love it. With a good clean and polish it will look like new.

[wiatowski]

how about some interior pics?

[MUNS01]

Haha I'm the guy who had the buyers remorse... But my remorse went further than the fear that the boat had hit a rock...
When I bought it I had noticed some spider cracks in the gel coat on the bottom near the rudder. I made a deal with adam that if I bought it they would have those repaired. I took posession of the boat and had it for about a month before the guy who they were going to have fix it was able to fix it. For about a month it sat in his shop, I kept calling and asking when it would be fixed and it just kept being pushed back. Finally one day out of frustration I went down there to find out what was going on. I was taken out to the guys shop, he had the boat in the air and showed me his concerns. He was able to push on the bottom of the hull, where the stringers are and it would flex about an inch. He said he had contacted supra and they said that the stringers may have delaminated and he wasen't sure if he would be able to fix it, and didn't actually want to attempt to fix it. Depressed I left his shop ( one of the salesman stuck around to talk to him ) so I drove around for a few mins until the salesman had left, went back to his shop to speak with him and ask him what I should do, He told me to get my money back and thats what I did.
Now I am not saying you bought a lemon. When I gave up on that boat everything was under speculation, so the stringers may have not ended up being the problem. And no way am I bashing the dealer. ( they felt so bad they ended up going to chicago to pick up my current boat and brought it over the border and financed it to me and made no money on the deal ) So I wouldnt think they would sell you a boat if they didnt think it was a bad deal.
It is a very nice boat, and I hope you dont have problems with it! But this is something you may want to talk to them about..

[MUNS01]

And I am sorry if I just ruined your stoke..

[Ptownkid]

Better to have all the info than none at all man. Even if it may end up being a bummer, I would sure want to know this stuff.

[DAFF]

Good to know the full story. Not much different than what I was told. Still going to fix the inspection hole and run it. If I need to do repairs on the hull I can pull the cap this winter. All in all a great buy and well worth the risk.

[wiatowski]

Any interior pics yet? And is the hole fixed now?

[Jetlink]

Talk about full disclosure..."And if you look underneath Mr. Daff you can visibly see for yourself that the stringers are in good shape, I promise!"Haha, man you crack me up! I am hoping that I can make it to the supra meet in Chattanooga just so I can finally put a face with some of you guys.

[DAFF]

I have spent the week riding the creeper looking and thinking about the underside of the boat. If you examine the repaired area closely the angle of attack of the impact can be traced. Only two visable areas of concern exsist on the bottom of the boat covering a .75sqft area in tolal. Most of this repair is found between the centre line of the boat and the main stringer. From there most of the impact seemed to be on the prop and rudder section. The funny part is the hole is drilled in the foam side of the hull around the secondary stringer. As for the soft spot there isn't one with the load of the boat on the trailer. Could the way the boat was blocked up when the inspection caused wierd inner forces making the area of concern ??? Even stranger is the section where the hole is drilled shows original gel and absolutely no spider cracking or delamination in this region.

I plan on pulling the trailer this week, grinding the dammaged sections and doing a more in depth inspections. I am sure more than 30% of all boats on the water have some sort of hull dammage. Some repairs are better than others and some might be simple kick and fills to hide the truth. This repair looks to be quite old which is a good thing of sorts. One thing to note is the main stringers on the bilge side have absolutly no delamination issues, in fact look almost factory perfect.

Given the inner strength of the composite built boat which the construction methods with of the foam. How would a soft section form at all ?? Expecially in a area which seems 100 % virgin? I compared flex of Comp with the Launch and they seem very similar in deflection given a pressure point on specific area. Plus the flex areas from RHS to LHS of the Launch are comparable too.

It does look nice all clean up. All the little stuff has been fixed. All to do is the bottom patch and inspection....

[DAFF]

Spent a few hours with my best friend Mr Buffer and some 3M.... I love the results!! :D

Also did some work on the radio and installed some new 6.5" speakers and a Kenwood deck. A few hours fixing the way the speakers were wired and fine tuning. Even my wife commented that perhaps we should lower the base.... Stuff was shaking inside the house.

[86 century]

Looks great

It cant be any worse than a rotten wood core rig. Think of how many of them are out there running around.

[wiatowski]

interesting... thought it was a v drive.
looks nice all cleaned up....hope everything is ok when it comes off the trailer and you got yourself a mechanic story/ make work special. :)

[DAFF]

Most marine places have no idea about the inner structures of a inboard ski boat so perhaps you are correct. As for me I am 95% certain the dammage is more cosmetic than structural. If delamination was a real concern then wouldn't there be spider cracking all over the place. Repeated 1" flex, if harmfull. Would quickly show structural fatigue. So yes, her lipstic is smeared but her face is still pretty!!! IMO

[wiatowski]

Agreed. 12 years ago I had starter problems. Freightliner mechanic told me the ring gear in my truck was "melted" $3800 repair..... I left the shop, replaced the starter... funny....it's still in my truck. :)
By the way, I was reimbursed by 2 freightliner dealerships when I threatened to sue for fraud. 1st dealership didn't properly replace my starter and wouldn't fess up to it, 2nd one said the above.