1999 Sunsport steering question

[Skyjumper303]

Im looking into buying a 99 sunsport. Its got around 750 hours and is in pretty good shape. My question and concern is the guy selling it said when you let off the throttle at low speed it pulls slightly one direction. What could cause an issue like that? I have a friend that looked at it a few months ago and he claimed the boat had been beached and probably had a dent drive. I looked under it and saw nothing that screamed beached or bent shaft. I turned the drive by hand and it seemed to move freely like it should. Regardless weather permitting Im hopefully gonna take it for a test drive very soon and know more about the situation. This will be my first boat and I just dont want a bad experience for the first go around! Thanks in advance!

[Jdm89supra]

don't know if this will help but could be a start .when I bought my 82 comp it has pretty much the same issue. when letting off the throttle of about 20 mph it would dive left hard. come to find out the guy before me had bottomed it out and slitely bent the rudder. when under power it was not noticeable but when idling down yea hang on. we replaced the rudder and bearings and all was good. not saying this is what is wrong but would see if this is the case. another option my 89 conbrio had a three blade prop on it and it would track real bad to the right. i had the prop worked on and the company that fixed it said one of the blades had a high pitch that the other two. i just changed to a four blade and problem solved.

[Skyjumper303]

don't know if this will help but could be a start .when I bought my 82 comp it has pretty much the same issue. when letting off the throttle of about 20 mph it would dive left hard. come to find out the guy before me had bottomed it out and slitely bent the rudder. when under power it was not noticeable but when idling down yea hang on. we replaced the rudder and bearings and all was good. not saying this is what is wrong but would see if this is the case. another option my 89 conbrio had a three blade prop on it and it would track real bad to the right. i had the prop worked on and the company that fixed it said one of the blades had a high pitch that the other two. i just changed to a four blade and problem solved.

Im open to all suggestions! Thanks, Im definitely gonna look into to that one.

[DAFF]

Rudder is my first thought.... Check it out for free play. There also could be rot in the wooden base on the top side of the rudder too. Allowing for it to wander under partial loads.