The way this season is going so far has reminded me my Saltare is old and will eventually need restoration. Trailer work and whatnot to get ready to tow up north for vacation, new suspension, cobbling together the fenders yet again. New tires, a blowout, loose bearing on the road repacked and adjusted that got me through the trip, etc. Worked great while away though, no issues and I got some pulls in.

Before vacation I took the trailer for a test drive and to fill the tank. Rough roads, the gas tank straps came off and tank shifted. Rotted at the strap mount penetrations. I strapped it down side to side with two metal straps screwed into the solid wood on either side that locates the tank, it was fine through vacation and still strapped down.

The rear hatch pulled out from the back of the seats. The seat backs are dry rotted and gone in one spot. I was able to hit enough relatively solid spots in the seat backs to be good enough for now. The bow cushion bases are rotting but serviceable (barely), and the observer seat base is warping from being wet.

Years ago when I got new batteries I cut an access under the wine bar storage compartment to move the batteries and create storage under the observer seat. I abandoned this when I found there was no solid wood left under there to mount the batteries to. The wine bar drain dumps into this space and not the bilge. Cooler drain just dumps to the floor as well.

Pylon is loose, nothing for the lags to bite into. Extended pylon is secure enough to the bow. I wonder if the extended pylon on the tapered original pylon may have wallowed this out from having a loose fit at the top of the pylon.

Motor mounts are still tight. Floor is solid where you walk. The boat feels solid through rough water.

Wet wood on the transom. I drilled the exhaust holes larger to fit mufflers, removing the wet wood there. I resealed the platform mount brackets and bolts, the wood was wet in some holes from these leaks but sealed now. New rudder and port. The bilge is totally dry now.

A dry bilge was super cool, but now my transmission leaks as does my distributor (a real mystery). Runs well and just plain works, aside from topping off the transmission.

I've had the boat for 12 years. The only costly repair was replacing the worn out and leaky rudder, port, helm and cable. Even for that I probably would have been fine with just repacking it but I wanted to do it right. In a dollars per year sense this boat has been very good to me.

I'd be happy with this Saltare being my last boat (well, never getting rid of it anyway), I have no desire for fancy new electronics and I can add a tower when it makes sense. It'll need stringers and a proper restoration eventually, which I guess make sense from a dollars and cents perspective when looking at the cost of newer boats. Composite boats have their own issues with saturated foam, was reading a thread on a Malibu restoration removing all the wet foam from under the composite floor. On that note, I'm thinking composite would be preferable, but more work. Major concerns with that are how to attach anything such as motor mounts to stringers.

I have too many irons in the fire to start gutting this boat and a less than ideal workspace (but far better than some have worked with, 24'x30' heated garage). If I can get through next summer I might be able to fit it in the garage and start the following winter. How do you decide when it's time though?