1987 Sea Ray 230/235 Weekender – Chapter 1

The boat story, introduction

I finally found a boat I could buy in Jyväskylä, which is a city in the middle part of Finland. After checking the boat, the sellers (3 men) assured me that everything is in order, only thing needed is to change the old gasoline for new and hit the sea and enjoy and also to back it up they showed receipts of repairs and maintance from a boat maintance and repair company in Jyväskylä and the boat had a bunch of tags with this company and different dates of differents things done, so I did not suspect anything was wrong. The truth was something different, to be honest, I really don’t know if the case is that they where so stupid that they did not realise in what shape the engine and outdrive was or if it was just a “scam”. And one thing that I really wonder is, how can a professional boat repair company repair things the way it was repaired, that I discovered later when I started repairing the boat, for example repairing and exhaust manifold crack with somekind of silicon/rubber…

Also one wierd thing, not sure if it’s a 230 or 235, as some place the wrote 230 and some 235. So I’m trying to find this one out which it is in reality.

In any case, the money I paid for the boat and adding all the repairs to that amount, I’m still well under the market value of the boat. So even if it’s been a long road, not a whole lot of money but mostly a lot of time spent searching for the problem in the engine and repairing it, it would be nice to tell the former owners that their boat is worth 3 times more than what I actually paid for it, and it’s on it’s way to becoming one of the most beautiful restored Sea Ray Weekenders from 1980’s.

Chapter 1.

After I bought the boat and got it delivered to Helsinki and started sanding and painting the hull, at that time I thought all I needed to do was sand and paint the hull as the former owners claimed that engine etc. were good.

First I just sanded the hull and painted it, which was supposed to be it. Then changed the oil, oil filter, pulled out the old gasoline and changed the gasoline filter.But then when starting the engine I realised batteries needed replacement so I got new batteries, installed them and checked the engine would start. It did. So I arranged for a pickup and transfer to the water.

While the truck was on its way I decided to make a last check that everything works… well… the steering was jammed / corroded and did not move at all. My bad as I had not checked it earlier (even if it was supposed to be in shape. Well I canceled the truck and started to investigate what can be done with the steering.

After searching the whole thing, I found out that the steering cable was corroded and stuck, but the problem was that I had to replace the cable and the drum behind the steering wheel and buy a new wheel because the old one of course did not fit the new steering drum. Ok, got that done. And arranged for the pickup to get the boat delivered to the water.

Delivery went good but after I headed off to my own pier, only about 1,5 km away, about half way into the short journey the engine started steaming, overheating, cooking, of whatever word you can come up with for an overheating engine… got it to the pier and then the next 2 months have been just trying to find out what’s wrong with the engine and why it’s overheating.

This was the beginning of my boat life. It took about 1 month, during the following 2 months while in the water, I have done A LOT of things to repair it, well pulled it out of the water once for a couple of days to change the impeller.

While waiting for the chapter 2 story, below is a summary of things done and still needs to be done.

Photos from chapter 1 under the summary.

Summary

During chapter 1, the first month, before I put the boat in water I did the following things:

Installed new batteries

New steering cable, steering drum and steering wheel

Oil filter change
Gasoline filter change
Oil change
Sucked the old gasoline away

Sanded the hull
Repaired minor dents on hull
Painted the hull

Buffed and waxed upper part of hull

During chapter 2, that I will write the story about soon, I have done the following. Chapter 2 took about 2 months.

Moved batteries to better spot
Replaced electric cables from batteries to engine and rerouted them
Oil filter change (as it was broken by the guy that changed the intake manifold gasket)

Changed intake manifold gasket (TWICE, because the dude who did it put the wrond gasket first way around)

Changed the impeller, also TWICE, as the guy who did this, messed it up the first time around…)

Oil for the outdrive, also TWICE, same as above)

Replaced the spring balls + springs + bolt for the cooling system in thermostat housing
Put in a new thermostat (there was no old themrostat, it had been removed)

Sanded all wood parts and trims and oiled them
Washed and waxed the top part of the boat
Replaced engine water circulation pump

Repaired exhaust manifold, quick fix. (until I buy a new exhaust manifold)
Repaired exhaust manifold gasket, quick fix

Pulled new wires for speakers

Bypassed the trim pump solenoids to see if the actual trim pump is working or not (it works)

Numerous times cleaning and washing the whole boat from dirt, dust and oil after all the repairs.

Sea Ray 230 Weekender project chapter 1 photos