Thought I would post an update here - still not in the water yet but SOON! I have been working hard on getting the old boat sold - completely cleaned, polished and waxed, got all the gear sorted on what I wanted to keep vs what went with the boat. I was thinking of asking $15K for it with the new Merc Kicker installed, $12K without. My mechanic said he though it was worth $16K so I advertised it for that. Wrote up a comprehensive description with 2 dozen pictures, listed on FB Marketplace and Craigslist, and within 4 days I probably had 8 contacts on it. People were lining up to drive 4 hours to come see it, but the first guy that called came out (local young man, CA firefighter) and bought it - I told him I would throw in the downriggers for a full price offer and he agreed to the deal. Sea trial the next day on local reservoir and we closed the deal Monday AM. Nice guy - we plan to go out buddy boat in the future. I could have sold 2 more of those boats if I had them, but I was happy with the price, have the money to add some things to my new boat, and have a new friend to fish with!
So that left me without a kicker motor and no downriggers. Found a pair of Cannon Mag 10's, freshly rebuilt with new telescoping arms, wiring harness and cable (guy rebuilds for resale) for $800. Finding a kicker has been a LOT harder. All the used stuff is beat to hell, but I also wanted remote start, throttle and steering. Most small outboards have a tiller handle and the ones I was finding were difficult or impossible to convert. Also preferred the Yamaha for appearance and reliability. I started looking for a Yamaha T9.9LPB high thrust. Cannot tell you how many places I talked to (some even advertised the motor on internet with prices) but they all said "no small motors in stock, Yamaha won't let me order before July/Aug/Sep, then won't expect delivery until sometime in 2023." One of my last calls was to SIM Yamaha in WI (they advertise on this site) and Richelle could not have been more pleasant. She said they did not have any new small outboards in stock, but they just got a customer boat in that is going through complete repower and they were pulling off a 2017 T9.9 with less than 40 hours and I could get it for $3000 ($800 lower than normal asking price), no tax and reasonable shipping charge. I asked about helm controls and she called back to say they could sell me the Yamaha 703 with cables for $150. I bought it all and it left their place Fedex ground yesterday, due here next Thursday. Now I am on a wait for a PDR Marine bracket and underside support brace from WA state (they have to make more support braces and expect 2-3 weeks on that). Meanwhile on the boat, I got the downrigger mounting plates installed (I had an extra set of swivel mounts), installed new VHF antennae (I managed to snap the old one getting the tarp off one day), and finally found the blasted LED bulb to fit the Perko Anchor light that was burned out (someone had replaced the bulbs with LEDs, but there was no number on it). It took me about 3 weeks to match with what I could find in internet as no one had them locally. It is a Festoon bulb, if anyone needs the part number let me know. My mechanic helped pull the lower unit for water pump impeller (it was changed 10 hours ago, but that service was done back in 2019, so I wanted it replaced). Once apart, it looked like someone had run the motor briefly (start/stop) with no water and slightly melted the water pump housing. I decided to just replace it so took 2 weeks to get new one in. Meantime my mechanic cut his finger really bad and now has BAD cold (he sounds like hell) so waiting for him to get better and get back over here. I am also replacing the anodes in the head and thermostats since the 300 hour service just says they were "inspected"... Hoping to have it buttoned up by early next week because my fishing buddy will be back Sunday, the halibut are biting right now and rockfish season opens April 1. I also got to do some rearranging in the shop so the new boat fits where the old boat sat. Have most of the parts (except wire) to add power ports for the downriggers and got the mounting plate for crab pot puller, need to install those. Got the brakes completed and bled, replaced the plastic cap over the reservoir that was cracked and loose. Replaced the switch on forward bilge pump - works fine now. Getting close!
