Back at table rock lake when I was 17, my Dad bought me a 1982 18' McFast, 150 Johnson, trolling motor with one battery I manually charge after each fishing trip - simple and effective. I still have it and do the work on it myself when I go home and fish.
Three months ago I purchased a new ZV19 Sport ($70k with upgrades). It is absolutely amazing, and it is everything I could ask for in a boat and more. But is it too engineered for me to get functional?
I don't regret the decision, and Cabela's has been great and everything under warranty. But, I just want it to be generally functional for its purpose. I'm caught between spending 100 hours going through manuals and attending YouTube school to learn every wire, seal and hose on that boat so I can troubleshoot and fix everything, or fire sell it. At night, I actually take comfort that I can always just buy an old simple McFast fiberglass boat, foot controlled trolling motor, Walmart battery and charger, and go fishing. Honestly, I just want to fish.
Three months ago I purchased a new ZV19 Sport ($70k with upgrades). It is absolutely amazing, and it is everything I could ask for in a boat and more. But is it too engineered for me to get functional?
- Motor. Leaked oil (kink in hose), fixed and no problems since.
- Leak. Breaking in motor - the hose for the speedometer pressure was not secured - spewed water under steering wheel on all the electronics. Fixed.
- Electronics. USB ports, radio and back depth finder became inoperable. Short in a battery cable, with significant sulfidation on all four batteries. Cable fixed, batteries cleaned.
- Auto-Bilge. Didn’t work, no floater originally installed. Fixed (light panel for auto-bilge still doesn’t work, but don't care).
- Cover. The cover doesn’t fit (too short for Ultrex), so can’t be secured to frame. Cover acts as tarp with bungie cords, unable to prevent pooling. Currently, boat is in a wet slip. During each rain I have to periodically check boat, dump ponding water, retie boat cover down (which is fruitless) and manually operate bilge pump to prevent floundering. I am constantly looking outside at weather and checking forecasts. I can’t leave town or be unavailable during any rain for more than a couple of hours. Still waiting on replacement cover.
- NEW: Battery Charger. The Noco Gen4 charger hasn't charged the batteries since it has been back from shop. No lights, at all. Confirmed 124 volts going into boat socket and socket secured to charger.
- NEW: Battery. While checking voltage of AC, I also checked the batteries. One battery is dead. All four batteries indicate sulfidation starting again, so all four brand new batteries probably shot.
I don't regret the decision, and Cabela's has been great and everything under warranty. But, I just want it to be generally functional for its purpose. I'm caught between spending 100 hours going through manuals and attending YouTube school to learn every wire, seal and hose on that boat so I can troubleshoot and fix everything, or fire sell it. At night, I actually take comfort that I can always just buy an old simple McFast fiberglass boat, foot controlled trolling motor, Walmart battery and charger, and go fishing. Honestly, I just want to fish.