2008 189 Sport

[OldDude]

2008 189 Sport. Purchased Dec 2020 replacing a Chaparral Ski boat. My wife wanted a "Fish and Cruise" ,,, we are too old to ski but like to cruise around and love to fish so that's her name for it. I rebuilt the fuel system from inside the tank to electric fuel pumps, replaced filters, belts, raised gas tank vent line. Other than painting the glove box lids and thoroughly cleaning and removing oxidation as it seems to have sat outside uncovered most of its life... we have been blessed not to do too much to it. It sees the water 2-4 times a week year round so far. My wife is usually the pilot. Its our stress reliever.

I do need a netter trolling motor foot pedal. The one we have is worn out and super touchy.

 

[Capt. Scully]

WoW, nice boat, inside and out.

 

[lwoomer53]

Looks great! Good job getting her in ship shape and back on the water.

 

[OldDude]

Thanks

 

[Notrab77]

I agree, beautiful boat. I have the same one in red and need to do some cleaning from the last year’s worth of fishing and tubing. I’m amazed at how good your seats look - did you have to clean those up as well? I just put an Ulterra on for a new trolling motor as our was warn out and it works great. I wish I could find some of the bow rider pads you have and I need a cover for those long tubing / wakeboarding days as well.

 

[DONAOL]

Great job restoring this boat. Excellent job cleaning the seats and decking. Question : Why did you raise gas vent tube?

 

[OldDude]

@Notrab77... I wish I had pics. The boat was full of leaves and debris. The seats were horrible. I'm stiff finding leaves in weird places and wonder how they got there.

After the thorough vacuuming, we used straight simple green and a soft brush and water. Then we used 3M marine vinyl conditioner and restorer. It worked wonders. We still use it about once a month as it keeps the seats clean and soft. It isn't cheap but it's worth it.

We also spray diluted simple green on the carpet, use a brush, and then pressure wash it front to back.

It's my wife's baby. She is very meticulous. If it gets wet inside we clean it an it sits outside to dry weather permitting, and if not I put in in my shop with a fan on the front deck pointed back.

I used 3m marine restorer and wax to cut the oxidation. Our water here is very hard and leaves a white film on the black hull every time it goes in the water.

@DONAOL. The boat started having fuel delivery issues right after we bought it. It acted like it was starving for gas. I raised the line so it wouldn't hold fuel, eliminating proper venting as an issue. I rebuilt the pulse pump twice.

It's time to service the oil in the lower unit as we have put right at 100 hours on it. Any tips? Anything else I need to be doing at this point?

 

[Jimmopotumus]

Not sure if that model has the automatic oil pump with upper and lower tanks but I too bought an older boat that had set. I am in the process of power head replacement (unrelated). I learned that taking the intake out of the lower tank and cleaning the screen is a must or mix your own oil. It gets sludge build up in the lower tank.
Beautiful boat, congratulations.

 

[OldDude]

It's an Optimax DFI. Or did you mean in the lower unit somewhere? This is new to me.

I also added a keel guard. That's really given peace of mind.

 

[Jimmopotumus]

Mine is a 2001 Nitro 896, older motor than the optimax. I’m sure if yours was clogged you would have an alarm by now.