TOPIC: new member,new boat owner.

hey guys justin from AZ checking in.


i grew up having a boat at the house and spent plenty of time on an tri hull in my youth so i set out to find myself a decent tri hull. i found a craigslist special

my father now lives in Florida and was unable to help me pick out a boat. i may not have made the best choice but after a lot of work and a couple surprises my 1976 cobalt 18 powered by a mercruiser 888 (302 ford) is just about 100% lake ready.

the family and i spent a few hours out in it today at canyon lake for anyone that knows the area- i did spot another very nice looking cobalt tri hull out there today.

had a few small hickups. someone who knows better(me) never checked the trailer bearings and had one fail luckily just a few miles from a napa.

i put the bilge plug in after putting the boat in the water and parking the trailer,think ill try putting it in before putting the boat in the water next time and see how that goes . luckily the new bilge pump had everything sorted in short order.

and against my better judgement i didnt build the dual optima battery tray yet and i think the one battery i had in there failed. once i got a jump (i had enough sense to bring a jump box) it ran fine. tomorrow i guess ill check out the charging system and start building that battery tray to hold the 2 new optimas i have sitting on the garage floor,dual battery switch from amazon is on its way. i have all the stuff to build cables on hand.

i will try to get a couple pics posted of the boat,my wife spent a lot of time recovering the bow seats and building wrap around bench seats for the interior and putting all new carpet in it.

i have enjoyed this project so far and plan on doing a complete outdrive service over the biter AZ winter.

cereal killer,

WELCOME ABOARD, fellow TEXICAN.

yours, satx

Welcome Justin, glad to have you join us. Share some pics of your project Cobalt with us when you get a chance, we'd love to see it. Love the description of your first outing, sounded rather familiar.

ive been slacking with the pics. i did put in more work and take another trip out to the lake yesterday.the boat still needs a name i suspect thats why its giving me so much trouble.


dual optima batteries,isolater switch. new ignition switch new wiring from dash to starter. added a relay to the starter circuit,upgraded to a later model volvo/penta gear reduction starter,easy swap well worth t for anyone with a ford v8 powered boat.

put the bilge plug in before putting the boat in the water think i will use that technique moving forward. ran great right up until the upper gear set failed. just when i think i have it about sorted something else breaks. its ok i kinda figured with a 38 year old $900 boat i would encounter some problems and so far i have been able to fix all of them without breaking the bank to bad.

still searching ebay for an upper. it had the wrong gear set in it anyhow
the manual suggests 1.50 is correct and i had 1.65 in it. it ran out well and got on plane quick with the 1.65 so im unsure what ratio to put in it.

on to the pics: