We're back!

[Wazzajnr]

Hi everyone,

Been away a while. Combination of work, some illness and moving house plus of course, covid, means that the boat hasn't been near any water for 3 years now.
We're off to Anglesey Bank Holiday weekend so I decided to dig out the little sib and motor and see what it's like.

First off, the motor. 6 year old hyfong. Admittedly, not huge hours on it but connected the tank (3yo premix in it) squeezed the bubble and fired up first pull. My gob, as they say, was well and truly smacked.
Anyway, it was pretty smokey so I emptied the tank and put fresh in, cleaned out the carb and tried again. It was still smoking so I left it running at fast idle for a while. Must have been the fuel left in the pipe from the tank because after about 10 minutes it cleared up and ran really sweetly.

Blew up the boat (didn't bother putting the ally floor in as it's a pig) been inflated for 3 days now so seems to be holding air fine.

Hoping all goes that well once on the water.

We're staying near Newborough beach as it's our favourite, my only concern is if the path to the beach is wide enough to wheel it through but if not, there are 4 adults so we can always carry a short distance.

Good thing is that Anglesey council don't charge launch fee below 10hp so even if we use the slip we only pay for the registration.

We are looking at buying a small speedboat 15' or so. If that comes off then the sib will be on offer.

If anyone knows of a speedboat going cheap with engine, let me know.
Happy to do cosmetics and engine work but hoping not to be repairing floors and transoms if possible.
Looking for sub £2k so that gives an idea what we're looking for.

Happy boating all, and be careful out there, I'm guessing there will be more idiots than normal on the water this year! 😁

[Maximus]

Enjoy Anglesey
Happy to hear "your back on form"....often cheap "speed boats" on Preloved
2k is a little Light ...but Who knows?.....some people get lucky

[Wazzajnr]

Originally Posted by Maximus

Enjoy Anglesey
Happy to hear "your back on form"....often cheap "speed boats" on Preloved
2k is a little Light ...but Who knows?.....some people get lucky

Thanks for the tip. I'll keep my eye out there.
There are plenty on Facebook marketplace around and below 2k. That said, there's some total shockers on there too.
I'm in no rush at all to buy something so I'll just wait until the right one comes up.

Any ideas what a cheap 3.2 ally floor sib and 6hp Chinese motor might be worth?

[Fenlander]

Hard to value with that outboard but perhaps £500? Maybe less?

[spartacus]

Originally Posted by Wazzajnr

If anyone knows of a speedboat going cheap with engine, let me know. Happy to do cosmetics and engine work but hoping not to be repairing floors and transoms if possible. Looking for sub £2k so that gives an idea what we're looking for.

Yours for under a grand!
https://www.andyseedhouseboats.co.uk/boats/2940-Fletcher

[Fenlander]

I like Any Seedhouse's yard. Real old school boat dealer who would still sell you a Seagull from a dusty collection in the corner. I've bought a hard boat there in the past.

[Wazzajnr]

Originally Posted by Fenlander

Hard to value with that outboard but perhaps £500? Maybe less?

Yes, I was thinking around the 500 quid mark.
Thanks.

[Wazzajnr]

Originally Posted by spartacus

Yours for under a grand!
https://www.andyseedhouseboats.co.uk/boats/2940-Fletcher

That sure as hell ain't a volvo engine, it's a Ford pinto! I'd be replacing the camshaft every season! 😁
Thanks though I'll have a closer look at the site when I'm at my desk.

[Fenlander]

Ahh the Pinto... the engine that taught the motor industry timing belts had a life and lighter grade oils were needed to get to that top end.

[Wazzajnr]

Originally Posted by Fenlander

Ahh the Pinto... the engine that taught the motor industry timing belts had a life and lighter grade oils were needed to get to that top end.

To be fair, the cam more often than not failed before the belt did!
That crappy spray bar over the cam was dreadful.
Wouldn't have been so bad if they'd made the front bearing bigger so you could replace it without taking the head off!
Anything over 50000 miles and you were on borrowed time for the clutch/camshaft/head gasket.
It's incredible how engines have improved since then. 😊

[Fenlander]

>>>To be fair, the cam more often than not failed before the belt did!

Yes my Capri cam was first replaced at 35k then the belt snapped at 50k. I did like that engine type though... quite gutsy in 2lit form for its day.

[Wazzajnr]

Yes, from memory, the 2.0 with twin choke weber was 98bhp.
I think the 1.6 was about 75bhp.

In cars that would blow away in a strong breeze they were quite impressive.

Factoid, the name pinto came from the fact that each pot on the 2l was a pint (give or take) so I was lead to believe.

[Limecc]

Originally Posted by spartacus

Yours for under a grand!
https://www.andyseedhouseboats.co.uk.../2940-Fletcher

Personally wouldn't touch an inboard engine boat with a barge pole.

[beamishken]

Re the pinto iirc omc sold a marine engine based on the us 2.3 pinto which is maybe what this is.
To be fair to them they were a prety good engine in their day which was a prety long run, ending in the Sierra & being the base for the cosworth engine too. Yeh cam belts did snap at over 50k but they were so easy to change you could do them on the side of the road in 30 mins. Probably easier than most aux belts today. The cam issue itself was cured fairly early in the production run by fitting a spray bar with bigger holes & changing oil regularly. Compared to other manufacturers offerings it was pretty good next to the vauxhall cih or the leyland/ rover "o"series engine which it competed against nissan at the time were using modified leyland blocks in their offerings. There wasnt much better than the pinto back then imho