Did your boat come with an owner's manual?

All bought new and no owner's manual provided:

My Dad's 1963*Columbia Defender (28.5-foot fiberglass,*gas-inboard)*sloop*had no manual (only mechanical systems were toilet, speedometer,*and Atomic 4 gasoline engine).

My 1981*Bluewater*Blackwatch (20-foot fiberglass, outboard auxiliary)*pocket cutter had no manual (only mechanical system was speedometer).

My 2011 Seahorse Marine (35-foot, 14-ton steel) trawler has no owner's manual but did have two folders worth of manuals from the manufacturers of subsystems such as engine, toilet, radar,*etcetera.

What is the norm?

Our Tolly came with thick supply of original Tollycraft manuals.* Also, a thick supply of original apparatus Manuals.* I then located an increased supply of OEM part-lists and shop-repair manuals on net, so everything is fully covered.* Uniflite I owned before was similar in manuals aboard.* With good manuals, good tools, and basic mechanical smarts nearly anything can be serviced or repaired.* At least thats how I play it!

No boat owners manual. There were only a few of my boat built so it is an oddball and the mfgr. is long gone.
The engine owners manual was included, engine parts book, the gear manual including full rebuild instructions.
I've since added the engine shop manual including the PT pump specs and manual. Can't get the injector manual , at least not yet.
A.P. manual was included.

All small equipment manuals were included and anything I've replaced i've kept the manuals for.

Over the years I've been sketching the wiring and labelling stuff, definitely for anything I've added or redone.

No , but the USN has some fantastic training manuals for DD engines.

Never operated a boat with a backing rudder , and had to figure it out.

The best is what the Navy calls a PDL, pass down log,

where systems and even better , the required action for a situation is all written out in advance.

The next owner of my boat will get one , mostly complete.

Our Island Gypsy 1983 came with an owners manual so I think most IGs came with one.

Nice to have but could easily done without it.

JohnP

My Camano came with a very thorough owners manual which was apparently written by an owner of one of the first boats and then edited and completed by the manufacturer.

It also came with manuals for the engine and other components.

There is a complete electrical schematic as well.

I give them an A for documentation.

The American Tug comes with an Owners Manual and an Engine Manual. *Both are 3" thick binders customized to your boat. The Owners Manual includes instructions on how to operate all the major systems on the boat with pictures, including a wiring diagrams which includes any optional equipment installed. *It also comes with another 3" binder containing engine and engine peripheral operating and installation manuals.*

The best benefit is there is an owners forum filled with information and advice about owning, maintaining, and improving these boats. *A collection of this information has been put by one of the owners into an AT Owners Experiences book which covers the 12 year these boats have been in production. This information and the forum are so valuable, they were one of the major considerations for me purchasing the boat. *

All GBs come with a manual specific for each hull number. I have the original for our 1986 Classic. I keep it in a safe place and keep a copy in the boat. I also keep a scanned copy on the iPad and iPhone.

Our boat came with a manual for every piece of equipment on the boat, from the fresh water pump to the toilets to the refrigerator. Original 1973 Grand Banks owners manual, engine operating, shop, and parts manuals, you name it. And we have kept and filed every manual that came with the equipment that we've bought for the boat from the anchor to the inverter/charger.

Giggitoni wrote:
All GBs come with a manual specific for each hull number. I have the original for our 1986 Classic. I keep it in a safe place and keep a copy in the boat. I also keep a scanned copy on the iPad and iPhone.

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Ray, I must intone,*there probably is not any place safer than your GB Mahalo Moi!

My Mainship did. It is basically a manual full of lawyer generated bull****....near worthless. It did come with a Yanmar manual as well.

The Eagle came with two 1 ft deep file boxes with some original sales/marketing material, manual/information of most equipment/systems plus a manual for then 671 and Perkins gen set.* Also included two folder of performance/range from previous owners with note from Ed Monk Sr. who engineered/designed the 58 ft Roughwater.*

Kismet came with schematics for all original systems and manuals for every piece of equipment on board. Although it didn't come with a "manual" per se, Hatteras supplied me with a copy of the original owners manual and another set of drawings.
I also have full binders (service, parts and shop manuals) for the Detroits and Kohlers. Probably the weakest link in my information is the original electrical drawings, since so much has changed over the years and the previous 3 owners didn't keep/make accurate changes to the drawings. All original wiring is impeccably identified and there's never a doubt about the origin or end of each wire. I wish the same could be said for all the things that have been added/deleted over the years (mainly 12V electronics).

All of this said, I'm pretty happy with the documentation available on Kismet - and I'm sure the next owner will be too.

Art wrote:

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Ray, I must intone,*there probably is not any place safer than your GB Mahalo Moi!

I like to think so, Art!* However, I've been arrested violating Murphy's Law in the past

No.**But I made my own.

*Need to go through it.

*It's a huge folder with the warranty and instructional guides to every thing I have put on the boat.

Of course my boat is a one off. Not another one like her still floating. So the manual is for everything but the hull.

SD

No owner's manual per se and I believe if there had been one it would have been passed down as manuals for plenty of other stuff were.* We have documentation for must everything that was on the boat when we bought it and everything we have added.* The only thing specific to the boat was some original marketing material showing the galley up version (ours is galley down).*

Now the Catalina and J-boat sailboats we had prior came with owner's manuals that included system schematics.* Most of the info was pretty useless on the J boat as the original owner had most everything customized so nothing matched the schematics.*

The PO provided me with a thick binder of various manuals for the boat's systems and aftermarket accessories.* He also included an engine service/maintenance manual.* Not an owner's manual from the manufacturer, but all the essential info I needed.* Then Capt. Craig posted on the Californian Forum scans of his original Californian schematics and Owners Manual pages.* So now I have a pretty good collection of all the needed info.*

I update the binder with new manuals as I add accessories.* If I keep making changes, I might need to start a new binder!

I found the original delivery warranty paper work and who warrantied what and who to call. I also had an owners manual and a separate engine manual for the Perkins 4.154m engines.
Since the generator was replaced about 6 years ago I couldn't find anything other than the receipt and warranty information on it. I went to Boat Diesel and they had the Westerbeeke generators service and operation manuals.
Bill

Our boat came with the original Cheoy Lee factory manual. Along with a full hanging file box and additional 3-ring binder full of manuals for every piece of equipment aboard - and some equipment that hasn't been on the boat presumably for years!

It continues to be a learning experience for me.

Our 1995 NT42 came with a number of very full binders c/w relevant/non-relevant info that gave a history of her equipment, original and added. Schematics of the AC & DC systems, although somewhat out of date, were useful starting points.

Good thing, as there were no maintenance or cruising logs whatsoever.

The most interesting binder was a photo album showing the build of Blue Sky. Since she was hull #1 there were also photos of the plugs being created.

Full big manual and a stack of blue print sized wiring schematics, graving plans, the works. Diamonds and Gold!

And, a list of what your specific boat, that is your hull number, left the factory with. More gold!

Big advantage of buying a Hatteras is they have all this still on microfiche for almost every boat they built.

Plus the spin off off their parts department, Sam's Marine, will register your hull number and be able to tell you exactly what you are looking for. And likely have it or the proper modern replacement. Platinum!

My 1981 IG36 Europa came with 2 bound volumes from Kong & Halvorsen. General info, maintenance info, engine and gearbox serial numbers, system diagrams, some generic IG specs too. With the Manuals were 2 Lehman instruction books, including exploded diagrams showing individual parts and part numbers. I thank the POs for preserving these useful and valuable resource materials.

None of the sailboats I've owned had manuals. The GB32 woodie had an awesome manual in a binder with gold lettering, really classy. The marine trader, a smelly box of manuals for stuff that was no longer on the boat - the smell of wood rot and holding tank all.the manuals has was in alignment with the price. The 86 Bayliner "beater boat" came with a manual - same manual for every model they built that year.

The cutest manual I have seen is the one that came with a friends late sixties era pacemaker, complete with a section for "the wife" (how to clean everything) and ten pages of factory photos assuring the owner that the thing was built like a tank - which it is...

My boat came with about a 10" tall stack of manuals for everything on the boat plus a binder from Sea Ray with a lot of good information about the boat including wiring and plumbing schematics and a drawing of where every piece of gear in the engine room and lazarette are. Great stuff that I refer to frequently to learn the boat.

I also have most of the manuals for the equipment on the boat in .pdf format on my Kindle. I keep that at home in case I need to refer to it.

markpierce said:

It continues to be a learning experience for me.

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Mark - Are you saying your boat purchased new came without owners manuals???

Art said:

Mark - Are you saying your boat purchased new came without owners manuals???

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It came with manufacturers' manuals/instructions for most components, such as engine, thruster, toilet, and so on. Also with some builder's drawings and schematics.

markpierce said:

It came with manufacturers' manuals/instructions for most components, such as engine, thruster, toilet, and so on. Also with some builder's drawings and schematics.

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I must have misunderstood a post of yours...

Art said:

I must have misunderstood a post of yours...

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No information on the location of thru-hulls, what switch controls the engine-room lights, existence/purpose of hidden electrical switches in the hanging closet, which valves to adjust to use fuel-polishing pump to prime the engine, and such.

Ours came with a 3inch binder that explains and goes over all the systems on the boat.