Hello,
I did search past posts to check for this so if I'm double posting please let me know.
My wife and I purchased a 1987 30' Tollycraft Sportcruiser a few years ago. The engines are sound internally but after 30 years they are completely unreliable and need to go. This is our first ever boat so the bad experiences had us scrambling to sell the damn thing and swear off boats for RV's. However the market for it where I live is slow at best. Bottom line is we will have it paid for this fall and this drastically changes our outlook.
This is the plan: Local welder who has made multiple brackets will be making an outboard conversion bracket for us. $4500. A local whale watch tour operator who changes engines every three years has several high hour but well maintained Yamaha 250 outboards for $3000 each. I'm good friends with the lead mechanic and he promised to keep me in the loop on the best ones. Another $6000. I can do fiberglass myself to close it up but I'll have to pay someone to do the rigging. Estimating I'll spend around $15,000 to go this route.
This is just the experiment. If I like what I see after a year or so I will then upgrade to new Yamaha F350's with the electronic throttles and helm control and warranty!!! I just don't want to spend $70K without somewhat of an idea of what to expect.
The real reason I'm posting is to see if anyone has done an outboard conversion on a Tolly, Uniflite, or similar???
I know financially this makes no sense. But the Tolly is our Forever Boat. To get a new boat with its size and capability we would spend over $350,000. So if I spend $130,000 over the years I'm okay with it.
I did search past posts to check for this so if I'm double posting please let me know.
My wife and I purchased a 1987 30' Tollycraft Sportcruiser a few years ago. The engines are sound internally but after 30 years they are completely unreliable and need to go. This is our first ever boat so the bad experiences had us scrambling to sell the damn thing and swear off boats for RV's. However the market for it where I live is slow at best. Bottom line is we will have it paid for this fall and this drastically changes our outlook.
This is the plan: Local welder who has made multiple brackets will be making an outboard conversion bracket for us. $4500. A local whale watch tour operator who changes engines every three years has several high hour but well maintained Yamaha 250 outboards for $3000 each. I'm good friends with the lead mechanic and he promised to keep me in the loop on the best ones. Another $6000. I can do fiberglass myself to close it up but I'll have to pay someone to do the rigging. Estimating I'll spend around $15,000 to go this route.
This is just the experiment. If I like what I see after a year or so I will then upgrade to new Yamaha F350's with the electronic throttles and helm control and warranty!!! I just don't want to spend $70K without somewhat of an idea of what to expect.
The real reason I'm posting is to see if anyone has done an outboard conversion on a Tolly, Uniflite, or similar???
I know financially this makes no sense. But the Tolly is our Forever Boat. To get a new boat with its size and capability we would spend over $350,000. So if I spend $130,000 over the years I'm okay with it.