Thoughts on this SeaSwirl?
https://portland.craigslist.org/yam/boa/d/mcminnville-1988-seaswirl-sable-21-foot/7294937962.html
Thoughts on this SeaSwirl?
https://portland.craigslist.org/yam/boa/d/mcminnville-1988-seaswirl-sable-21-foot/7294937962.html
Looks good. I like it. Know nothing about them, but it looks like a solid boat if everything in the ad is correct
I can't seem to see the right boat, but SeaSwirl generally has a good rep. I've got no personal experience with them.
like any old boat, look for rot, check the engine well. Ya pays ya money and ya takes ya chances.
Buy it now.
OMC Cobra outdrive is excellent, and may have been upgraded. I'm not sure, but I thought the OMC drives were still white in 88 but I could be wrong. 350 in those years would be an off-the-shelf GM Goodwrench crate.
If its really not soft anywhere, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Boats are expensive right now with the pandemic.
Seaswirl's parent company was OMC. OMC went bankrupt years ago and was partially purchased by Bombardier. SeaSwirl died along with OMC in 2001 but the operation was purchased a few years ago by GenMar and they plan to bring SeaSwirl back. They didn't just buy the name, they bought the company and brought back some of the execs. Lots of love there. I always liked Sea Swirl stuff. A little light on the design, but good on the engineering.
Wow! That thing looks way closer to new than any 1988 boat has a right to. It would appear to have been very well cared for.
I'm not a fan of the OMC drives because of their orphan status and unavailability of some of the outdrive parts. Other than that, go over it with a hammer looking for rot. If the hull is solid, I'd be tempted.
I'd be a little more concerned about the OMC drive and parts availability than the age of the boat. (Full disclosure, I have an '88 Cruisers Inc. 22 with a 5.7 Mercruiser and Alpha drive.) Seaswirl was known to be a quality manufacturer and it does look really clean.
I've never had any problem finding Cobra parts. Just did a whole rebuild on an outdrive about 2 years ago and it was all available and even in stock.
For a while Bombardier took over all the parts side of OMC and now they farm it out to someone else. Has something drastic changed in the last two years?
That's a pretty big boat. I'm debating downsizing out of my 20' to get an 18' instead.
If you were closer, I'd try to sell you my Key West.
The only things that jump out are related to the I/O:
- if you buy it, check the condition of the flapper valve in the exhaust outlets before going out the first time. If they fail it can allow water to get up past the risers in the exhaust if you slow quickly because a skier fell, or are in following seas at low rpm. It's a cheap and easy fix, so no reason to not check them.
- the other thing is that OMC changed the angle on dogs on the gears and shift collar to help with engagement (at least on the 1988 v6 out drive). The original one's have been superseded, so if you ever need to dig into it that deeply you'll need to replace the lower set of gears and shift collar as a set. I would make sure it shifts well and the shift cable and linkage are properly adjusted so the micro switches activate the ignition cut to reduce wear on the gears.
on edit:
The things I mentioned are just stuff to watch out for, not meant to steer you away from the boat. The 88 four winns we had with the OMC cobra was reliable and I wouldn't hesitate to get another boat with an OMC cobra, just now I know what to keep an eye on to avoid problems.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
Looks like they have changed for the better since the last time a friend of mine was looking for parts. 15+ years ago he had a broken upper gear case and it took months to find one. And even then he ended up with a used one. I'm more used to MerCruiser parts which have always been a dime a dozen.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
The standard Cobra drive like that one I’m not 100% sure, they just weren’t that common in our area so maybe a regional thing? Parts for the King Cobra drives on the larger engines / boats seem to be very difficult to find based on conversations with the marine mechanics I know to the point they will buy up rougher older boats to have some spares. I had thought the stern drive business of OMC had been bought out by Volvo Penta but may be remembering that incorrectly. Bombardier absolutely took over the outboards, I have a 90 HP Etec. Hopefully they’ll continue to support the repair parts market on those.
just going to hammer this home. If you buy a boat with an I/O, replace the big seal around the unit before putting it in the water. Most every I/O boat that I have seen sunk all did so because that huge hole in the back of the hull had a bad seal.
Also replace the impeller on the water pump. That should be done yearly.
mad_machine (Forum Supporter) said:just going to hammer this home. If you buy a boat with an I/O, replace the big seal around the unit before putting it in the water. Most every I/O boat that I have seen sunk all did so because that huge hole in the back of the hull had a bad seal.
Also replace the impeller on the water pump. That should be done yearly.
That's what a bilge pump is for 
I suppose I'm lucky. In 35 years at the marina, there have been zero leaks at the gimbal seal. Bellows, yes. Once a year or more.
It does happen sometimes, some people often install those with 5200 sealant, so if it has been replaced, I would suspect the gimbal seal might outlast the fiberglass around it. If you do pull the gimbal, expect two things: expect at least one of the studs/bolts through the hull to be corroded into white powder, and also expect the gimbal to not budge. Use a 3-5 lb deadblow on the sides. If it doesn't budge, it has 5200 sealant and you'll likely rip the fiberglass off with the housing. If it doesn't budge, don't ask it to. Just politely replace the nuts/bolts and back away slowly as if you just encountered a bear in the woods.
Any time I quoted a gimbal seal or anything to do with gimbal replacement, I quote it as a straight labor/seal job, and I quote it with a new/used gimbal so they can see what they might be in for. 7 times out of 10, the gimbal comes off fine and goes back on fine. Those other three times are nightmares.
At the marina where I hang, the lake isn't huge, and since most leaks happen slowly, it's one of those things that most customers choose to not disturb the bees nest until it actually leaks.
I also have a different take on the impeller... mostly because of the same small lake reasons. I primarily navigate on a Canadian lake and the inland channels around Chincoteague VA. Sometimes I do Finger Lakes. If the impeller fails, it's no biggie to flag someone down. The impeller in my current I/O (93 Mercruiser) has never been done and it gets abused hard. The impeller in the 88 Merc 70 outboard was done once during a powerhead rebuild a few years ago. The impeller outlasted 30 years of three months a year, three abusing trips per day. Wish I had an hour meter on that thing. By my estimates, easily 5000 hours.
I know we've talked about this before, but the list of water impellers I've never replaced is long. 61 Evinrude 10hp, 73 Evinrude 6hp, 76 Johnson 20, 93 Merc 25, 83 Baja Mercruiser, 93 Ebbtide Mercruiser... they last until they don't. Only one in the family that ever failed was a 94 Johnson 9.9 and it was because my nephew ran it through a weedy sand bar. The sand got sucked in and a weed blocked the inlet.
I think one of my secrets is that I never (and I mean never) turn them over dry. My neighbor likes to challenge that notion. Every spring he fires up his I/O completely dry for 30 seconds or so to test it before the season. 81 OMC I/O, and I have never seen the outdrive off in 30 years so I assume it's the original impeller. He has an angel sitting on his shoulder, evidently.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
Boats down here eat large quantities of sand and mud due to the shallow water and constantly changing sandbanks. Impellers are an annual or every other year occurrence. I have pulled more than one with half the impeller eaten away by sand after a couple of years of use.
But the number one reason to pull the drive and service everything is salt. Spending an hour pulling the drive down, servicing the impeller and gearbox gives you a good excuse to pull every bolt and anti-seize them and also grease the U-Joints and splines while it's apart. I have spent days trying to remove one stainless bolt from an aluminum housing, it's not something I want to do again.
You buy Audis...on purpose. You buy boats, and you think about buying more. You work in the mental health field. There has to be a connection.
Appleseed said:You buy Audis...on purpose. You buy boats, and you think about buying more. You work in the mental health field. There has to be a connection.
Quoted for hilarity.
Appleseed said:You buy Audis...on purpose. You buy boats, and you think about buying more. You work in the mental health field. There has to be a connection.
Technically the Audi's are Mrs Javelins. Also I haven't bought a boat... yet.
But yeah, most mental health providers are off their rocker.
In reply to Brett_Murphy (Ex-Patrón) :
So...When you get serious about downsizing, send me a PM. I keep thinking about upsizing.....
Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) said:In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
Boats down here eat large quantities of sand and mud due to the shallow water and constantly changing sandbanks. Impellers are an annual or every other year occurrence. I have pulled more than one with half the impeller eaten away by sand after a couple of years of use.
But the number one reason to pull the drive and service everything is salt. Spending an hour pulling the drive down, servicing the impeller and gearbox gives you a good excuse to pull every bolt and anti-seize them and also grease the U-Joints and splines while it's apart. I have spent days trying to remove one stainless bolt from an aluminum housing, it's not something I want to do again.
that is the thing. All boats here in NJ, where I live, and mostly run in saltwater. Our few freshwater lakes have HP limitations (and are generally shallow) so big HP I/Os and the like never see freshwater. Here it is all salt and that eats everything.
ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Brett_Murphy (Ex-Patrón) :
So...When you get serious about downsizing, send me a PM. I keep thinking about upsizing.....
The market is nuts right now. I'm cleaning my boat to either get it ready to use or prep it for sale. I'm not sure which way it's going to go, yet.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:Appleseed said:You buy Audis...on purpose. You buy boats, and you think about buying more. You work in the mental health field. There has to be a connection.
Quoted for hilarity.
You mean some people buy Audis by mistake? Wake up with a hangover, an empty bottle of gin and a signed off title for an Audi in the morning??
I once had a 100LS. I find myself wanting a used Quattro every time I think of rallycross events in my area, and the one they found for me in Colorado.
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