A good Spring clean. If Spring means standing in the cold, freezing your b*llocks off, whilst peeling at vinyl letters

Today I spent the day giving the boat a good clean. It's no longer minging to walk or sit in, it's actually quite nice. I've also drained pretty much all of the water from under the floor by standing with the front of the boat held high for about 5 mintues!

I also had the chance to take a few pictures, including a close up of the name before I got rid of it. It took a good half hour to remove it from both sides and the transom, but with good use of a hot air paint-stripper and some thinners, all is gone (obviously I took the pictures before this - my tired hands were in no state to hold a camera afterwards). It looks quite good, and it's quite hard to see where the name ever was.

We've come up with a list of what should be done with the boat:

New rollers for the trailer - The current ones are damaged and mishaped
New cover - Both one for the engine and boat, as at the moment, the cover is slightly too small
New steering wheel - The current one is badly rusted
New rear seats - Rather than simply re-covering the rear seats, it's probably better to make new ones. I'm undecided yet as to whether I want a bench seat or to keep the two rear seats idea
Fix the engine trim/tilt - This is more one for Dad than me, as I have no idea. But yeah, it needs fixing
Weld trailer - A few bits that need re-welding. Again one for Dad
Paint trailer - Including a good amount of rust treatment
New dash/side panels - Rather than recovering the current ones (the wood is a little rotten), it's probably best we make new ones from marine ply. I'm currently in two minds as to whether I would like to cover this or just varnish the wood
Speedometer - Hasn't got one at the minute
New speakers - Being a bit of an audio engineer, the current poor quality, one speaker set up offends me quite a lot
New stereo - This is only a maybe, as I sort of like the radio cassette. It reminds me of my first car, in a retro-tastic kind of way

My 'adventure' officially starts here

Today I picked the boat up. As my car doesn't yet have a towbar, my Dad drove up to collect the boat. The owners showed us the engine starting, and Dad checked the wheel bearings on the trailer. All seemed fine. I haven't really had chance to take any pictures, but I will do so next week.

Once I got it home I had a look around. It was quite minging inside, and had obviously been standing for quite a while. Lots of leaked petrol and stale water on the carpet. Plus lots of general crap such as empty WD-40 cans and frayed bits of rope. A cleat seemed to be missing from the front of the boat, but that was later located under one of the rear seats. Lots of water under the floor too, but most of that could be drained out by the drainage hole in the back.

Overall, the boat just needs a general clean, and a bit of modernising. I think I will recover/redo the dash and inner side panels at some point, and the rear seats definetely need replacing.

The trailer is also in need of a fair bit of welding and rust treatment, but it seemed to tow back absolutely fine.

My Dad also realised the meaning of the 'funny' name - "Pistol Knight". That would have to go!

It was late in the day at this point, and any cleaning would have to wait for the next weekend. My Nanna has kindly offerred to let me keep the boat on her drive, so it was off to hers to park it there for the week.

Right after I put some gaffa tape on the holes in the cover...

I've got one!

I've bought a boat! It's one I've been watching on Ebay for a few days, and after getting a bit drunk after one of my band's gigs last night, I came home and made an offer. Only to wake up this morning and realise that, I'd won it! Fantastic. Here are some pictures from the listing.

I don't know the make or model of the boat, but for the tidy sum of £1000 I'm fairly pleased with my purchase. Especially as it has a 70hp, 2-stroke Johnson outboard. This should really fly when I get it on the water! It's from a place in Anderton, Cheshire called Soot Hill Motorcycles. I believe somebody used it as a part exchange on a motorbike. Although I'd rather have the boat myself...

It is in need of some work however. Here's the description as it appears on the listing:

For sale is this 15ft speed boat with fiberglass hull. It has fitted the extremely powerful 70hp johnson seahorse engine (3 cylinder, 2 stroke) the engine starts and runs fine on all 3 cylinders.It has both forward and reverse gears on front controls with remote electronic power tilt/trim.It also has a recently fitted NASA marine offshore radio with distress function. The boat is also fitted with a cassette radio.Both radios have independent airials. On the front panel of this boat you will find the electronic bilge pump controls with both auto and manual functions.Under the front panel is the fire extinguisher.The fuel tank is a 22 liter portable type filled with fresh fuel and quality marine 2 stroke oil. Also fitted to the boat is a tow poll for use with skis, wake boards, doughnuts etc.The fiberglass hull is in good solid condition, with no obvious major damage or repairs. The trailer that the boat sits on includes, a light board,jockey wheel and working mechanical winch. Please note that this boat has come to us in part exchange against a motorcycle and appears not to have been used for a while, as such it may need a few minor repairs, a general service, and a general check over. In the rear of the boat is a 12v car type battery that will need charging or replacing. The power tilt has worked in the past but need attention (possibly the switch). please note that one trailer mudguard,although functional, may need to be replaced. One tyre has some cracking but does hold air. The trailer itself tows well staying straight and stable. The engine can be seen running by hooking up to a battery with jump leads. It also comes with a long length of water hose, I imagine this is for flushing or cooling the engine whilst out of the water. Please note that the engine has been started by us for a maximum of 20 seconds, then turned off as these engines can not be run for extended periods out of the water. With this boat comes a flourescent prop cover and a very thick and comprehensive operators manual

I'm going to pick it up next Sunday (Forest and Derby play the next Saturday, so I couldn't possibly miss that).

Dreaming of a life on the sea

Hello all, and welcome to my little blog.

I've been looking for a speed boat for a few months now. I've only been after a small one, as I live in the Midlands and it won't be used every weekend. However, the main reason is so that I can take it to Torbay for a couple of weeks every year. I've spent summer holidays there for over 20 years of my 25 on this planet. My Dad used to have a Shetland 535 which he took down there every year. Now I want a boat which I can take down. Abeit, a bit of a smaller one that someone as incapable as me can use.

I'm no stranger boating on the sea however. Whilst I was growing up my family had an 8-ft inflatable dingy with a Yamaha 5hp engine. That engine could stand for a year and still start. My car stuggles to start if its left standing for more than a day.

Boats I'm looking at are generally in the 14-15 ft range, with preferably a 50hp + engine. A Fletcher or a Glastron would be nice, but as long as it works, I don't really mind.