Expert: Jeff Grigg - 1/15/2008

Question
Hi Jeff,

I'm looking at buying a Larson 186 SEI which is fitted with a Johnson 115 V4 outboard motor, both the engine and the boat are year 2000.

On a test drive everything seemed ok with the boat, but when I opened the throttle up, the boat was only revving to 4000 rpm and would only do 25 mph.

Also during the test drive, the boat seemed to lose power for a little while and the rev's died off to around 200 rpm.

We then took the boat out for another test the following day and the boat didn't lose any power but again wouldn't rev past 4000 rpm, the boat is kept in a marina, so is in the water all the time.

Do you have any advice on this matter and would you reccommend me to still buy the boat if the problems are easily rectifiable....?

Thanks

Rae

Answer
I would never buy a boat with anything but the most minor of problems. You could have a motor running excessively lean, a bad cylinder or even bad ignition.
Since it is left in the water it could have excessive corrosion in the lower unit, or bad seals.
The best advise I can give you is to have the owner do all the repairs first. Then if you like the boat buy it. Don't buy someone else's problem it could cost you hundreds or thousands in the long run.
Right now it is a buyers market, there are a lot of good boats out there, so why buy one with problems.
Jeff