Seamaster 27 - Outdrive

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lofc2909

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Hi,

Thanks again to everyone who chipped in with their advice on a Bayliner 2755 last week - I saw the boat yesterday out of courtesy (having already made my mind up against it) and it was a complete disaster zone of a boat. I don't think I've ever been on anything so filthy and badly kept.

However, I did spend the rest of the day trawling round various boatyards and came across a Seamaster 813 which had recently been refurbished internally / externally and pretty much ticked all of the boxes for my use.

Except..... it has a Ford 1800 Diesel engine with an stern power outdrive (the name of it for some reason has completely escaped me although I think it was something like Lancing...(?)). I've read a lot of debate on shaft vs outdrive and seen a lot of mixed views. Are outdrives really that bad? I sort of assumed that if you kept the maintenance schedule religiously, a lot of nasty stuff can be avoided....

I've not agreed to purchase yet (although I am quite taken with it) and will obviously have a full survey carried out - I assume an engineers report into the outdrive is a must before committing?

Any advice gratefully accepted.

Many thanks
 
If you keep up with the maintenance the drive should be trouble free. The problem is you wont know what maintenance previous owners have carried out unless you are lucky enough to see a folder full of receipts for work carried out.

As boats get older people dont tend to keep up the expensive maintenance on the drives as the cost of the servicing starts to become a larger percentage of the boats value.

For what its worth we have not had too much trouble with our drive for the last seven years, it is serviced annually. The worst we have had so far has been leaking oil seals but it has just cost us a new prop shaft (old one was getting quite worn) which was eye wateringly expensive thanks to Volvo Penta prices.
 
Thanks - I forgot to mention that if I go ahead (subject to the survey etc) I'll be having the outdrive serviced immediately - the paperwork I saw yesterday included a service on the outdrive in October 13 so I'd rather get it done straight off.... from what I've read, a service should be somewhere circa £500 - £750. Does this sound about right? I suppose it'd help if I could remember the make!
 
Very Easy. Change the oil, check the anodes and change if necessary. Grease any nipples. Check for leaking seals. Talk to Lancing Marine as they are the SternPowr agents. Ford 1800 is a good little engine as far as I can recall.
 
Just spoken to the broker - it is a sternpowr outdrive. Am factoring in the worst case scenario that the outdrive will need £££'s spent - a local workshop has quoted a £1000 for full service.... not sure if that is particularly unreasonable?

Have made an offer based on say £2000 worth of expenditure once purchased (not including survey etc) - not sure if the vendor will take it but there's not exactly a shortage of other river cruisers available.... we shall see.
 
Lancing would have marinised the Ford engine. I'm not aware that they made their own stern drive, so it is likely to be basically a Mercruiser, Volvo or Enfield ( these are really old and parts not to easy to find). A full service changing the hoses, oil and anodes should be something like £500-600.
 
I stand to be corrected but I don't think the 813 ever had a stern drive as standard. So it's either retro fit or the boat is not an 813 but a fit out using a Seamaster mould. Either way check carefully that it's all been done professionally or to a high standard. People like the 813 because of the good use of space, solid build and economical inboard shaft. Therefore resale might be an issue with the drive.
 
Cashbuyer said:
I stand to be corrected but I don't think the 813 ever had a stern drive as standard. So it's either retro fit or the boat is not an 813 but a fit out using a Seamaster mould. Either way check carefully that it's all been done professionally or to a high standard. People like the 813 because of the good use of space, solid build and economical inboard shaft. Therefore resale might be an issue with the drive.
Click to expand...

I correct myself. I see Jones Boatyard have an 813 with a Volvo outdrive, so I assume some were fitted with this. If it is the 813 with the Ford engine that Jones have that you are interested in, then that definitely is not fitted out by Seamaster. But I suspect you know this already by looking at the others Jones have.
 
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