Boater's Connection
Topic: Marathon Boat Owners Group
I am told it was another beautiful day in Maryland on Saturday.. and Our Sir Joe Weaver #53 was continuing his Marathon refab!. Including his custom made "Marathon" Graphics.
Here are a few pics of his vessel with the graphics and dash with the electronics all installed.. New SS horns are installed - loud yacht horns.
Joe is also working on Marathon Graphics for his truck window and a embroided hat!!. Way to go Joe.. A total refurbish of his 1988 Bermuda Express 2550. Fantastic Job Joe.
Marathon Boat Owners Group - Member #7
1989 Marathon Bermuda Sport 2550 "Vintage Haven"
Just a reminder... For those who bought a flag(s): Please let me know by email or forum post when your packet has arrived.
They should be arriving any time.
Thanks
Marathon Boat Owners Group - Member #7
1989 Marathon Bermuda Sport 2550 "Vintage Haven"
Kewl.. Glad it quickly arrived ...
Thanks Rick
Marathon Boat Owners Group - Member #7
1989 Marathon Bermuda Sport 2550 "Vintage Haven"
whmmer wrote:
Norm,
Got mine yesterday. I think I may take the faded one and have it framed and mounted on the wall of my office. Thanks for a great effort again! Two more weeks till the boat comes out of the shed.
Jim
Np, Glad it safely arrived there Sir Jim. I'm doing to do the exact same thing with my flags: The old one still good but an ever slight fade will be framed and hung by the chimney with care while the shiny new one will dawn the bow to kick off our 2011 boating season. I have about a month or so to go before launch. (Launching after as I sand/refinish the swim platform).
Marathon Boat Owners Group - Member #7
1989 Marathon Bermuda Sport 2550 "Vintage Haven"
RWHITE1948 wrote:
Norm, I received the flag today, Thank You
Ronald
No prob. Glad you got the flag.. hope it makes a great addition to your vessel.
Norm
Marathon Boat Owners Group - Member #7
1989 Marathon Bermuda Sport 2550 "Vintage Haven"
bobjr wrote:
can someone tell what prop size i need for a 2350. 350 engine 260 hp please tell me.....linstriper@verizon.net
Hey Bob.. Welcome.. You must have a Sunblazer 2350. ??
Mine is a cheapy prop.. Aluminum 19 Pitch.. a bit sluggish for my boat out of the hole...(Especially when loaded .. but not bad top end for an alumimum prop. I do want to (someday) put a stainless Steel prop 17 or so pitch on it (pricey).. but it will give the best kick out of the hole and maintain better top end - (SS blades are ridged in the water for best water displacement and no bend but it is a killer on the drive shafts if you hit a rock!! )
I guess.. it's all a matter of choice on props.. do you want kick out of the hole faster (Tighter pitch) or have more top end speed (wider pitch)?
Mercury marine has not a bad Prop chooser:
Here is the link:
http://www.mercurymarine.com/propellers/prop-selector/#
More on this.. (I put together a prop document a couple yrs back.. I'll send it to you .. as soon as I can find it!!) and also some background stuff on the group and Marathons that we put together..
Welcome again Bob..
Marathon Boat Owners Group - Member #7
1989 Marathon Bermuda Sport 2550 "Vintage Haven"
Man.. they took the edit buttons out of post...
One Thing Bob concerning pros... can't exceed RPMS.. Too small a prop/pitch will cause the motor to cavitate and at top speed may over rev the RPMS. Too big a pitch on the prop and you will have low RPMS and no guts to get out of the hole or even hit top speed.
Start with the prop calculator (link above) , and go from there...
Marathon Boat Owners Group - Member #7
1989 Marathon Bermuda Sport 2550 "Vintage Haven"
Hello all,
Almost at the start of another boating season here in the Northeast.
I am not sure why on the last list of Marathon owners and boats is shows that I have sold mine as it has not gone anywhere.
12 Meter MotorYacht
Sir Riblet.. Welcome Back Jerry.. Not Sold?. Rgr Sir.. May have gotten mixed up!. Not too hard to do once in a while keeping track of details of 60 or so. Will fix on next issue.
And the season is rapidly approaching.. finally starting to warm up a bit here.. Heading north for the day tomorrow.. to see that the place is still standing and perhaps watch the ice melt on the lake!!!
Welcome back Jerry
Marathon Boat Owners Group - Member #7
1989 Marathon Bermuda Sport 2550 "Vintage Haven"
Mark of UK... Flag arrive yet?.. It should have by now.. let me know via post or email if you could please.
Sir David - Your flags should have arrived too.. please pop me a post of email if you could.
Marathon Boat Owners Group - Member #7
1989 Marathon Bermuda Sport 2550 "Vintage Haven"
Hello everyone from California.
While searching for information on my boat I found this forum which provided 98 percent of all the info I could find on the Marathon.
I recently became a proud owner of a 1985 Marathon Sunblazer. The boat is in decent shape; it has a brand new 270 HP 350V8 engine with only 6 hours since it was installed. The interior needs to be cleaned up and the upholstery needs to be redone.
I am looking for an original helm seat or something that resembles it closely. I’ve found a couple of seat manufacturers that make two seater boat lounge seats, but nothing wide like the original seat.
If anyone has any information regarding the seat, I would greatly appreciate it.
George
I’m sorry that first picture was huge. I’m going to try it again.
I can assure you that the original seat for your boat - which is the same as mine - is as good as a chocolate fireguard. If you sit at the helm you cannot see through the windshield, way too low. Take a look back a few messages at how Joe Weaver's is done, I intend to modify mine to the same as his - at my age it's tough on the old legs standing at the helm for most of the voyage!
Hello to all my old buddies out there, I'm still alive and kicking over here in sunny Spain. I've seen no chronicles from Bob for a long while, I can only presume that his admiral has banned him from all power tools and anything that requires a battery. I can just picture him sitting in his armchair cradling the new camera which is never allowed within a 100 mile radius of water.
El Presidente
Marathon Boat Owners Group Member #2
El Presidente
Marathon Boat Owners Group Member #2
A cordial welcome to California: Sir George and to this band of merry Marathoners. Great looking boat George. & the big pics might be a strain on the forum page.. (Lateral sway of sorts) but the bigger gives better quality in most cases.
Hey, for the record George, you are (officially) the 57th Marathon Owner to dawn these forum doors and we sure hope that you enjoy your new vessel.
We have put together some background docs... History etc on Marathon. If you send me your email, I'll be glad to send them to you George. (norm_richards@hotmail.com). (I try to keep the forum docs up to date.. but I really got to draft another members doc and new addition Boating Collage!).
Regarding the Helm seat, don't know where you could get one but might need to get one made using your old as a template.. They broke and jammed.. Bill is so correct.. the design is not exactly the best and there is non practicable aspect to the seat. Mine was yanked years ago and replaced the base with 2x4 ridged framing.. Ridged but strong and practical for a helm seat: I don't think the fold seat with aluminum base/frame appear to very strong.
Never hurts to see if a machine shop might be able to fabricate a better/stronger frame/base slider to make the seat functional. Keep us posted on what you do and welcome again George.
Bill: glad to see that you are still out there.. and in Spain.. Been awhile. Hope all is well with you and yours.
Spring is upon us here.. another month or so and most of the boats up will be hitting the water.. It will be great to be out on the water again.
Got a new HD dig camera at Christmas.. should provide for better pics and can take HD video.. NO BOB, you can't use it if you're anywhere within site of water!! but I'll try to take some HD video this summer and post it up.
Ok.. gtg.. Laters all.
Marathon Boat Owners Group - Member #7
1989 Marathon Bermuda Sport 2550 "Vintage Haven"
Just received at note from Fred.."Tinker" Trethenway. It appears that he can't sign on in here - security issue. He's going via BOAT US admins to get recified.. but Sir George. Fred's not pertains to your helm seat issue.
In the mean time, He wishes for me to post his note up so you will be able to have his take on the issue.
QUOTE FRED:
"Some how I've been kicked out of the forum again and cant post. in regards to sir Georges problem with the seat- my solution was to take the steering mount loose and change the angle of the wheel to a more vertical position (more like old boats have) this places the steering wheel a little bit higher at the top of the wheel and closer to the helmsman.
I then rebuilt the seats so the forward facing seat is the magic 17 inches off the cockpit sole at the helm station and the rear facing seat in its original position. as the original sear mechanism did not move back and forth I then moved the whole assembly aft 3 inches. this allows most folks to run the boat in a relatively comfortable way.
Marathon Boat Owners Group - Member #7
1989 Marathon Bermuda Sport 2550 "Vintage Haven"
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I’m really glad I found the Marathon owners group and to be part of it; I’m now officially member #57 and I am truly excited!
Thanks Bill, Norm, Ronald, Scott, and Fred for the advise on the seat. I found Scott’s pictures particularly helpful in seeing how the original articulating helm seat system worked. The previous owner of my Sunblazer told me that that the original seats were not there when he purchased the boat in 2004. Instead they were replaced with a couple of large bucket helm seats. (See picture below)
I actually like the bucket seats it has, the only reason I wanted to replace them was so that I can seat more people, but I will look at different alternatives.
I’ve only had the boat for just a week; The first thing after I picked it up was a visit to the shop to have everything checked by a mechanic. I ended up leaving the boat there for a full seasonal service including a tune up, oil change, new impeller, etc… You get the idea.
I just got off the phone with the marine shop and I will pick the boat up at 5:00 PM today. I quickly realized what B.O.A.T stood for. lol
I hope to take the boat out to one of the local lakes tomorrow or Sunday to familiarize myself with the boat and its operation. I will share pictures and video with you of the event and let you know how it runs.
Sir Norm I greatly appreciate and I will take you up on your offer of a copy of the background docs... History etc on Marathon. If you would be so kind and email the documents to Pv.pilot@hotmail.com it would be wonderful.
Thanks in advance, and thank you all for the suggestions and recommendations.
George
Here is another picture.
Hello everyone. Well, I took the boat out to Lake Elsinore in southern California this morning to try it out. I was at the ramp at 6:00 AM with my son Mike. It was a gorgeous day.
The boat started up fine and I let it run for about 5 minutes or so to warm it up and suddenly the engine stopped running. I could not get it to start again. At first I thought that the fuel might be too old. The previous owner said he had put fuel last November which was the last time he used the boat, and he had added fuel stabilizer to the fuel tank to preserve it through the winter and opined the fuel in the tank should still be good. After inspecting the ignition system I found that the ignition points were burnt out.
As you can imagine the fun ended early. I took the boat back home and upon further inspection I now believe that the distributor may be faulty in that it has a bit of play which may be causing the engine to misfire and is burning out the ignition points. I am not a mechanic, so it is pure speculation.
Has anyone have had this issue? I was trying to find the distributor online but I’m not sure how to determine which one it is. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have a 5.7L, 8 Cyl, 270HP, 350CID OMC.
George.
Sir Scott:
Great photos of "Pain Killer" visuals and technicals of the seat plus one of "On the Rocks".
You were mentioning adding sound insultation to the engine compartment this year.. I have been thinking about doing the same thing. My insulation is still attached to the roof cover but is slowly disintegrating. It is @ 5/8 inch thickness fire resistant material attached to the deck entryway lid by screws. I haven't investigated replacement yet but looks easy to replace if one can find the right insulation material. Have you found/located suitable replacement material?
PS: Did you still want a flag? I have one saved here for you. Just let me know.
Marathon Boat Owners Group - Member #7
1989 Marathon Bermuda Sport 2550 "Vintage Haven"
George.. The marina did your stuff this year.. including a tuneup right?. Might just be a slightly over or under tuned adjustment of the distributor when they did the tuneup.
It almost sounds like it the distributor loosened up after the adjustment and now may not be allowing the correct firing of the engine and choked out the engine.
The marina that did your stuff should be able to tell very quickly. They can replace the points (If need be) then recheck/adjust timing as per firing gauge.
There is one other scenario that could do it - that is bad gas!. If there wasn't enough stabilzer in the gas.. it might have moisture in the gas - may not let it be ignited or a possibly plugged fuel filter. Your marina should be able to tell.
Marathon Boat Owners Group - Member #7
1989 Marathon Bermuda Sport 2550 "Vintage Haven"
Rick et All: Joe Weaver (53) has restored his windows. If anyone knows it's Joe.
Late last night, received an email from Joe (Joe Weaver 53). He has done a pile more work on his Marathon: from new paint -interlux brightside urathane in "kingston grey" - close to the original color. He wasn't happy with the blemishes in his colorgel coat. The new the paint turned out great and he added new black strips, new registration numbers, caulked around the rubrail/black. New stainless steel water fill neck and waste neck spouts, and the two vents. He has mentioned that he still has to get new heating element for the hot water tank.
He has already installed 2 new marine batterys, changed the oil/filter - Engine running... He will launch the totally rebuilt boat very soon. He told me that he will put the MBOG flag on when he launches the boat and send us pics of the inaugeral launch of his new Marathon.
Below are a few more pics of his restoration of his 88 Marathon Bermuda Express 2550 in progress. Great Job Sir Weaver.
Marathon Boat Owners Group - Member #7
1989 Marathon Bermuda Sport 2550 "Vintage Haven"
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