2000 Sport Nautique

[Neptune442]

My first ever Nautique...certainly nothing special compared to most of the boats on this site, but it works for us! It's been a long, at at times frustrating spring, but man it sure feels good to finally have her in the water! I really have no idea how many hours are on it. A compression check showed 130's across the board on all cylinders...and wow does the GT-40 scream across the lake!

It sat for many years, so it needed a lot of new parts. Since I brought her home:

New
- Steering cable
- Throttle cable
- Shift cable
- Impeller
- Thermostat
- Fuel injectors
- FCC filter
- Distributor cap/rotor
- Spark plugs
- Spark plug wires
- Water hoses
- Gelcoat repairs
- Decals
- Teak refinishing


And if that wasn't enough, while doing my first water testing today I was curious why the bilge pumps could hardly keep up. After a little investigation, I found a pretty decent sized hole in the side of the muffler that was pouring out water. The fun never ends! The hull hugger muffler has had some fiberglass repair in the past, so I'm not sure yet if I should try and repair it again, or bite the $600 bullet and order a new one. My $5,500 road trip find is sure starting to seem like less and less of a bargain...but oh well, I still love her!

[MrJake]

$5500 road trip find? Are you kidding me. That’s a great boat. A little elbow grease to get the kinks worked out and you’ll have a gem. Looks to be super clean. Congrats.


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[Neptune442]

[QUOTE=MrJake;n584971]$5500 road trip find? Are you kidding me. That’s a great boat. A little elbow grease to get the kinks worked out and you’ll have a gem. Looks to be super clean. Congrats.


Yeah, the price was a complete fluke...I still can't believe it! The hull is in beautiful condition. The engine seems to run great. The interior is presentable enough for now, but eventually needs to be completely redone.

[MrJake]

That’s great. A buddy of mine had a ‘92 that we picked up about 10 years ago for $16,000. We thought that was a pretty good price. Loved that boat. Good luck.


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[MTRBTR]

That is an awesome boat and much more interesting to me than another G23. I did almost exactly what you are doing with a 97 sport. I didn’t get near the deal you did but I started with a rough boat and did a lot of what you did and worked the bugs out. The GT 40 is awesome and never let me down. All the problems I ever had were little.

[Neptune442]

That is an awesome boat and much more interesting to me than another G23. I did almost exactly what you are doing with a 97 sport. I didn’t get near the deal you did but I started with a rough boat and did a lot of what you did and worked the bugs out. The GT 40 is awesome and never let me down. All the problems I ever had were little.

Thanks, that's good to hear! The plan is to own it for a few years while the kids are still young...then hopefully upgrade to something like your SV 211 in a few years as they gain watersports experience. I grew up on a lake and learned to wakeboard, kneeboard, ski, barefoot, etc. behind a 16ft Sea Ray. I really can't believe we didn't sink it with all the sand bags we used to load in that thing. I used to drool over our neighbor's late 90's Sport Nautique...but I could never get my dad to pull the trigger...so now it's pretty cool to finally own one! But it's definitely been a learning experience..I had never driven a direct drive boat before..much less owned/worked on one.

[MTRBTR]

DD is so easy to work on. My SV 211 is not much different mechanically but wow what a pain to maintain.