My Old Bass Boat

[D.W. Verts]

I bought a 1998 20' Tide Craft boat in March that I sold brand-new in the spring of '99. It's a perfect rig for a cheap, poor and older bass fisherman.

I've already (of course) put a bunch of $ in it in upgrades, and may do more (like $20K for the new motor some day). But the interesting thing is this- I decided to shoot a YouTube video about it last month, then just let it set in my computer. I thought it was kind of boring. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was cleaning junk out when I came across it. So I spent maybe 30 minutes editing and finishing it, then published it. It quickly has became by FAR my most watched video on a struggling bass fishing channel. Interesting.

So I did another on my "Living With An Old Bass Boat" theme and it too has went over too, and a third is doing well also. It's crazy, but my channel has doubled in subs in the last month after I had pretty much written it off (YouTube videos really aren't my "thing" like I thought they'd be).

Anyway, here is the link- maybe some of ya'll will enjoy this also, especially if, like me, you can only afford so much in this expensive world of bass fishin'. Peace.


Dale

[Donald Garner]

Dale, tks for sharing the video with us.  That's a really nice looking boat your got there.

[Mike Cork]

So much great about that rig... Love the Tide Craft and the Mariner never got credit for what it was. I had a 200 Mariner and it was a strong beast of a motor.

[Smallie_Stalker]

So much great about that rig... Love the Tide Craft and the Mariner never got credit for what it was. I had a 200 Mariner and it was a strong beast of a motor.

I had a 70 horse Mariner on my old Bass Tracker. Great motor.

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[J.W.]

Man, that boat is really clean for being that old. The stuff I saw in the video looked like pretty minor repairs or cosmetic stuff that you could either leave or fix if you decide to. And even though I love my four stroke and not having to deal with a messy oil reservoir in the bilge anymore, if that Mariner runs well, I would be tempted to leave it on there and run that sucker.

[D.W. Verts]

Thanks guys. It's a project that I actually enjoy doing, unlike so many others. But the response to the videos is NUTS. Interesting, but strange. And hard to duplicate.

Ya'll know that these Mariners are just silver Mercs, right? They quit doing them in '99 (except maybe offshore stuff), and my "Mariner Pro Team" sponsorship instantly became "Mercury Pro Team". Luckily it was just a patch and not embroidered on my braggin' vests...

Another interesting little factoid is that the smaller Mariners in the 80's were actually YAMAHAS. Cool, huh.

I have another video in the works as I get the graph and transducer installed, and put the graph on the front, along with all the forward seeking sonar stuff. Okay, just seeing if anyone is paying attention.

J.W., I dig what you're saying. But as good as this motor runs I believe I'll still be money ahead in the long run. I can sell it as a low-hour engine with documentation on the compression and leak down for $5500 or so. That's a good start towards the new Merc. My old Jon boat will bring at least $4000. I mean, there's ways, and if I get it done I'll have a rig that I can trust with five years of warranty. Five years. I'll be near 66 years old by then. Think about it.

Dale

[J.W.]

I have another video in the works as I get the graph and transducer installed, and put the graph on the front, along with all the forward seeking sonar stuff. Okay, just seeing if anyone is paying attention.

J.W., I dig what you're saying. But as good as this motor runs I believe I'll still be money ahead in the long run.

I can't argue with getting a new one with a warranty if you've got that much of the price covered and you know you'll be on the water getting your money's worth out of it. Sounds like a good plan.

I knew about the Mariners being made by Mercury, and maybe I'm misremembering things, but I'm wanting to say that some of the cowls actually had Mercury written on them somewhere along with the Mariner logo.
I had no idea any were made by Yamaha though.

[Donald Garner]

I knew the big Mariners were made by Merc. (They looked like a Merc. with a different paint scheme)  What I didn't know were the smaller one were Yamaha's.  Tks for sharing that piece of history with us.

[D.W. Verts]

Evinrude's first four strokes were built by Suzuki. Mercury's first four strokes were Yamahammers. The small Mariner two strokes in the 70's and 80's were Yamadawgs. All great motors mostly. There ain't nothin' new under the sun, and these are the worthless tidbits that you learn when you sell boats for twenty years.

Dale

[Smallie_Stalker]

Evinrude's first four strokes were built by Suzuki. Mercury's first four strokes were Yamahammers. The small Mariner two strokes in the 70's and 80's were Yamadawgs. All great motors mostly. There ain't nothin' new under the sun, and these are the worthless tidbits that you learn when you sell boats for twenty years.

Dale

This is interesting and I have no doubts that you are correct Dale. It leads me to a question, but first a little on why I'm asking

I had 1978 Bass Tracker ( they started making them in '77) I bought used from a fellow club member in the late 90's as a project boat. He had replaced the original motor with a 1987 70 HP Mariner.

I had a local (and well known here in MA) Merc dealer just a few blocks from me who serviced that engine and I knew the owner personally. He put Merc parts in that motor.

Is it possible that the parts were rebranded Yamaha parts? Or maybe  interchangeable for that motor between Mercury and Yamaha?

You would be the guy who knows and who's answer I would trust. 

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[D.W. Verts]

No Smallie, that one was a Merc. It was like the 40's and below that were Yamahas.

Dale

[Smallie_Stalker]

No Smallie, that one was a Merc. It was like the 40's and below that were Yamahas.

Dale

Ah, okay.  I knew you'd know. Thanks Dale.

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