I picked up an almost free Merit 22 last weekend (had to pay for gas for 1,000 mile round trip), and it's far from perfect but shouldn't take that much work to get on the water. There are few issues that need to be addressed:
1. The keel support rusted out, and as a work around for moving the boat, we put in slotted channel held in place with threaded rod. I can't find any pictures of how the support is supposed to be fabricated, but this needs to change - we almost had a catastrophic failure of the temporary keel support after a tire blew out and the threaded rod grabbed the asphalt. Does anyone have any photos? I can't find enough details online.
2. I know the boat is too far aft on the trailer. The person I got it from couldn't pull the boat far enough forward, so instead he moved the winch stand aft. That required putting significant weight in the bow to keep the trailer from fishtailing. There is some oil canning around the rear support, so I'll be replacing the bunk boards and moving things forward. Does anyone have a diagram of how the trailer should be setup with dimensions?
3. Water in cabin... Are there common entry points? It's spent the last year or so under an awning until I brought it back. We had rain a couple nights ago, and there probably is around 2" of water in the cabin. I've dealt with this on other boats previously and realize it's hard to find where water intrusion is occurring, so I'm hoping for some guidance here.
4. There are some cracks both forward and aft of the keel trunk on the hull. Any recommendations on repair? I have plenty of 12 ounce fiberglass and epoxy resin. I figured I'd have to cut out part of the sole to gain access. Does the hull have any coring? I hope not.
Thanks for your input.
1. The keel support rusted out, and as a work around for moving the boat, we put in slotted channel held in place with threaded rod. I can't find any pictures of how the support is supposed to be fabricated, but this needs to change - we almost had a catastrophic failure of the temporary keel support after a tire blew out and the threaded rod grabbed the asphalt. Does anyone have any photos? I can't find enough details online.
2. I know the boat is too far aft on the trailer. The person I got it from couldn't pull the boat far enough forward, so instead he moved the winch stand aft. That required putting significant weight in the bow to keep the trailer from fishtailing. There is some oil canning around the rear support, so I'll be replacing the bunk boards and moving things forward. Does anyone have a diagram of how the trailer should be setup with dimensions?
3. Water in cabin... Are there common entry points? It's spent the last year or so under an awning until I brought it back. We had rain a couple nights ago, and there probably is around 2" of water in the cabin. I've dealt with this on other boats previously and realize it's hard to find where water intrusion is occurring, so I'm hoping for some guidance here.
4. There are some cracks both forward and aft of the keel trunk on the hull. Any recommendations on repair? I have plenty of 12 ounce fiberglass and epoxy resin. I figured I'd have to cut out part of the sole to gain access. Does the hull have any coring? I hope not.
Thanks for your input.
