Sea Nymph 161 rebuild

[S Gilbert]

So now I have 2 metal boats to build.. my 1987 Lowe 14 that I will be replacing the transom and floor on and now a 1992 SeaNymph 161 with a 92' Evinrude 50 and 9.9 hp motors. The Nymph is overall in good condition and will be replacing the marine plywood, little that there is and the carpet. Main issue is that it looks like I will need to rewire it all. Questions are:

1) Does anyone know if there is a wiring diagram anywhere? The last owner was going to replace the fuse panel and tossed it out, so I have plugs but no idea where they go.

2) I am considering changing to a permanent tank and looking for ideas and suggestions.

If anyone has some parts that may work on this moat let me know.

Thanks

 

[airshot]

I have a 1992 Sylvan 16' with a built-in fuel tank. Under the floor about 2/3 of the way toward the rear. 18 gallon plastic Moeller tank, works great but fill cap is in a bad location, often thought about changing the location. Any pics on your sea nymph ?? Most boat mfgrs do not create a wiring diagram....never saw one in my 60 plus years....engine yes but not boat itself.
Any wood in the transom ? My Sylvan is all aluminum, only the floors and front deck are wood. In the near future, the carpet will be coming out when time to replace the floor wood....

 

[S Gilbert]

Sorry I have been MIA.. old computer died and I've been tied up a ton lately. Hope to get the 161 into the garage to start pulling off the carpet glue. The interior is about all apart so it can be rewired etc.. Part of me wants to put in a built-in tank but haven't yet figured out how much work it will be to pull the side compartments, main floor and then install the tank.. trying to see if I can find a video of what would be the project..

 

[boatyard]

Pay close attention to the transom on that boat. OMC era Sea Nymph, Princecraft, Lowe, and Grumman, all had big issues with using corrosive marine plywood for the wood core in their transoms. Everyone of them I've ever looked at or dealt with had some degree of rot on the transom panels and even the transom rivets from the cupric sulphate used in marine plywood. They somehow got the bright idea to use pressure treated or marine plywood for the transom panels somewhere in the mid to late 80's and it continued well into the late 90's or nearly until their demise.
I've seen more than a few Sea Nymph and Grumman aluminum bass boats with the telltale signs of rot around the upper corners of the transom and all along the edges of the wood panel where it was most likely to be exposed to moisture which sped up the rot.
I can't say if they corrected this before the end in 2001 or not but I walked away from a 1997 Grumman the other week with some pretty bad transom rot and have not seen a rot free Sea Nymph in decades here.

 

[S Gilbert]

GM,, the boat is still wrapped for winter but hope to get that removed this soon. I did pickup 2 sheets of 3/4 marine plywood that I will also seal before using it in the boat. Plan on replacing all the plywood in the boat, bow, side storage covers and transom but that is sealed in aluminum so not sure if I need that or not. Also will need to see what it will take to remove the aluminum floor to see what I will need to put in a tank.

 

[boatyard]

You should NOT use Marine plywood, no matter how well you seal it it will sooner or later leach out being from a crack in the finish or bolt hole or screw somewhere.
The right plywood is any exterior grade plywood that is not pressure treated, wolmanized, or soaked in any form of preservative. The key preservative is copper and arsenic which when wet creates a battery like reaction that attacks the aluminum.
There are two types of PT wood, some marine ply is the older CCA (Chromated copper arsenate) which is treated with arsenic salts and the newer stuff, which tends to be more green or brown in color is the worst of the two ACQ (Alkaline Copper Quaternary). Neither is good for aluminum, one is not better, one is just worse than the other. ASQ just eats the aluminum faster. Those boats were built using CCA, its not the worse of the two but its bad. I've never removed a transom panel in one of those and not found some degree of pitting, most were so bad they needed major repairs beyond just the wood.
The earliest I've seen with the issue was a 1984 V hull, the latest was a 1993 bass boat.
They weren't the only brand doing it but in most cases the other brands were having their boats built by Lowe.
(Lowe, Sea Nymph, and Grumman back then were all sister companies that had fallen under the umbrella of OMC at that time. but I'm not sure it was all OMC's fault because i've found corrosive wood in older models that predate the OMC purchase of Lowe/Sea Nymph in April of 1988. OMC added Grumman in 1990 and held Grumman till an employee purchase of sorts took place and they became Marathon Boats in 1996. Supposedly from 1996 and on they were much improved over the previous years plagued by corrosion issues the same as Sea Nymph and Lowe were.

 

[FuzzyGrub]

You should NOT use Marine plywood, no matter how well you seal it it will sooner or later leach out being from a crack in the finish or bolt hole or screw somewhere.
The right plywood is any exterior grade plywood that is not pressure treated, wolmanized, or soaked in any form of preservative. The key preservative is copper and arsenic which when wet creates a battery like reaction that attacks the aluminum.
There are two types of PT wood, some marine ply is the older CCA (Chromated copper arsenate) which is treated with arsenic salts and the newer stuff, which tends to be more green or brown in color is the worst of the two ACQ (Alkaline Copper Quaternary). Neither is good for aluminum, one is not better, one is just worse than the other. ASQ just eats the aluminum faster. Those boats were built using CCA, its not the worse of the two but its bad. I've never removed a transom panel in one of those and not found some degree of pitting, most were so bad they needed major repairs beyond just the wood.
The earliest I've seen with the issue was a 1984 V hull, the latest was a 1993 bass boat.
They weren't the only brand doing it but in most cases the other brands were having their boats built by Lowe.
(Lowe, Sea Nymph, and Grumman back then were all sister companies that had fallen under the umbrella of OMC at that time. but I'm not sure it was all OMC's fault because i've found corrosive wood in older models that predate the OMC purchase of Lowe/Sea Nymph in April of 1988. OMC added Grumman in 1990 and held Grumman till an employee purchase of sorts took place and they became Marathon Boats in 1996. Supposedly from 1996 and on they were much improved over the previous years plagued by corrosion issues the same as Sea Nymph and Lowe were.

I think they are called MGB now. Located about 20 minutes from me. I have seen their Duramatic and Grumman boats at some dealers, but not the swamp dragon.

Also part of their story, some ex employees went off and founded Discovery Marine in nearby Preble NY. They then became DMI (Discovery Marine Inc), which is what my 1648 is. Latter became Misty Harbor and moved to Indiana. I believe they only make pontoons now under the Viaggo name. Maybe the V and Jons moved under the Polar Craft name?

Our small lake dealer has sold their boats for as long as I can remember. They have the Duramatic V boats, Grumman canoes, and Viaggo pontoons, now. There are many old Discovery jons still in operation there. They were called Polaris jons then. My 1995 had the PT transom, which caused "worm tracks" and pin holes in the aluminum. I suspect that the earlier made Polaris's did not use PT, or they would be in sad shape by now. Anyway, it seems that a number of companys made the mistake with PT.

 

[S Gilbert]

GM and thanks.. now I am really wondering if I want to take all this on with all that I have going on redoing the house. I have 1800 into the boat, new parts ect.. maybe unload it and put it towards getting a newer boat..

 

[S Gilbert]

anyone wants a project boat let me know?? Good running 50 hp Evenrude and nive trailer should be worth the 1500 and then the boat is free..