Project Barefoot Nautique

Thought I’d wright a summary of my journey after buying my 92 Barefoot Nautique last summer. You better make yourself comfortable since this takes more than 5 minutes. I’ve been learning and reading so much here that I’ve felt like I’d have to give something back to the forum even though there might not be much to learn from this post.

I’ve owned a 93 Ski Centurion and an 01 Ski Nautique 196 before. The Ski centurion was in great condition with less than 500 hours but hasn’t really pleased me with its design. The Ski Nautique was rebuild by the previous owner design wise but in bad condition on the mechanical side. I’ve spent month working on the engine and transmission to get the boat into the condition that I’ve been confident with. One thing that I hated about the boat was the fact that it’s bow sat quiet deep in the water, constantly causing waves to get into the boat when cruising. Also it got cosy with 6 persons on board.

I decided to sell the Ski Nautique in pretty much perfect condition and look for something a bit more classic and practical.
Two days after selling the Ski nautique I found my self on a 4 hours journey to inspect a 1992 Barefoot Nautique with the 351 HO motor. Color option Electric Blue/ Ice Blue. The boat was sold by a boat dealer in Germany and as he said on the telephone only had about 300 hours which to me seemed crazy low. I do not have any exact numbers but expect under 10 Barefoot Nautiques/ Excels (after 91 version) here in Germany. Correct me if anybody knows better.

The Boat ran great, no vibrations, no weird noises from the engine or transmission. Overall great and pretty much original. I didn’t want to tear up the floor to check every bit of the stringers and thought since it’s being sold by a dealer I do have some kind of warranty (12 month warranty by law in Germany) in case something happens.

Engineer and German as I am, I took the boat apart after I picked it up to get to know every single screw of it. Very fast I had to find a large crack in the left stringer right next to the Warner drive. I was absolutely shocked. Within the next hours I wrote an endless list with faulty parts and things I’d have to change. I called the boat dealer and told him about the problems with the boat. Of course he was clever enough to make it look like the boat was sold private and there is no kind of warranty. Weeks and month of phone calls with the dealer, previous boat owners, lawyers and other dealerships passed. I had pretty much lost the initial joy about my dream boat and was about to sell it as is due to the lag of time to finish such project.

Here’s a short summary of things that weren’t right:
- Left stringer wet/ fiber glass has a large crack / delamination
- Intake manifold leaks water
- No thermostat in thermostat housing
- Both crankshaft seals bad
- One exhaust hose collapsed half way since it was cheaply made and not wire enforced
- Damper plate toast
- PCM Transmission strong signs of wear + leaks oil through shaft seal
- Transmission shift cable bad
- All 4 engine mounts loose!?
- Endless amount of loose and missing hose clamps
- Stuffing box hose toast
- Different bolts used on shaft/transmission coupler
- Strut bend
- Strut bearing toast
- Arms that hold the Swim Platform to the boat loose (wood in Backwall still in very good condition)
- Speedometers partly broken
- Battery switch faulty
- Cooling hoses in bad condition/ partly still the original hoses
- GelCoat very weathered
- Electronics partly not working
- 3 out of 4 trailer wheel bearings bad even though the dealer said he changed them
- Trailer backup function broken
- Trailer wheels old enough to be renewed
- Not enough downward force on trailer tongue

This is just a short summary. The list of little things that bothered me is endless. I’ve learned my lesson buying this boat. Take your time and check every single part of a boat even though it looks to be perfect and is being sold by a friendly dealer.

Corona has had a lot of downsides but it also had one big advantage for me. Home Office. I’ve had more free time than usual, which made it possible to start the project BFN.

Initially I cut open a little section of the fiber glass, hoping it would be enough to dry the stringer, since the wood is still in great and solid condition. As somebody here has mentioned before: „trying to dry a wet stringer with just a small opening is like trying to dry a wet sponge in a plastic bag“. He was right as I had to find out!

Within the next weeks I tore down the whole boat. At some point I got really frustrated because everytime I would touch something it broke or I found even more things that needed to be fixed. I cut open the whole stringer section and dried it with a fan 24/7. I have read and learnd a lot about stringer jobs from you guys but I must have missed the part where you talk about the fact that fiber glass is a pain in the ass to grind and itches like hell! I did use a mask. The foam and floor were also checked and found to be still dry and in good condition.
The warm spring here helped drying the stringer with over 80°F outside temp and over 100°F under the boat cover (I made sure to let in some fresh air to let the humid out).

The engine got a new intake seal, applied with rtf around the water ports. Crankshaft seals, oil pan gasket and fuel pump gasket have been renewed. Crankshaft bearings checked (still like new).
I have installed a new heavy duty damper plate and rebuild the PCM transmission. The Warner transmission got a new oil pan seal and the shaft seals were replaced. Transmissions and Bell housing repainted. Since the engine was out it was quiet easy to change all water and exhaust hoses and some other parts. I’ve changed the ignition cables and bought a second ProTec Ignition system to keep as a spare. The original 143F Thermostat was put in the thermostat housing.

The strut was straightened and re aligned. A new strut bearing inserted and the prop balanced (Still 3 blade but want to change to 4 blade next season). New extra thick stuffing box hose and a new graphite packing. I stayed with the traditional stuffing box due to its reliability.

The moist in the stringer went down to about 11% but I decided to let it dry a bit more since I still had enough other things to do on the boat. Having said that, I removed the outside decals, sanded the Gelcoat and polished it to bring back the shine. Buying the decals turned out to be a bit more difficult since they were only partly available in the US and also quiet expensive. Luckily I had photos of all decals and was able to create a file in AutCad that I could send to a decal specialist who would print them out for me. For a short moment I was thinking about messing with the decals and making the boat a little bit more individual but stayed original.

I’ve never thought to become a great teak freak, but I’ve spent hours working on the swim platform. It was sealed before and I had to sand it down to healthy wood and then coated it with about 8 layers of teak oil. I couldn’t resist but wet sanded it with 400 grit before the final coat. I’ll probably regret this later.

Lot’s of the electric wiring was renewed and brought back to it’s original condition. The stringer has been relaminated and is in my opinion even stronger than before. The bilge was cleaned and repainted. Engine, transmission and shaft realigned.

One thing that still keeps me awake at night is the missing V8 sound that the 2001 Ski Nautiques and Barefoot have. I am thinking about removing the big muffler with a stainless steel Y. But am not sure yet since long days on the lake could be less fun for everyone else in the boat due to the loud exhaust sound.

I haven’t had the chance to take the boat to the lake yet but will spend a week in August at the lake house with a couple of friends.

The boat is in a fantastic condition as of now but I will probably never be done with this project since it’s just too much fun.
Have a great summer everyone and lot’s of fun boating!

MechGaT wrote: Thanks for sharing. Where are pictures? We want to see it.

Plus 1 Yes on the pictures.

Here some pictures I took during the process. I will post some more final pictures of the finished Boat once I get back to the boat.

P.S. Nice German skills Jonny!

Looks like the motor has been out before and mistreated no doubt. Go ahead and get rid of Protec , put a DUI distributor in . sell it all while its still running to the next victim.