Survey/Sea Trial complete - 1998, 405 AC

[Mikwallace]

We completed the survey, lift-out, and sea trial yesterday on a 1998 405 Aft Cabin (7.4 Horizon engines, Kohler 10 kw genny). I won’t have the written report for another couple days. The Surveyor spent about an hour with me, one-on-one, after the survey answering my questions, and discussing systems, condition, and recommendations. I was pleased with the process and look forward to the written report.

This is my first boat survey, but I draw somewhat of a comparison to a home inspection in that the surveyor/inspector is following a protocol and should be very detailed.

A few pleasant surprises:

- All fuel tanks are operational. Port/Stdb were full and Genny was operating from Port (Might have been Std, don’t remember), engines were operating from Aft/Aux tank and it was half full at the beginning of the sea trial.
- Both HVACs had been replaced, didn’t see the manufacture date but it will be in the report.
- Engines and genny were recently serviced, fluids, ignition, etc. and there was little difference between hour meter and ECM hour meter (hour meter had a few more hours than ECM, but I expected that).
- Slow cruise, (my definition, guess maybe it’s Hull speed?) 12 mph/2k rpm. WOT 4800 rpm/31 mph.
- Bottom paint less than 1 year old and bottom was clean.

It’ll probably be another week or so before the transaction is completed.

I don’t understand why there’s not fuel flow meters at the helm, but guess thats normal? So one mod/addition at the top of my list is a new chartplotter/mfd with fuel flow sensors and engine ECM integration via NMEA 2000 network.

Thanks to many of you for your threads on various topics and detailed discussions. Reading for hours on end about many topics on this Forum is how I derived a list of written questions to ask the surveyor.

[Cooler]

Sounds like you had a good surveyor. Just a quick note, you may want to ask seller how old the gas is, and if they ever used ethanol gas. Fuel flow meters were not standard, but a good place to start upgrading, especially if you are planning long cruises. Be ready for the fuel consumption shock. Those 7.4's are thirsty, but very reliable. er

[g36]

Sounds like you found a good boat. Flow meters arent normal at least at our age of boats. Theres some threads on here about options with nmea connectivity.... I have crusaders in my 405 and they have a return fuel line back to the fuel tanks. Not sure about the horizons. If they do you'll end up having to look at floscans which some can be setup with a return line like diesels. It doesnt bother me as much about how much fuel I'm burning now. i had fuel flow sensors on my trojan but as now that I didn't install on my 405 i really haven't missed them and I've found it really wouldn't help me for our boating. If your gonna do a lot of traveling they maybe come more important. Best of luck with you new boat.

[Mikwallace]

Follow up- we closed on the boat Aug 19 and started our journey on Aug 23. Overall a pleasant experience! The day we picked up the boat the fiberglass guy was finishing a small gel coat repair, but that didn’t cause any delay. Our plan was to arrive around noon, load our stuff, tinker with the systems, take a joy ride/sunset cruise, return to marina, eat, and prep for our 185+nm journey from Knoxville to Scottsboro (Lake Guntersville). While “tinker with the systems” the fresh water pump died. It worked on the survey and was under warranty as the pump was only a couple months old. The repairman couldn’t get to it until the next morning, didn’t know if he had another pump at his shop and if he didn’t would have to order one. I went to West Marine, bought a new pump and installed it the afternoon of 23 Aug in a very short time. As it turned out the repair guy showed up the next morning about 11:00 am with a replacement pump. I thanked him and put it in my spare parts bin. Now I have a spare! Another issue the surveyor found was the port rudder post packing nut was leaking while under way. Both rudders were newly packed in June. I watched a YouTube video on how to tighten the packing nut before I left home. So while replacing the fresh water pump, I tightened the packing nut - issue fixed. We got on our way about noon on Aug 24 and had a wonderful 3 day trip. Just set the rpm at 2k and averaged about 10 kts and around 1 mpg. Spent the night at Blue Springs Marina (Ten Mile, TN) and Erwin Marine in Chattanooga, TN. We passed thru 4 locks and the whole trip was a learning experience! I found out the Icemaker on the aft deck didn’t work, as noted in the survey, and determined the fan motor was inop. Ordered a new motor and fan, installed today and now ice maker works. Will have to remove the ice tray and clean it tomorrow. Might have to replace the tray?

Thanks for all the info you guys provided!

[RGrew176]

Nice write up. Thanks for sharing this with the rest of us. Hope your future adventures are as good as this one was.