1994 Sunsetter Euro F3

[glp86]

Bought a new to me 1994 Sunsetter Euro F3 back in December and am finally posting pics of it. I did all my research on this site over a couple months while I waited for the prime time to make this guy an offer. Ended up driving away with if for -----!

Here it is the day I brought it home!



This is replacing my 1996 Maxum 17' I/O with a 3.0 Merc which I just sold last night for $5000!

Edited July 2, 2013 by glp86

[glp86]

The good:

-1994 so all composite, no wood!

-13^th Floor Wake Tower w/ board racks.

-Interior in good shape

-Only 712 hours on the MerCruiser 350

Here are some interior shots. These are after I had pulled the dash and am working on the stereo.

[glp86]

The not so terrible:

Gauge lenses need polished a little. Thinking I’ll try toothpaste and then headlight polish.

About 12”-18” of the floor has delaminated from the side of the hull. I’m thinking this can be left for now and fixed over the winter.

[glp86]

The bad:

The keel is been beached quite a bit by the looks of this. Not sure what I’m going to do just yet. Spectrum has this color gelcoat in a quart of liquid. I may go that route or just some Marine Tex with a keel guard over it. Is this something that I need to deal with now or wait till the winter?

Not sure what happened here, but this kinda sucks since it goes across the different colors of gel. I checked out the backside of this spot and there is no visible damage so I think this is just a cosmetic issue for now.

The trailer is the worst part of the whole package. It needs all new tires and bunks which isn’t a big deal. The three main cross members started to rust so somebody did this awesome repair job… I’m thinking over the winter if I can get the boat off the trailer for a bit, I’ll cut out and weld in new cross members. Then I’ll get the whole trailer blasted and painted black.

I hooked it up to the hose and ran the motor for about 30 minutes a couple nights ago. Everything seems to be good. After I change the impeller, oil, tranny fluid and put new tires on it I may have to go make sure it floats!

Anyways I think at $6000 it’s a steal and a heck of an upgrade from my old boat. Really looking forward to doing some wakeboarding on a boat with a tower, also I'm pumped about improving my slalom skills this summer!

[Shine]

Interesting, fully tinted windshield.

[james11music]

Right on man! Thanks for the post with nice pics. I have the same boat except it's a 93. All fiberglass floor and stringers, but the seat bases and backs are wood. Did they change your seat bases in 94 to composite? Anyways, i'm jealous right now hearing that you got yours for 6,000. I bought mine 4 years ago and in very poor shape for 7,000 so you should feel great about that deal! Mine didn't come with a tower, just an extended pylon. Since i've owned it i have replaced quite a few things and i'm am still in the rehab process as we speak:

New upholstery and new marine plywood for all seat bases, New carpet, many hours of compounding and polishing to bring the gelcoat back to life, new steering cable, new rudder, new prop shaft, re-worked prop, new starter, new alternator, new fuel pump, new blower, new t-stat. Even with all the stuff i have had to do, it has been a great boat. I am in the middle of replacing my rub rail also and while doing so, i uncovered some fiberglass work that needed to be done. That leads me to your question about those stress cracks. Those are not just cosmetic. Stress cracks are caused when there is movement in the fiberglass. When i bought my boat it had stress cracks above and below the rub rail on the port side. I too thought it was just cosmetic until i recently took off the old rub rail and noticed a two foot long spot where the two halves of the hull didn't meet up flush. The bottom half of the hull was spongy in that spot to the point that i could make it move just by pushing on it with my finger. Turns out that at one point the previous owner took a hard hit to the rail which broke the fiberglass seam. I just got it back from a body shop who charged me 350.00 to re fiberglass that spot. (just from the inside...they didn't fix any of the spider cracked gel. Now i'm ready to put the new rub rail on this weekend. My point is to not ignore those stress cracks because there could be worse damage that you can't see. As far as your keel goes, mine looks exactly the same, maybe even worse and my boat doesn't leak a bit of water. The fiberglass is a lot thicker in that area for that reason. it isn't something that you should worry about other than the fact that it's ugly. I too would like to put a keel guard on my boat and i might use your idea of marine tex before i put the guard on. Ok, i'll stop ramblin' on now. I just get excited to see another boat like mine. Have fun with it!

Edited May 18, 2012 by james11music

[husabeast]

Where did you find a replacement rub rail? Is it a big chore to replace?

[Levi900RR]

Very cool boat, if I knew then what I know now it's probably what I would have looked for. Congrats.

[james11music]

I got the replacement rub rail through bakes marine. It was a huge chore to put it on. I had a buddy come over yesterday and even with two people it was a pain. Called up a couple others and got it on in about 6 hours with 4 people helping. I had already pulled the old rub rail off, drilled the old rivets, and filled with 3M 5200 prior to yesterday so it was 6 hours and 4 people just to put the new one on. Prob a total of 9 hours with removing the old rail. I'm so relieved that it's done now and it turned out great. It shouldn't be coming off anytime soon because we used about 170 rivets.

Edited May 21, 2012 by james11music

[glp86]

Right on man! Thanks for the post with nice pics. I have the same boat except it's a 93. All fiberglass floor and stringers, but the seat bases and backs are wood. Did they change your seat bases in 94 to composite? Anyways, i'm jealous right now hearing that you got yours for 6,000. I bought mine 4 years ago and in very poor shape for 7,000 so you should feel great about that deal! Mine didn't come with a tower, just an extended pylon. Since i've owned it i have replaced quite a few things and i'm am still in the rehab process as we speak:

New upholstery and new marine plywood for all seat bases, New carpet, many hours of compounding and polishing to bring the gelcoat back to life, new steering cable, new rudder, new prop shaft, re-worked prop, new starter, new alternator, new fuel pump, new blower, new t-stat. Even with all the stuff i have had to do, it has been a great boat. I am in the middle of replacing my rub rail also and while doing so, i uncovered some fiberglass work that needed to be done. That leads me to your question about those stress cracks. Those are not just cosmetic. Stress cracks are caused when there is movement in the fiberglass. When i bought my boat it had stress cracks above and below the rub rail on the port side. I too thought it was just cosmetic until i recently took off the old rub rail and noticed a two foot long spot where the two halves of the hull didn't meet up flush. The bottom half of the hull was spongy in that spot to the point that i could make it move just by pushing on it with my finger. Turns out that at one point the previous owner took a hard hit to the rail which broke the fiberglass seam. I just got it back from a body shop who charged me 350.00 to re fiberglass that spot. (just from the inside...they didn't fix any of the spider cracked gel. Now i'm ready to put the new rub rail on this weekend. My point is to not ignore those stress cracks because there could be worse damage that you can't see. As far as your keel goes, mine looks exactly the same, maybe even worse and my boat doesn't leak a bit of water. The fiberglass is a lot thicker in that area for that reason. it isn't something that you should worry about other than the fact that it's ugly. I too would like to put a keel guard on my boat and i might use your idea of marine tex before i put the guard on. Ok, i'll stop ramblin' on now. I just get excited to see another boat like mine. Have fun with it!

Thanks man for the reply! Do you have a tread with pics of your boat? Although there is a decent amount of info about square windshield Sunsetters on this site, I really had a tough time finding many specifics about the '93-'94's prior to buying my boat. My seat bases and backs are made of some sort of white plastic board. This boat has zero wood in it, which was a very important feature I was looking for when shopping for a boat. I just had no desire to mess with redoing a floor and stringers.

Here is the bottom of the driver's seat to show white plastic board I'm talking about.

Very cool boat, if I knew then what I know now it's probably what I would have looked for. Congrats.

Thanks man! When shopping I knew I wanted a boat with an open bow, no wood, direct or V drive and less than $10,000. When I found this boat, it fit the bill perfectly. I've looked at your boat quite a few times and always thought it looked sharp. I plan on copying some of your ballast ideas eventually, so thanks for posting those up.

[glp86]

Can anybody tell me if this blower hose routing looks right?

Starboard Side. Seems weird to even have the open hose just sitting there. Assuming it's just for venting purposes, should I just get rid of it?

Port Side. One hole has no hose and the other has another open ended hose connected to it. Should I pull this off too?

[90Euro]

Good find! No wood must be nice. What are the stereo plans?

[Shine]

The tubes that are hooked to nothing really should stay. Gas fumes are heavier and will collect at the lowest point. The blower is mounted as low as possible and pushes out gas fumes and the tubes allow fresh air into the lowest point.

[james11music]

Unfortunately I haven't taken pics along the way. I knew I would regret doing so, but once I get a project started, I just want it finished and i am usually too impatient to go take pics. I just got the new rub rail on along with new decals so i'll take a bunch of pics and see if i can't post em' up here within the next few days.

[Woodski]

You might consider sealing the hull damage, not sure if what is there now might be pourous and lead to problems later. I would check with a marine glass expert for advice on that one. Great find, have fun with it.

[glp86]

Good find! No wood must be nice. What are the stereo plans?

Thanks! I'm definitely a fan of not having to deal with rot. Hopefully I'll get the stereo wired up this weekend. It consists of:

Alpine CDA-9886 head unit

4 Polk mmc650's - 6.5" marine component speakers

2 Kicker 10" KM10 subwoofers

2 Kicker KMT60 tower speaker pods

Kicker ZXM450.2 amp to power the tower speakers

Kicker MX700.5 amp to power the 4 6.5"s and the 2 10" subs

The tubes that are hooked to nothing really should stay. Gas fumes are heavier and will collect at the lowest point. The blower is mounted as low as possible and pushes out gas fumes and the tubes allow fresh air into the lowest point.

Okay thanks! I've got some tubing on it's way from Bakes so I think I'll replace them with some tubing that doesn't have holes in it instead of just tearing it out.

[glp86]

Unfortunately I haven't taken pics along the way. I knew I would regret doing so, but once I get a project started, I just want it finished and i am usually too impatient to go take pics. I just got the new rub rail on along with new decals so i'll take a bunch of pics and see if i can't post em' up here within the next few days.

I'd be interested in seeing pics of the new decals!

You might consider sealing the hull damage, not sure if what is there now might be pourous and lead to problems later. I would check with a marine glass expert for advice on that one. Great find, have fun with it.

I am going to look into this a little more. From what I can tell it's just worn through the gelcoat and is an eyesore. I'm thinking Marine Tex to make sure it's sealed up and then topped with a keel guard, but keel guards aren't cheap so we'll see.