[mikeyt]

I bought mine used from my ex-wife...... 'bout an hours drive in each direction.

[dudders]

Thats FAR too close for an EX wife to live Mike.
Besides, wasnt it yours in the first place????
Hope it was a steal.

[JoshuaHynes]

Well, I have it now and it is the real deal. It's not the Z package, just a 212.

It isn't perfect, but it's pretty close to it. The floor has no obvious soft spots, but the drivers seat is a bit wobbly, makes me wonder if the floor there is a bit rotted.

The Tach and the trim indicator dont work, the built-in depth finder is a nice feature. The stereo doesnt work either, but that seems likely to be an easy fix.

The hull is 100% perfect. Not even any rub marks on the keel. The engine seems quite tight as well.

No ripped upholstry, some of it has been redone recently but most appears to be original.

Its suprisingly big... I have another 21' boat and this one feels MUCH larger overall. It says max capacity 10 but that would be standing room only.

[WetWilly]

Originally Posted by JoshuaHynes

Well, I have it now and it is the real deal. It's not the Z package, just a 212.

It isn't perfect, but it's pretty close to it. The floor has no obvious soft spots, but the drivers seat is a bit wobbly, makes me wonder if the floor there is a bit rotted.

The Tach and the trim indicator dont work, the built-in depth finder is a nice feature. The stereo doesnt work either, but that seems likely to be an easy fix.

The hull is 100% perfect. Not even any rub marks on the keel. The engine seems quite tight as well.

No ripped upholstry, some of it has been redone recently but most appears to be original.

Its suprisingly big... I have another 21' boat and this one feels MUCH larger overall. It says max capacity 10 but that would be standing room only.

Hi JoshuaHynes,

Sounds like you got a nice one there! I don't thing there's a used boat out there without a few issues...and as the hull and I/O seem to be in great shape, everything else is a couple of weekends worth of time. Just think of it as a work in progress.

As for the seat wobbling, if the floor mounts check out solid, see if the wobble is coming from under the seat pedestal where the seat post it goes into the seat track and pivots. Our 240 seats wobbled really bad and I discovered there are plastic bushings on the top of the posts for the seat to turn on and they where pretty worn out!

Our Seat hardware was made by Springfield Marine and after contacting them, I ordered a new pair of bushings ( http://www.springfieldgrp.com/produc...8&subcat1=.htm ) and now the seats are like new.

Good Luck,
WetWilly

[mikeyt]

Willy's likely right about the seat wobble issue so that should be a simple repair. Volvo's are even more notorious that Merc's for failed trim sensor's so it's not likely the gauge that's the problem. You might choke on your corn flakes though when you price out a new Volvo trim sensor
The tachs a strange one. They dont usually give problems. Check the connections on the back of the gauge & make sure they're clean cuz most of the time it's simply a bit of corrosion that causes those types of problems. Then also check the setting on the back of the gauge & make sure it's set to 8cyl.

[mikeyt]

Originally Posted by dudders

Thats FAR too close for an EX wife to live Mike.
Besides, wasnt it yours in the first place????
Hope it was a steal.

Nah....i've been divorced from her for 25 yrs now. She bought it about 3 yrs ago for $18k from a dealer who brought it up from South Carolina. It had some stupid Nascar stickers all over the boat which i got rid of quickly. She never took care of it, forgot to winterize it the first year she had it & had to spend another $7500 on repairing the engine & replacing the outdrive. She never used it after that. I bought it for $5k from her back in May. It needed a major cleanup, new canvas, a driver's side front window & side screen and a couple of minor electrical repairs. I sunk about $4k into fixing her up & she's as good as new . I figure i finally got the better of her.

[xr6st]

i bought my boat cause the ex left me and need to have fun again oh yeah who need a wife when you have a mariah oh i brought about half hour away from home

[JoshuaHynes]

OK, The trim indicator is pretty important to me, how much is that gonna set me back?

And I wasnt really clear on the seat, but the hardware is fine, the wobble is because the bolts/screws/whatever that hold it down are backing out. I'm pretty sure the floor is soft right there at the base of the seat, but it may be good enough to reinforce (as opposed to replace) the floor. Ive replaced the deck in a boat before, and I won't be doing that again if I can avoid it.

The boat seems to be retaining water in the bilge under the deck hatch (you can see standing water through the little drain). Maybe the boat is just sitting poorly on the trailer and isnt draining properly or maybe there is a blockage at a stringer.

So a complete list of things to do on the boat so far to make it perfect:
1. Tachometer
2. Trim indicator
3. Stereo
4. Carpet needs to be glued back on a couple of places (storage areas)
5. Floor may or may not need to be reinforced in spots

Is there any way to glass the floor of a boat that was built with carpet and make it look as good as a boat that was built with a glass floor? I much rather snap-in carpet

[WetWilly]

Hi JoshuaHynes,

Let’s start with the electrical... I believe mikeyt is dead on about the corrosion! Mariah used nice wiring harnesses throughout their boats from the engine bay to the front. Seeing how you have a couple of gauges and a stereo out, I would suspect there is a connection issue in the wiring due to corrosion in a multi wire connector or at the terminal posts on the gauges or at the I/O. At least that's where I would start. You could try tracing out the signal, power and ground circuits with a meter. Don't forget to check for blown or corroded fuses.

Seat wobble... Mariah used backing plates behind all stress related hardware. I believe if you remove one of the seat post mounting "screws" you'll find it is a machine bolt rather that a "wood" screw and all you might need to do is tighten them up. If the floor is rotted under the seats, there are epoxy products to repair and re-strengthen the wood that you might want to look into.

Here is one such product: http://www.pcepoxy.com/woodepoxy.asp

Standing water...try using a garden hose with a good nozzle and blast the drains and the drain channel in the bilge spraying back towards the front. You might have a little "gunk" built up under the deck. If that doesn’t work, see if your local hardware store carries a thin drain snake and run it through the bilge drain channel.

Lastly, the floor... it is possible to glass over the existing floor and make it look as good as a built glass floor? Yes it is, but it will not be as sound as an all "glass" floor as you will still have exposed wood underneath. The nice part is, it doesn't have to be perfect as the new carpet will recover most of it anyway. Since you’ve done a deck before then I don’t have to tell you about how much work there is in removing everything from the interior and of course, you need to insure the floor is completely dry before you start or you’ll just trap the moisture causing more rot. You could glass the floor with colored resin only or add a thin fiberglass mat over the existing wood first then resin right up to the hull interior. Remember to enlarge the any deck hatch openings to compensate for the thickness of the fiberglass mat and/or resin and extend the resin far enough under the openings to prevent water from traveling into the bottom side of the wood. After that, just add the snaps, new carpet and reassemble the interior and your done. Just make sure you seal up the snap holes and take into account for water drainage and such... Sound simple enough but I believe you know the truth!

Good luck,
WetWilly

[ShabahZ280]

Check the connections first, most of the connectors will corrode at some point, as Mariah did not properly seal their connections from the elements. Every now and then, something won't work on mine, whether it be a docking light, courtesy light, or even the stereo. All you need to do is trace down the wire, disconnect it, clean it off and reattach it. 90% of the time, that'll be the issue. Just a slight bit of corrosion that needs to be cleaned.

As far as gauge replacement if you have to replace it, there's a seller on ebay who has the OEM Mariah trim gauges for $19.95. Unfortunately for the Tach, you'll probably have to contact Faria Instruments, they're the original manufacturer. The series Mariah used was called the "Euro Gold". But I believe they added a Mariah logo into the gauge to fancy it up a little bit. You might contact them to see if they still carry these. Who knows!

Keep us updated!