Wellcraft Boat Owners Forum

Hi!

Dave here, in eastern Iowa. I'd LIKE to say I was a 'new' WellCraft owner, but I'm not... but that doesn't really tell much of the story.

My Dad has owned a 1979 255 SunCruiser since 1981. The first owner took possession of it in late 1978, and boat spent it's first two seasons in a slip. Since the day my Dad bought it, has been berthed in a dry-stack marina on the Upper Mississippi. Over that 42 years, the boat has travelled to the Ohio and Illinois rivers, and all the way up the Mississippi River, onto the St. Croix past Stillwater, MN, into Minneapolis (Prior to the closure of the St. Anthony Falls lock), up the Minnesota several miles... many laps around Lake Pepin, and hundreds of nights on river island beaches, anchored in sand pits and backwaters, to fireworks shows, snack-dinners, through rainstorms, heat waves, high water and drought. Over 500 guests grace the pages of her logbook.

Her transom experienced a little rot, so Dad had that replaced. The original (MCM260) engine got replaced with a '98 L31 MerCruiser 5.7. It's had a new gimbal ring, probably 7 bellows jobs, a dozen gimbal bearings, 20 batteries, five bilge blowers, eight bilge pumps, three flywheel couplers, four stern drives, and several thousand gallons of fuel run through her lines, carrying my siblings and parents up and down the river. The interior upholstery has been replaced twice, there's been three porta-potties, four stereos, three complete canvas tops, three marine radios, two depthfinders...

It's been a great family boat, and it's been well-cared for, still has lots of years left in it, but sadly, my Dad does not... so we're starting the process of finding this great craft a new family to love.

If it sounds like I know alot about this boat, and it's drive system, it's because I've been elbow-deep in every aspect of it's care since the start... Initially, i helped dad by getting into the spaces he couldn't get into, I did the dirty jobs (like mopping up all the stinky black goo when the first coupler gave up, and carving out the rotten wood in the transom..). Dad always did lots of maintenance, and when he needed a second set of hands, I was those hands. When it got into mechanicals, I was either assisting the marine mechanics doing it (and learning), or I was doing it myself... aside from just two things, there really isn't a part on this boat I haven't worked on... those two things are the alcohol stove and the refrigerator. Dad always maintained and operated the alcohol stove, and we never really used the refrigerator for anything other than storage space.

These were great family boats... one can actually work on them comfortably, they're simple and robust. I wouldn't say it's a FAST boat (260hp drive, half tank of fuel, 4800rpm for 33mph) but at that, it's quiet, will run all day, and that's sufficient to cover most pools of the Upper Mississippi in under an hour... and 12 lockages in one day will get you from Davenport to Red Wing with mebbie 4 stops at a gas dock, at 25 gal a stop.