"Captain Dondo" wrote in message
news
I just got a new old boat... A 1968 14' alum. hull Valco.

This being the first aluminum boat and the first power boat I've owned,
I'd like to ask a few questions...

The hull is riveted aluminum. There is a very small leak somewhere - it
takes on about 1/2" of water in 3 hours. What's the best way to find the
leak and then to plug it? I'm thinking of just filling the boat up with
water and seeing where it drips out. But how do you go about caulking a
riveted boat? (I ask because there are signs of some very amaturish
attempts to caulk it...)

The engine is a 1975 Merc 9.8 outboard. Is there anything I need to look
out for? Maintenance? Filters? Carb? It runs really well, and it seems
to have been maintained well. Mercury was very unhelpful; they offered to
sell me the manual... (I don't really blame them, but the goal of this
boat is to stay cheap.....) (Yeah, I know, cheap and boat don't go
together in one sentence... :-) )

Any information, especially sources of info for older Valco boats,
welcome. Valco has been bought by Klamath, and information on older boats
is pretty scarce....

--Yan


--
o__
,/'_ o__
(_)\(_) ,/'_ o__
Yan Seiner, PE (_)\(_) ,/'_ o__
Certified Personal Trainer (_)\(_) ,/'_ o__
Licensed Professional Engineer (_)\(_) ,/'_
Who says engineers have to be pencil necked geeks? (_)\(_)


Valco was made by Hulls Inc. In Clovis, Ca. Klamath was started by a
former manager of Hulls and I think they only bought part of the remains,
not the small boat part. I think the Bayrunner line maybe. If you get 3"
in a 1/2 hour, then just look where the water is coming in when you first
launch. Make sure the bunks are the full length of the bottom where they
can contact. I used to have a U-14 Valco I bought new in about 1986. The
front roller or the trailer collapsed and when snugging down the boat with
the bow winch, it caused a sharp pressure point where the boat bent and
finally cracked on the front of the boat. look and feel the rivets and see
if any are loose. You can reseat them with a hammer sometimes. Valco
welded some reinforcements at some of the rivet holes on mine, when it
cracked from a couple of big guys walking around the boat. They later put
another reinforcing cross member in their boats for this reason. Was the
same laout as a 12' boat, but the extra 2' lacked support. You can get new
rivets and reset them.