Greetings from California. 1992 Avon SeaRider 5.4. Photos, projects. Gelcoat color?

[arrr.carlson]

Hi all, been lurking here for a while. I thought I'd post a few photos of my project in hopes that you'd like them enough to answer some questions for me.

I'm in California, los angeles. Mostly I scuba dive within a few miles of my harbor, redondo beach, but once in a while I trailer my boat down to San Diego and go out 20-30 miles trying to get tuna.

I bought the boat in May 2016 without really knowing what a Searider was. I wanted a RIB, the price was right on this one due to its age, I liked the layout of the jockey seat, I liked the little stainless arch (looks like a custom made part, haven't seen any others like this). I quickly fell in love with the way the hull rides, incredibly smooth at high speed, even in big swells, I'm a big fan of what I got.

It has a 1992 Nissan 90hp outboard on it. It's easy to work on, but I continually have fuel issues with it. Some days it'll do 5000 rpm and 35 knots, some days only a few thousand and 10 knots. The unpredictability of the engine has been the worst part of the project. I'm looking forward to putting a new outboard on it. Really hope evinrude makes a generation 2 e-tec in 90hp soon, the smallest they make in gen 2 is 150 right now.

I get about 3 to 3.5 miles per gallon, hoping to do better. Better range will help me find tuna. On my best days, I've put 90 miles on the boat in a single day. On my worst days, I don't get out of the harbor, I'm sure we all know how that goes.

Most launches here are ramps, but I joined a club that has an overhead crane. I'm using 3 straps: two 8' straps and one 10' strap, the boat hangs well with just those straps. They are 1" yellow lifting straps, 1000 pound rating each, they were about $10 each.

In the photo gallery below, you can see a few modifications I've made that I'm happy with. Here's more about some of the projects:

-I got a 28 gallon tank for it, it fits well in the boat, and a 150 quart cooler fits well on that.

-When I don't have the big cooler on it, I put a milk crate on the cooler, that helps keep my guest crew organized. You know how it is when people don't know how to keep organized on a small boat, you end up with gear everywhere and next thing you know you've put a scuba tank on top of someone's mask. I put a motorcycle cargo net over the milk crate, that keeps everything in place even when we're going fast and bouncing around.

-I put a short piece of shock cord with a clip on the seat grab bar. I clip this to the man ropes, that keeps the seat open when I'm working on it. I hate when that seat slams shut on my hand.

-I also replaced the ropes on the elephant trunks with short shock cord and clips. Much easier to stow and deploy without a long line getting in the way.

- I also added 2 scuba tank racks to the boat that hold 4 scuba tanks each, vertically. I have one ahead of the seat and one behind. No photos of that in this collection yet.

-I bought new synthetic paddles for it, the wooden ones were rotten.

-I made an anchor well for it out of a rubber mat. It was big enough to hold may anchor (200' of 3/8" line, 30 feet of chain) and a whole lot more, all my life preservers and a cooler of water. Unfortunately, the rubber rotted and tore pretty quickly, I'm going to have a piece of canvas cut to fit to replace it. Right now I'm using a canvas bucket that does not hold nearly as much. I'm trying to keep the line off the deck and as far forward as possible, so that I have more deck space and the anchor line drys out between trips.

-I made a tool belt for the back of the seat. I wanted to keep a knife, pliers, and wire cutters handy for fishing and diving. So I cut a piece of 2" nylon web belt, and put that belt under the grab bar on the back of the seat, with belt sheaths on the web belt, to hold a knife and pliers.

-Sanding the hull. I've been working on it slowly, this job may wait until I change the outboard, I'd love to have the hull upside down. Anyway, I have not seen Micro-Mesh sandpaper mentioned here, and I wanted to mention it. It's got a different surface construction, it removes a lot of material, it works really well as wet sandpaper:

Micro-Mesh:

https://micro-surface.com/micro-mesh-types


Anyway, here's my photo gallery:

Avon SeaRider RIB - Roger Carlson

Now, my question:

-What color is the gelcoat? I've read the archives and I've read that it's RAL-2002 Vermillion Orange, but I've also read some other colors. The previous owner put a few deep scratches in and repaired it with red gelcoat. I want to do it right. I've looked at the color kits that let you mix your own color... for the price, I'm just going to buy a full gallon of the right color and store it in a bunch of half pint cans. I'll post if I do that, it'll be more than I need, happy to re-sell some of it.

[ncp]

The micro-mesh looks like an interesting product.

Nice to see another Searider here in southern CA!

[Mextli]

RAL 2004 comes pretty close to searider orange too

[kubcat]

Welcome to Ribnet. Love the details, photos and ideas.

The Nissan engine is a Tohatsu in our market (Australia). I had one and it was one of my favourite engines ever. Having said that, no idea why yours is playing up, hope you sort it out or get a replacement. Boating is not fun when you are stuck.

[arrr.carlson]

Kubcat, what made you like that engine so much? good power from the 3 carbs? easy to work on?

Mextli, have you or has anyone seen 2002 and 2004 at the same time, any idea which is closer?

NCP, micromesh is great. It takes a lot of material off, and it does it smoothly. The remaining material isn't scratched or gouged. It just has a rough surface finish, like a heavy matt finish. So you use the coarse micro mesh to do all the removal you need, and then you step through the finer micromesh grades to restore the finish to a really perfect level. I use it on my lexan dome ports on my underwater cameras, it also is used on lexan aircraft windows. It's still really slow going to take heavy oxidation off a whole hull by hand. I'm nervous about using an electric sander while wet sanding, but I'll probably try it, especially if I can get the motor off and the hull flipped so gravity is helping me keep the electric motor dry.

[Mextli]

The problem is they used different colours over time. My SR4 is done in RAL 2004 and it is slightly off(but only slightly) and a friend of mine has a later one and it is just about RAL 2004..

[spartacus]

Nissan/Tohatsu engines are normally pretty robust. Any fuel related issues are usually a number of things such as worn or torn diaphragm in fuel pump (rebuild kits available), sticky butterfly choke (top carb) behind air-box, damaged primer fuel bulb (fit genuine Tohatsu or Quicksilver), use correct NGK spark-plugs correctly gapped, replace fuel filter on engine and in-line filter if you have one. The male/female fuel connection on the engine is also prone to problems. After-market connectors (not genuine Tohatsu) then I've seen the 'o' ring dislodge.

Regards engines - have you checked out Yahama 70hp 4-stroke? Heard nothing but good reviews about it. Frugal and light.

[kubcat]

The Tohatsu is a basic engine that with some basic tools will almost always get you home. Some of the boats I go on with newer motors have electronic black boxes and sensors galore. You don't always go.

Also my Tohatsu powered boat was burnt and I replaced it with a similar size boat with a 90hp Honda.

Most of my boating is at pretty high rpm and I have noticed no decrease in fuel economy (actually a small increase in fuel with the Honda) and not a great deal of noise difference either at near max rpm.

At idle the four stroke Honda is much smoother and quieter but for the added complexity just not worth it for me. I wish the new boat had the Tohatsu.

[arrr.carlson]

Thanks, all.

I didn't realized they changed color. 2002 looks like it has a little more red, 2004 looks a little more orange, probably a better match for me. I just found a site that sells color chips for $0.70, if that works out and I actually get them, I'll post an update.

Thanks for the advice on the outboard. So far it has been easier to work on than I expected and I certainly like that, I was expecting that was why others like it, thanks for the confirmation. The fuel problem is at least partly contamination, I was sloppy changing an in-line filter. It has a crack in the lower unit, not sure it's bad enough to get water into the oil, I have only changed the oil once and need to change it again to check that. It needs a few holes repaired with helicoils as well. It's good to know it's a good engine basically, but I'm still not sure this one is worth everything it will take to repair it completely.

[jyasaki]

Originally Posted by arrr.carlson

I use it on my lexan dome ports on my underwater cameras,

That's what I remember reading about Micro Mesh being used for. Can't say I've used it, as I only have a flat port, and it's glass.

I'm a little surprised at your fuel economy (or lack thereof); I have an 18' Aluminum hulled RIB with an F115; ocerall economy is about 4mpg (statute miles) or slightly better. Hopefully yours improves once you figure out the issues you have, or repower.

Like the username; should really pay off on Sept 19th (Int'l Talk Like a Pirate Day)

jky

[arrr.carlson]

Well, I bought some RAL color samples from a company called LVP, they make pigments, especially for powder coating, I got some powder coated metal cards with 2002 (Vermillion) and 2004 (Pure Orange). They were kind enough to throw in 2009 (Traffic Orange). Attached are some photos, I added 5 photos of the color samples to my searider gallery:

Avon SeaRider RIB - Roger Carlson

The pictures don't do the actual colors justice. The Verimillion looks very red to me on my screen, it is not that red in person.

My boat, a 1992, is 2004, Pure Orange (though not all the photos look like it). My console is discolored and yellowed, it looks like Traffic Orange at first glance, but there is some 2004 Pure Orange in there, guess I need to add the console to my restoration project.

I worked hard on one patch of the hull with micro mesh, and it's definitely 2004. There is one tiny patch of hull on the transom that was under an old transducer, that's the cleanest color I have, that's a good match for 2004.

I'm done with these samples now. If I can mail them off to anyone, especially a club or something, let me know.

[arrr.carlson]

Well, the more I look at it, the more I think my boat is traffic orange, 2009. Maybe it's the age and fading. Here's a small piece I took out with a hole saw to install a switch on the console, the inside wasn't in the sun, and it looks like a better match for 2009 than 2004.

[bowfront26]

I'm restoring a 1987 SR 5.4 myself and was wondering what color to match. I'm thinking the lighter orange. Would it be possible to send me the samples? Great looking boat so far!

[arrr.carlson]

Sure. Two conditions: post a photo of your boat with the color samples so we can see if 87 is any different, and send them on if anyone needs them! PM me your address.

[bowfront26]

Will do. I'm in the process of removing the anti fouling paint so it will be a couple of weeks. pm coming!