Is a 2014 Cutwater 30 Too Much Boat for a Non-DIY Owner?

[Clive Multrim]

I currently own a 2021 24 ft. dual console with a single Yamaha 300 outboard. It’s a very simple boat and I keep it on a trailer at the marina. I take very good care of the boat but all maintenance is done professionally. I have had very few (minor) problems with it.

I am interested in purchasing an older (2014-ish) Cutwater 30 coupe with the Volvo D6. I love the direct drive simplicity with the Diesel and the idea of an enclosed cabin for long weekends on the water. We live in the northeast and there is much to explore.

My concern is that I have very limited mechanical skills. I get the concepts (book smart) but I just don’t have the mechanical aptitude to do much work myself – I know this from my own experience and it's why I work in IT.

I’ve been reading all of your comments throughout this site and am in awe of what you can all do yourselves. Am I setting myself up for failure if I buy a more complex, older vessel, such as the Cutwater 30, with solenoids and pumps and macerators and everything else that comes with a cabin boat?

While we have the financial resources to maintain our current boat without any hardship, since I can do very little of the required work myself (such as what I am finding that you are all doing here), and since I would be buying an older, more complex vessel, I would like to hear if I should take Matthew McConaughey’s advice in Failure to Launch?

“You love the idea of a boat…. But the reality is, they’re just a drain on your time, your wallet, and your emotions…"

Please be brutally honest. Thanks.

 

[S. Todd]

I think it all depends on whether you have a local repair facility that you trust, which your post indicates you may have because you have been paying to have maintenance done professionally. Ask them if they are comfortable with the idea of working on what you intend to purchase or can recommend someone. I am no mechanic but can and do the oil and transmission fluid changes on our boat and change the oil and filters on all our vehicles.

 

[Eagle 2]

Clive, It's a matter of just having the gut's to start digging in. Start with the small projects, and work your way up to the more complex projects. You Tube, and these forums are your guideline for success, take lot's of pictures and ask questions. The better the pictures, the better the responses you will get! Being an IT guy, you will have no problem finding your solutions, especially in the Chat GPT world we live in now, most of the answers are a few button pushes away! If you do move forward, I highly suggest you find local guy's that have same or similar boats, and work in tandem with them......it takes a village. Good luck!

 

[SKing]

I think you're smart to ask that question. The reality is the more systems you have on a boat the more things will go wrong with it. If you have the bank account to have people help you out that's not a problem. Just be aware of all the different systems on the boat you have versus the one you desire. Finding a good surveyor that can tell you what needs to be fixed on an older boat would be very important for someone in your situation. There is no right answer. That said the experiences we have had on our boat could not be created on a smaller boat. Specifically we go out for weeks at a time, anchor out, and don't come to the dock for four or five days.

 

[CaspersCruiser]

S. Todd is 100% correct. Before buying, find a shop that has the competency to work on the boat you intend to buy that also WANTS to work on the boat. Cutwaters and Rangers are tough vessels for technicians to work on because of all the systems that are stuffed into a compact space. In November, I took my boat to a Yanmar-owned facility in Florida to accomplish some work on the Yanmar 4BY2-180 in my 2012 R27. They expressed no interest in working on the boat when they found it was a Ranger Tug. I was able to convince them to at least look over the engine and accomplish a relatively minor task. Things worked well and the service personnel were top-notch. They commented that they didn’t expect to see such a clean engine bay on a 13 year-old boat.

You mention book smarts and being able to understand concepts, but you lack the skills for do-it-yourself maintenance. That’s very good self-analysis. If you do purchase a more complex boat, pay a technician to thoroughly brief you on all boat system controls and indicators, the basic function of each system, how it is powered and/or plumbed, how to operate it normally, and what are the symptoms of common non-normals, malfunctions and failures. That way, when maintenance issues do arise, you can intelligently describe the problem to the technician. That will save expensive shop time. It will be doubly helpful if you are away from your home marina or maintenance facility.

 

[bob daily]

I don’t think there’s anything on the boat that someone hasn’t done a you-tube on how to fix or replace!
The hardest part is finding it on the internet and parts, as a IT guy you have a lot more advantages than us older folks who are internet illiterate!
I would say (go for it) and have some fun learning how to fix and maintain it.
Nothing is more rewarding than learning and the pride of doing it yourself.
Best of luck. Bob

 

[abastos]

You are raising some great questions. I can share some of my personal experience owning a 2018 Cutwater C-30 for about 10 months. I am far from being a mechanical expert, and I have never had a boat with such complex systems as the FluidMotion boats. As other members said, it is a small boat full of systems packed in a small place.

Like you, I also work in IT and can apply some troubleshooting logic to narrow down issues and find the root cause. Whether I'll be able to fix it by myself is a different story, but at least I want to know what is happening.

I love reading manuals and instructions for everything. Before buying this boat, I spent ~2 years researching and reading manuals for the internal components (inverters, batteries, navigation devices), learning how to replace lights, and how to troubleshoot basic electrical issues. I also took classes at the Seattle Maritime Academy on Diesel Engines and Electrical Systems, not with the intention of being an expert, but at least so I could understand how the building blocks connect to each other. Super helpful imho.

I plan to do all the basic engine maintenance by myself (changing the oil and filters, for example). I did it on my previous outboard boat. But I believe the overall maintenance job goes beyond the engine. Back in September, the toilet started blowing fuses. After searching the forum, I found posts with the troubleshooting steps and the root cause: the toilet pump. I read the posts carefully, read the pump manual, watched a few YouTube videos, and decided to try it by myself. Surprisingly, I was able to remove the toilet, replace the pump, reconnect all the hoses and wires in less than 2 hours. I was really proud after I fixed it. Like Bob said, "nothing is more rewarding than learning and the pride of doing it yourself." 100% agree.

About 1 month ago, I came back after an amazing day on the lake and my charger/inverter did not detect the power coming from shore power. Searching the forum, I found other members reporting the same issue with the Kisae inverter/charger. Again, the root cause was a permanent failure that required replacing the unit. I read the manual carefully, purchased a new one, and replaced it in 1 hour.

In both situations, I considered professional services for the repair, but I decided to try it first. I felt confident after finding so many topics where other owners had the same issues. If I had needed to pay, it would probably have cost 4-5 labor hours to fix the issues—still doable if needed.

S. Todd called out something very relevant: Finding a local repair facility that you trust (or asking other members for recommendations) and that are used to working on Ranger Tugs and Cutwaters. I have S3 Maritime on speed dial. They are 0.5 miles away from my boat, and when chatting with a team member, I learned they have lots of experience with our boats. It gives me peace of mind.

What I'm doing now is using technology to make my life easier. I gathered manuals for the boat, volvo engine, workshop manuals, service protocols, and I also scanned all the service history (the previous owner did a fantastic job keeping all the service records), sorting it into categories like regular maintenance, repairs, or upgrades. I'm building a knowledge base to use AI tools like Perplexity or Gemini. My goal is to ingest all the content from the scanned files and add internet sources (Tugnuts forum, Trawler forum, and the internet in general) to create a RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) system that can answer my questions like "What are the items for the annual maintenance?" or "When do I need to replace the coolant or belts?" The system will cross-reference the service history, manuals, and internet sources to give answers like, "Alright, your coolant was replaced in July 2023, and according to the manual, you'll need to replace it in July 2027," for example.

Best of luck!

 

[AGLyme]

"Sweetie" (RT 31cb) is my first boat. I keep it at a marina that is in a tidal river with a big current. And tons of wind - which is a factor in a CB because of the boat's high profile. My mechanical ability is (was) limited to changing a tire.

I too was insecure about all of the various "Systems" on the boat. With that said, I was determined to learn about them because I wanted to make certain I had a decent shot at fixing a leaking this or a shorted out that in the event I broke down in the middle of nowhere. I had recently retired and reckoned I had lots of time to learn.

I studied this website and the RT videos on line which are very good - both company and customer ones. I would go through the boat and follow wires, pipes and tubes and figure out where things are and what they are used for. Spent scads of time looking for the "Macerator", learned later I didn't have on. I looked for the depth sounder (hockey puck) and found it a year after I started looking for it. I learned that I "probably have" an orange filter for the dirty water exhaust... found it after I removed the refrigerator. My boat is a 2013 model year and just my luck the upholstery was a bad lot and peeled like crazy... I was determined to learn how to remove the seats and take them to the upholstery people. These systems adventures were important to me because I felt like i was learning something important, and, frankly a point of pride in knowing. I don't change the oils, filters, belts, zincs or impellers - I have a great guy to do that. I did replace a Rule pump (underneath the shaft in the stern) and completely get what it means to live like a bat as I was upside down for an hour. I winterized all systems this past year and the year before that. Winterizing is a great way of learning the systems.

The boat is a blast. I recently bought a business and have taken many employees on Sweetie who have never been on a boat like this before - love doing that. I am no longer retired and learned that Sweetie is as useful and fun in this next stage of my life.

If I can do it... ANYONE can do it. It's all good and it's all fun.

 

[Rocky Lou]

I'm surprised that no one already said that Cutwaters and FM boats, in general, are much more complex and difficult than the majority of other boats. That is part of the reason that many of us buy them, they have more features than other boats of the same size. My neighbor down the dock has a pithy way of stating it, 'you have a small big boat'. The other boat that I almost bought, a Grady White 330 express, he calls 'a large small boat'. As a result of cramming so much together into relatively small spaces, repairs can be much more difficult on Cutwaters. For example, I have a top notch electrical mechanic who installed my Gamin Temp. Sensor. It took him three hours and he said to me, 'on any other boat, that's a one hour job'.

In my case, I don't want a bigger boat. I need to run fast, 30 knots if possible, to reach fishing spots and if you get a large boat that goes that fast, you need to haul a gas barge along with you. Just yesterday, I was looking at a Bertram 35 FB and thinking how much that boat is not for me. For one, it has only flybridge steering which is useless if you fish with youngsters (grandkids are my top favorite crew) and others who can't help much. So, you really need to think about how you will utilize the boat and what features are truly important.

Which brings us to your main question, what about a non-DIY owner. I'm a hybrid owner, non-DIY and DIY, however, the important part is being able to choose and having good and reasonable available service. For example, can I change all the bilge pumps, including the fore and aft in the bilge area?...certainly I can, but, absolutely, I do not want to do it. Why in the world would I want to put my body 4ft. down a bilge hole when I can easily pay a younger and more nimble person. My generator is so ridiculous that it's almost funny. There is no available on site service. When it was new and under full warranty, the distributor kept telling me how I could DIY the plethora of needed repairs. In the beginning, I was so excited with my new boat, that I actually did some things like tightening the many loose clamps since it leaked like a sieve and changing out some defective switches. However, I quickly lost interest, especially when he started telling me to remove parts in order to get to other parts and 'be careful, this could be dangerous'. OTOH, I have developed an interest in some things, like doing my own Yamaha outboard engine service. I really like my outboards and want to know exactly what is done to them. The service is pretty easy expect for the pumps in the lower units that I have a friend, who is a jet engine mechanic, do for me. The net here is that are a lot of follow on questions to the type of non-DIY owner that you are. My type is to be able to choose.