New (to me) 16' OB Donzi
 

Bought this boat back before Christmas. This thing was all original 1978 - I'm not sure it had ever been washed or waxed.....

Not a cream puff, but something for my kiddos to learn on and enjoy. Came with an 82 tower of power, but after fiddling with it for a few weeks, I came to the conclusion that the crankshaft was stripped out and I wasn't going to spend any more time on it.

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Short shafts are hard to come by so I decided I'd just buy a Bass Boat, keep the motor and ditch the boat. Well this popped up on CL for $1,000 including trailer!!! Texas lake motor and basically brand new aluminum trailer! Told the guy id come get it immediately. Guy insisted on proving to me how well it ran and it fired right up!!! Sold the boat for 400 so was net $600 into the trailer and powerplant - possibly the greatest boating related deal ever had. It even has the Sea-Star hydraulic steering on it......
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I guess they only made 176 of these OB 16's, so kind of rare. Finally got it out some today. Runs great - rewired, threw some new gauges in it, deleted the oil injection on the Merc XR6-150. I'm used to bigger boats, so I was really happy with how well this thing runs and takes moderate water - expected it to be like a jet ski (since it's not much bigger than modern 3-seaters), but it really rides nice. It's probably a little small long term and a 20' will probably prove to be a better size in a couple years but with the kids only 6&8 they don't take up much room. I've also come to the early conclusion that this thing will likely prove to be less maintenance than the tiger.....
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40 year old cushions are dry, hard and ill-fitting, but that might be a project for next fall......

Extreme-Marine is making me some Marine Mat for the floor......

Kick ass Eric!!

nice little boat
if you ever want to sell let me know

Thanks man!
Looks a little silly on my 20,000 lb lift when the bunks are longer than the boat, but I think we are going to enjoy it......
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I will - I think we will keep a couple years but once the kids start wanting to wakeboard and ski I think it's going to be too small for that. Would be a perfect Creek cruiser if it was just my wife and i though!!

What a great find! I am pretty tickled on a triple axle trailer for it though :lolhit:That is gonna be a lot of fun for you guys.

Haha - that triple axle was my father's - I just borrowed it to bring it home, but it did look ridiculous!!! The trailer under that Bassboat is what's under it now....

Saw that on SnF.
What a great little boat.
Hope your kids know how lucky they are!

You know, ​​​I think I'll copy and paste this over there!

I've been looking for a boat to get my grandson started --great find!

Finally ran this by myself. It is squirrelly as hell at 50mph. I’ve never really felt a boat walk like that...... scary.....