Moving Right Along...

Well, Friday at 2:00pm, all I can think about is boating. Yet she's not ready for the water just yet.

Cleaning Update:
As a precautionary measure, I hit everything in the boat with mold & mildew preventative. All vinyl surfaces got a hefty 4-step cleaning.



Step 1 is the Bass Pro Mold & Mildew spray for the initial removal (see below)
Step 2 is a 1:20 ratio mixture of clorox and water.
Step 3 is a heavy solution of StarBrite Vinyl Shampoo & Water with a strong bristled brush along with a thorough scrubbing.
Step 4 is the 3M Marine Outdoor Vinyl Cleaner, Conditioner & Protector.

Everything vinyl got this treatment, including the cuddy cushions, and for the most part removed just about all the stains, and the vinyl has never looked so good! All it needs is a coating of 303 Protectant or other Vinyl Protector and I'll be set for a while.

I've been on the phone today with some canvas shops getting quotes for a new cockpit cover. Who knew a piece of fabric could be so much? I'm getting quotes in the neighborhood of $800+. Oh well, I'll suck it up, i guess, it needs to be done. I'm tired of the ratty-ass vinyl one I've got. Been thinking about going with a black sunbrella cover. Saw a pic of another Mariah 250 with a black one, and i fell in love. Looks great.



So, she's tentatively getting her big bath and shiny treatment tomorrow. Joe's coming over to help. It's a complete bitch to wash, polish, and then wax it with only one person! I'll post an update later this weekend. Until then, SOMEBODY get out on the water and tell me how it is!

Progress Continues

Been working on cleaning the boat every night, after a bottle of Bass Pro Mold & Mildew remover, here's the progress.

Can really tell the difference in this pic.

I've decided it's probably a good idea to remove everything from the boat, and give it a full-on mold removal treatment. So, I removed the side trim panels, in order to treat everything behind them, and it'll give me a chance to do a more thorough cleaning out of the boat.



I took out all of the cuddy cushions to treat inside there as well.


Now I've got this to work with, and it's my project for this week.


Oh yeah, and i found this in my CD player, which i'm going to have to replace if I ever plan on listening to CD's again!
Dammit!

Bass Pro comes thru!

After sailing this weekend with my friend Joe, it got me motivated to start working on cleaning the mess under the cover.

I've never been much for store brand cleaners and stuff, only because there's usually a reason they're cheap, because they don't work as good. However, this is NOT the case of Bass Pro Shop's Mold & Mildew Cleaner/Preventative!

I bought a bottle of it last year to try and clean some stains at the price of $5.99. Didn't work so well. However, on mold & mildew stains, such as the ones documented below, it works wonders! So well that I did the majority of the back of the boat last night. And it smells lemony fresh too.

Didn't take any pics, but I'll document as the cleaning process gets more involved.

Initial Uncovering

So Now that you're up to speed, here's the initial uncovering from storage.

First off, the boat's dirty! Black streaks all over it from the mooring cover. No problem, those clean off real easy!
3M Black Streak Remover. $10/bottle! Good Stuff

Secondly, the vinyl cockpit cover's gotta go. It's definitely seen better days, and hasn't been taken care of during it's time in the sun. It doesn't fit anymore, it's covered with dirt that won't come off, and it's beginning to crack in places.
So this is on the list of things to replace this year.

Now comes the initial opening. Remember that scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" when they finally open the ark and all hell breaks loose? I'm always prepared for the worst. First thing I see is this,
Sundeck's a little dirty, but no big deal!

Peeling back the cover more reveals what I didn't expect...
Oh Shit... MOLD!

And it's growing everywhere!






Interior Cleaning's Gonna SUCK this season!!

More updates as I make progress. Stay tuned!

Welcome!

Welcome to my first of many blogs about my 2000 Mariah Shabah Z250. I purchased the boat in January of 2006 from a marina in Baltimore, MD after over a year worth of rigorous searching. So I packed the car and headed up there for the inspection and sea trial. We took it out Jan 27, 2006. I had the trailer ordered and picked up the boat February 18.

Why Mariah?
Well, they claimed to be "Built Like No Other Boat in the World". That they are. It's got just about everything you could think of, and is one of the most luxurious cuddy cabin boats besides Carvers & Silvertons that I had ever seen. Leather interior, italian wood, custom guages, all the bells & whistles. It even has quite a few James Bond type things on it too, like the Power Retracting Anchor light. I've never seen another boat with this. Power hatch lift, (which mine had been removed by the previous owner) Also has a keyless start, which allows you to enter a code and start the boat just in case you lose the keys. This was quite a step up from my 1991 Sea Ray 180 Bowrider. In fact, one of Mariah's marketing campaigns in the late 90's was "The boat Sea Ray owners are upgrading to". Once again, truth in advertising!

Now for the shitty part. Mariah went out of business in 2001, for a few different reasons, mainly financial, due to profit loss and union problems with the staff. From what everyone says, they were dumping too much money into their boats and not making enough to keep everyone happy. I understand, these things happen. In 2003, the "Mariah" name was purchased by Sea Fox, and all the molds, and parts for Mariah's 17-24ft boats went to Sea Fox. They redesigned the interior, cheapened them up WAY beyond belief, and have now appeared on the market as a "starter" boat. The molds for the larger boats (25-30ft) were sold to a company called Challenger Offshore. They redesigned the interiors also, cheapened them up, and now market them as the "Family series" on their website. They still look like the original Mariah's from the outside... Inside, that's a different story. SO, this sucks for the original Mariah owner. There's no longer a place to fix the hull under the Lifetime Hull Warranty, find a cushion for the seats, or even find a cupholder, they made everything custom in house. Finding parts is a total bitch. Basically it's a crapshoot between ebay and the random dealer that might have a few salvage parts. I'm trying to baby this boat so nothing has to be replaced. You'll read all about it in this blog.

I ran the boat pretty easy the first couple months to figure out how it handles. For the rest of the summer, I spent some time fixing the quirks and enjoying it. Then October came too quickly.

Here it is, for anyone that hasn't seen it before!