I'd apologize for this long post, but I think it's great that a few other
Cooper Yachts owners can share info here, in the only online thread I'm aware of to so do. So, just to keep this going... We ordered our 2 new
Volvo Penta 5.3 liter (327 Cu In) motors and DPS drives at huge expense, as you can imagine. Did I mention that we plan to keep this
boat?? Well, now we are into it for more than we dreamed.. We redesigned the
helm in the main
salon and why? Because I'm not tall and the original design is for a tall person, or a guy like me standing on a step stool. We changed the
helm to be one continuous slope, so the "step" or level section of the dashboard is now rebuilt to be a
single plane that is the same slope as the top half was. Luckily, we had access to a fantastic woodworker who specializes in
teak on boats! We have removed all the
wiring from the
boat, to clear out all the hack jobs done before we bought it and some of the questionable factory
wiring. While
cleaning up the hardened and still smelly leakage from the
aluminum waste tank that had accumulated behind the
water tank, we removed the 250 liter
aluminum water tank and found that there is lots of oxidation or
corrosion inside it. Yuck, that might be
drinking water, so we are going to replace that with a big plastic tank. Since my last update, the
engine bay has been gutted and fully painted with
bilge paint, the wiring and
batteries have been removed from inside too. The
bilge area has been mostly painted, but will be completely painted with white bilge
paint (even the
parts you can't normally see). Both helms have been gutted, gauges are going to be replaced by screens that can be customized to show
engine data,
fuel consumption vs remaining time on remaining
fuel and that can be integrated with a nav system and
AIS transponder. All throttle and
gear levers will be replaced by the VP unit that combines the throttle and
gear controls rather neatly. We'll also add the VP "Easy Connect" kit for all of that engine and other data to appear on an
iPad via Blue Tooth.
We found out that when you order a new
power unit/drive package from VP and tell them what you are replacing, they didn't know or mention that it would require resizing the drive holes in the transom. We discovered that VP makes adapter plates specifically for this, but none of the holes of the old 290 drives line up with the plate, so those have to be filled and all new holes need to be lined up and drilled. the plates are about $1300 each CDN. Yippee..
Our old hydraulic
windlass... well, it worked great, but as I mentioned previously, it ran off the port engine, which I was never truly comfortable with and it was leaking water down the hydraulic connections, so.... out it went and we are installing a new vertical
electric Maxwell windlass with a capstan (Hey, I like capstans, what can I say?). The vertical unit means that the wiring doesn't need to go through the
deck and is kept inside, so less chance of water running into the
hull.. Speaking of the
anchor locker,
Cooper thought it would be a good idea to put the
anchor locker drain about 1/2 an inch above the locker floor, so that means it has water sitting in it.. We re-drilled the hole at floor level, so now any water in there will find its way out..
We are also ripping out the stinky carpet and replacing it with click lock
flooring that is made for
marine use and looks like
teak.. We are also adding a 2400 watt
inverter and 2 new starter
batteries, but the big house batteries are still very good. (a previous owner ripped out the original
inverter.)
Those goofy engine bay covers (ours is not an aft
cabin, so we have these..), never liked the way they open, so a new aluminum
single lid with struts is going in there.
The flybridge seating sucks.. We are looking at a more usable setup for the flybridge, because if we go out with another couple, 3 seats is silly. Maybe a 2 seater bench or 2 up there, not sure yet.
The previous owner
lost his bumming (???), so we have a new custome one coming that will cover the flybridge and another part to cover the back.
We are looking for a dinght
outboard solution that will allow our
outboard to be lowered onto the
dinghy, but the only one I've seen is over $5K CDN, so that's out. Cheaper for us to have a crane and mount the outboard on the transom. By the way, the transom on this boat is one of the sturdiest both our shops have ever seen. At 4" thick, it is one solid piece of boat!
At this point, we are beyond what any sane person would spend on a boat like this, but we plan to keep it for many years and use it year round, so for us, it will be good.
Also, we've had the new name applied to the boat and it was quickly covered up until we do the denaming and renaming ceremony. We have a great plan for that with all our friends around..
One day, we may even be back on the water again... (6 months
on the hard and counting)...
I met a guy who is friends with David Cooper and he said he'd put me in touch with him, but Mr. Cooper did not reply to my
email.. I can understand that he's not interested in discussing a 30 year old boat that his dad's company made, but a reply would be nice.
We have also done many aesthetic improvements such as teak and holly 
[/url][/IMG]Hey there, I purchased a 1990 Cooper Prowler 10M from 
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