1986 Tournament 19 are rare?

[33Nicolas]

Hi Everyone,

I'm getting my feet wet, no pun intended, with the shakedown of a 1986 Tournament 19. I don't seem to find a lot of info on it. Were 1988 and 1989 models more common?

I'm excited to learn and get going. The boat is ready for it's first outing in a year. I checked oil. I understand the passion behind Gradys.

I will need to redo the electricity at some point of seriously rewire many things. The navigation lights stay despite the ignition being off. I'm not sure if the depth-finder still works or anything else, but I will test it out in due time.

At least, by now hopefully, that visiting snake is gone

 

[Andrew93]

I would not say rare. The 19 tournaments all seem pretty similar until they went to the euro transom design (1994?). I have always wanted an older 19 tournament to trailer around. Older boats sometimes have a lot of electrical gremlins depending on how many previous owners have been tinkering around, that can defiantly be a challenge to sort out at times.

What does it have for power, original outboard, I/O, newer outboard? If the hull is solid I would imagine it will be a fun boat. One of that age I am sure will have the fuel tank in question of its integrity, a lot of info here on inspecting and replacing if needed, but depending on how far you venture a solid option would be a nice tank on top of the deck if its an outboard.

My father and I have had more boats then we care to count and we always default back to a Grady, the quality is apparent from other manufactures and it really shows in how well a Grady ages. We tend to find boats needing love and bringing them back and using them until something better comes along. Make sure too post pictures!

Andrew

 

[Willy-C]

Not sure they are rare, less of them for sure as most happy Grady owners move up bigger in time. I have a ‘92 which should be the same hull as yours. It’s been a great boat, friends and family wonder why I don’t upgrade but my reasons are because of trailer issues with larger heavier hulls, I tend to like to move my boat around to different fishing opportunities and the freedom to launch alone has value.
Not sure I would want my Nav lights to shut off with the ignition as sometimes night fishing I’m using an elec motor or my gas kicker. Having my accessories (GPS, VHF, Lights, etc) switched at the control panel is more convenient if the main engine is not running.

 

[Parthery]

Not rare. I owned an 86 190. Biggest change was the move from the 20” transom to 25 in 88.

The boat became the 192 when it got the SeaV2 hull in 94.

 

[33Nicolas]

Not rare. I owned an 86 190. Biggest change was the move from the 20” transom to 25 in 88.

The boat became the 192 when it got the SeaV2 hull in 94.

Ah, so a deeper hull? That means its handling characteristics, the 19 will be different from a 219. I wonder how different.

Good to know. Thanks!

 

[33Nicolas]

I would not say rare. The 19 tournaments all seem pretty similar until they went to the euro transom design (1994?). I have always wanted an older 19 tournament to trailer around. Older boats sometimes have a lot of electrical gremlins depending on how many previous owners have been tinkering around, that can defiantly be a challenge to sort out at times.

What does it have for power, original outboard, I/O, newer outboard? If the hull is solid I would imagine it will be a fun boat. One of that age I am sure will have the fuel tank in question of its integrity, a lot of info here on inspecting and replacing if needed, but depending on how far you venture a solid option would be a nice tank on top of the deck if its an outboard.

My father and I have had more boats then we care to count and we always default back to a Grady, the quality is apparent from other manufactures and it really shows in how well a Grady ages. We tend to find boats needing love and bringing them back and using them until something better comes along. Make sure too post pictures!

Andrew

LOL, yes, indeed they do have a lot of electrical gremlins. I'm trying to sort them out and figuring out if it's easier to replace the entire harness, as I would for an old car. I have the schematics.

As far as the powertrain, it's a Yamaha F150. I hear these boats can handle up to 200 HP engines?

Yes, the next thing I need to do before putting it in the water is to check the fuel cells and see how bad that sinking fuel floor panel is.

I'm happy to hear you say that about Grays. It seems everyone agrees that it is a solid reference. I've seen videos showing how well they handle full-speed turns. It's impressive.

I will post pictures as soon as I get a little more sorted out. Mind you, I should probably record the progress with pictures and videos. We even had a snake lodged inside for a while. I think it's gone...

 

[33Nicolas]

Not sure they are rare, less of them for sure as most happy Grady owners move up bigger in time. I have a ‘92 which should be the same hull as yours. It’s been a great boat, friends and family wonder why I don’t upgrade but my reasons are because of trailer issues with larger heavier hulls, I tend to like to move my boat around to different fishing opportunities and the freedom to launch alone has value.
Not sure I would want my Nav lights to shut off with the ignition as sometimes night fishing I’m using an elec motor or my gas kicker. Having my accessories (GPS, VHF, Lights, etc) switched at the control panel is more convenient if the main engine is not running.

Thanks, that's good advice. Although, I still have to find where the nav light switch is. That's the problem with this boat. I don't know how much or if it's been tweaked by the previous owner or the original one.