Get yourself a service manual, they’re helpful to have around. In the back are wiring diagrams and wire color schedules. I would think it wouldn’t be that hard to identify the wires feeding the radio. Question, is the radio controlled through the connext screen? The whole point of having a separate start and house battery is that the start battery is isolated from house or accessory loads so it remains fully charged and ready to start the engines.
As far as your “negatives” are concerned, I think most have encountered the left over manufacturing detritus in the bilge and other areas, some folks have found tools, owners manuals and mystery objects. Take some time and get the nose of the boat up high on land and rinse the bilge out. Get yourself some silicone sealer (I really like three bond 1211 which is the same as Yamabond it’s stays flexible) and fill the gap by the spreader light and move on to sealing up the boat so that you have a dry bilge.
You can start with the cup holders where they mount to the boat, mine as well as others found that the cup holders were not sealed from the factory and this was allowing water into storage compartments, same thing with the cap rail mounted rod holders. Also check the drains from the cup holders and rod holders, a few of my rod holders didn’t have drains so I got some universal ones from T-H marine and ran drain lines, the cup holder drains just had a small Ty wrap securing the drain line to the cup holder, those got replaced with hose clamps. Don’t forget the transom mounted cup and rod holders as well. Oh, and the two cup holders in the bow drained directly into the bilge, I just plugged those and use a rag to dry them out if they get water in them.
Have a look at the anchor locker drain, you may need to replace it with a stainless steel fitting. Check the link in my signature to see
@drewkaree ’s thread on mystery water intrusion coming from the anchor locker drain and what I did with mine.
Next would be sealing up the clean out plug removable tray. This area is notorious for allowing a lot of water into the bilge. Use blue painters tape to mask off the areas around the interface where the tray meets the deck and use silicone sealer or seal and peel. Seal this area with sealer AFTER it is installed, you do not want to glue it down. You may want to pull this tray and check all the hose clamps in that area before sealing it up. Many of us have added a second bilge pump, and have placed it in this aft bilge area under the clean out tray, again check my signature for what I did, for redundancy and an increase in bilge pump capacity.
Check the sealing job around the deck drain fittings on the inside of the boat too.
Many have also replaced the nylon oem deck drain scupper with a stainless steel one. I personally like the GemLux ones as they are short. On my boat I had two nylon scuppers right at the waterline, one for the deck drain and one for the live well drain. Some folks have had these scuppers not sealed properly from the factory and were allowing water in. Some others have had these nylon / plastic scuppers break after years of use and almost lost their boats. Not sure about the deck drains on the outside of your boat but give them a gander. With the exception of the forward cup holder / rod holder and fish box drains all my scuppers were changed out to stainless steel thru hulls. Yamaha uses nylon thru hulls to keep costs down I’m sure.
If you still are getting some water in the bilge check the live well fittings.
Once you’ve sealed up all these areas you’ll have a dry bilge which is very nice especially if you boat in salt water. It’s really great when you pull your boat out and not a drop of water comes out of the drain plug when it’s pulled.
Being this is my first boat I expected more, but what I’ve learned is this how it is with either Yamaha or less expensive boats. If we are talking about a Grady White 218 explorer or other high end boat I’d expect everything to be basically perfect. BUT, Yamaha boats are the best bang for the buck, lots of features, reliable power plants, low maintenance and pretty economical fuel wise to operate.
So, get that new boat out on the water as much as possible and enjoy it, with 400 hp I bet your boat is a rocket if you drop the hammer. Peck away at these small items and you’ll build a ton of pride in ownership.
