JUST BOUGHT 1976 NAUTILINE...WE NEED MANUEL...MOVER SAID IT MAY HAVE SOFT KEEL...HOW DO I TELLL???HOW CAN I FIX IT?

Poor, poor Dellard. A manual on one of these old boats will be almost worthless. They were the most generic and simple of booklets and provide very little usefull info though I am sure someone can round you up one. But if you are looking for plans and wiring diagrams they will not be there. It is not like a car owners manual. I suggest you rely on this forum. As to your keel this is not good news and expensive to repair. You should have had an out of water survey to tell you this. No insurance company will touch it without one at that age and a bad survey on the bottom will require repairs to be made and reinspected before issuing a policy. The good news is it can be repaired if you have a deep enough pocketbook. Requires a pullout, dryout and tearout most likely. Your keel could be fiberglass incased wood or strictly fiberglass. My guess is the wood. These are the most difficult to repair and likely most expensive. I would have someone take a good look at this before spending any money topside. A sound keel is the basis for every boat and will sink you if a soft keel hits something solid like a log or rock. Plus it will just get worse with waiting. That rot works 24/7. Sorry to bear bad tidings but someone has to say it.  

Hope you didnt pay too much for the boat. Read the Nautaline posts.

If it hasn't been repaired you will probably need a new transom, stringers, and deck and cabin rot repaired. If your floor is humped up in the galley area you better have a surveyor look at it because it may cost more to fix than the boat is worth.

Did you not have a survey before you bought the boat? You may have been taken advantage of.

There are a lot of people waiting to unload their rot boats on newbies so they don't have to pay disposal costs.

Dellard;

If you get me an e-mail address to send it to I can send you a copy of a nautaline manual for 1975 with the 12vdc and the 120vac wiring diagrams. I also have the dealer option sheet for the 43/48 nautaline. Sold mine last July for a bigger boat, my stringers and transom was good but had to redo the catwalks & hatch covers. my fathers 43 nautaline had a keel put in it just before he bought it(9 yrs ago). not a easy or cheap fix, but do-able.

 Do you know the difference between a used car salesman and a yacht salesman? One only goes to college for four years to learn how to stick you, the other goes on to get his masters degree!!!!!!