Bad vibe from the seller.
First he seemed to have a preference for me to use his marine mechanic for the compression check. I talked to the mechanic by phone and he suggested that the boat was in such great shape it would be a waste of money to get a compression check.
Hmmmmm! Doesn?t seem like the seller would have a dog in that race. What difference would it make to him. Unless he had something to hide!!!!
Go to see the boat?120 miles away. The pics didn?t lie. It looked old and dated on the pics. I was hoping maybe the pics hadn?t done the craft justice. Disappointed.
The interior was nice, though, on this early 80?s Sea Ray Cruiser. Both cockpit and cabin.
The boat had a nice, newer mooring cover. But my girl noticed water in the cabin floor where the step down pump is located.
The seller quickly replaced the floor panel, hiding the water. Just seepage the seller said. We?ve had a lot of rain. Hmmmm. I thought the mooring cover was supposed to prevent the rain from entering.
Isn?t the pump supposed to remove water like that automatically, I asked. He informed me that the battery switch was in the off position.
OK. Ok. I kept waiting for him to turn on the battery so the step down pump could purge the water.
I had to practically twist his arm. Finally, he grudgingly flips on the batteries. Guess what? Turns out that step down pump didn?t work. The seller feigned surprise.
To be honest, the pump not working didn?t bother me so much. I assume it?s a relatively cheap fix. But what troubled me is that the seller knew the pump was bad and tried to camouflage this. What else might he be hiding?
Lastly, there seemed to be an inordinate amount of hull damage near the keel. As if the boat had been run aground. I wish I had taken a picture so I could post them here. But there were quite a few gouges, scratches and small chunks of fiberglass missing.
The boat bottom had been painted some years ago. Maybe to make this damage less noticeable. This paint was old, dull and fading away.
The seller told me not to worry about this because the boat bottom is at least five inches thick. No water can get in that way. He claimed that this damage had been done during boat retrieval when a roller (this is a bunk trailer) had malfunctioned.
To recap, my main questions are:
Would seller insistence on a particular shop for inspection be a red flag?
Is it normal for rain water to accumulate in the step down drain on a mooring covered boat?
In inches, how deep must a hull gouge be before it can cause problems: quarter inch, half inch?
First he seemed to have a preference for me to use his marine mechanic for the compression check. I talked to the mechanic by phone and he suggested that the boat was in such great shape it would be a waste of money to get a compression check.
Hmmmmm! Doesn?t seem like the seller would have a dog in that race. What difference would it make to him. Unless he had something to hide!!!!
Go to see the boat?120 miles away. The pics didn?t lie. It looked old and dated on the pics. I was hoping maybe the pics hadn?t done the craft justice. Disappointed.
The interior was nice, though, on this early 80?s Sea Ray Cruiser. Both cockpit and cabin.
The boat had a nice, newer mooring cover. But my girl noticed water in the cabin floor where the step down pump is located.
The seller quickly replaced the floor panel, hiding the water. Just seepage the seller said. We?ve had a lot of rain. Hmmmm. I thought the mooring cover was supposed to prevent the rain from entering.
Isn?t the pump supposed to remove water like that automatically, I asked. He informed me that the battery switch was in the off position.
OK. Ok. I kept waiting for him to turn on the battery so the step down pump could purge the water.
I had to practically twist his arm. Finally, he grudgingly flips on the batteries. Guess what? Turns out that step down pump didn?t work. The seller feigned surprise.
To be honest, the pump not working didn?t bother me so much. I assume it?s a relatively cheap fix. But what troubled me is that the seller knew the pump was bad and tried to camouflage this. What else might he be hiding?
Lastly, there seemed to be an inordinate amount of hull damage near the keel. As if the boat had been run aground. I wish I had taken a picture so I could post them here. But there were quite a few gouges, scratches and small chunks of fiberglass missing.
The boat bottom had been painted some years ago. Maybe to make this damage less noticeable. This paint was old, dull and fading away.
The seller told me not to worry about this because the boat bottom is at least five inches thick. No water can get in that way. He claimed that this damage had been done during boat retrieval when a roller (this is a bunk trailer) had malfunctioned.
To recap, my main questions are:
Would seller insistence on a particular shop for inspection be a red flag?
Is it normal for rain water to accumulate in the step down drain on a mooring covered boat?
In inches, how deep must a hull gouge be before it can cause problems: quarter inch, half inch?
