Re: No sea trial (sigh)...
Well, I went and looked at the boat today. I met the surveyor and the owner at the boat and we spent about 3.5 hours looking at it. The surveyor ended up charging me an "inspection fee" of $70 (!), even though he spent so much time on it.
There's one show-stopper at the moment: there's no grey-water holding tank and there's no hatch access to the shower drain. So he (the surveyor) is going to look into how much it might cost to add a grey water tank since it's an absolute requirement for Lake George.
Other than that, the boat seemed clean and well-cared for from what we could see. He liked it quite a bit. We didn't run the engines and he didn't do a real survey but his initial reaction is that, barring problems, it's worth what the owner is asking for it. The owner described the problem that he was having last summer with the starboard engine (an intermittant vibration) and how he ran that engine at idle for the last month of the season, just to charge the batteries connected to it. So it needs to be looked at but the surveyor thinks it's likely to be something easy to fix. He also noticed that the small vertical fin directly behind the propellor on that engine has been broken off -- the bottom two or three inches is missing. He said that alone could cause some vibration and needs to be repaired.
While he's looking at the grey water issue, I'll look at a few other boats that are advertised for a somewhat higher price but might not require any repairs at the outset and so might end being a newer boat for the same initial outlay.
The surveyor is a really good guy, a class act and a gentleman. I learned quite a bit from following him around, including quite a little bit about the market. He charged me $70 but I paid him $125, to cover his mileage and because I felt that he was undercharging me for his time. The owner also seemed like a good guy who was up front and, we think, honest about the boat's condition. He also showed us a survey from three years ago and the boat seemed, on the surface at least, to be in largely the same condition. The engines have 1010 hours on them (approx.), which is 150 more than three years ago when the current owner bought the boat.
He put $4500 into it last year, on various repairs and upkeep connected with the engines.
It was a fun day.
Well, I went and looked at the boat today. I met the surveyor and the owner at the boat and we spent about 3.5 hours looking at it. The surveyor ended up charging me an "inspection fee" of $70 (!), even though he spent so much time on it.
There's one show-stopper at the moment: there's no grey-water holding tank and there's no hatch access to the shower drain. So he (the surveyor) is going to look into how much it might cost to add a grey water tank since it's an absolute requirement for Lake George.
Other than that, the boat seemed clean and well-cared for from what we could see. He liked it quite a bit. We didn't run the engines and he didn't do a real survey but his initial reaction is that, barring problems, it's worth what the owner is asking for it. The owner described the problem that he was having last summer with the starboard engine (an intermittant vibration) and how he ran that engine at idle for the last month of the season, just to charge the batteries connected to it. So it needs to be looked at but the surveyor thinks it's likely to be something easy to fix. He also noticed that the small vertical fin directly behind the propellor on that engine has been broken off -- the bottom two or three inches is missing. He said that alone could cause some vibration and needs to be repaired.
While he's looking at the grey water issue, I'll look at a few other boats that are advertised for a somewhat higher price but might not require any repairs at the outset and so might end being a newer boat for the same initial outlay.
The surveyor is a really good guy, a class act and a gentleman. I learned quite a bit from following him around, including quite a little bit about the market. He charged me $70 but I paid him $125, to cover his mileage and because I felt that he was undercharging me for his time. The owner also seemed like a good guy who was up front and, we think, honest about the boat's condition. He also showed us a survey from three years ago and the boat seemed, on the surface at least, to be in largely the same condition. The engines have 1010 hours on them (approx.), which is 150 more than three years ago when the current owner bought the boat.
He put $4500 into it last year, on various repairs and upkeep connected with the engines.
It was a fun day.
