'83 Grady White friend wants to buy.

[ccave04]

Hello All,

My friend (well actually my boss) is looking at buying a boat. He asked me to go take a look at this boat with him.

His primary use for this boat is on Lake Ontario (NY) during nicer weather, a little bit of fishing and a little bit of relaxing fun w/ kids and such. My guess is he will use it 6-8 times a year during really nice weather and on vacation.

He is located in Syracuse, NY. He found the following listing for a boat out at ABay:

http://syracuse.craigslist.org/boa/2974681430.html

1983 22' Grady White Pacific w/ Trailer
3.8L Chevy Motor (Supposedly new w/ 50hrs on it)
OMC Outdrive

From what I have read on here people have usually told people to steer clear of the OMC because of unavailabilty of parts and finding mechanics to work on them. He most likely won't be working on the boat himself and will be using a mechanic. I know enough to look for floor rot, soft spots, and to check the stringers.

Nada Guides has this boat at about 5K to 5.7K, seller has it listed at 5.9K.

Thoughts?

 

[dingbat]

Re: '83 Grady White friend wants to buy.

If I put my Grady on the market at NADA pricing I'd sell it with the first 10 minutes

The two spots to look for rot problems on Grady are the fuel hatch covers and the transom. The floors are solid glass so I doubt you?ll find any floor rot on the boat.

You could use a rubber mallet on the transom, but to check it properly you?ll need to pull the scuppers, outdrive boot and remove all the screws to check for dampness. All the screws/old holes on the left side of the transom make me nervous just looking at them.

I'm will to bet every one of the thru hull fittings would snap right off it you looked at them wrong.

 

[ccave04]

Re: '83 Grady White friend wants to buy.

The two spots to look for rot problems on Grady are the fuel hatch covers and the transom. The floors are solid glass so I doubt you’ll find any floor rot on the boat.

LOL, well I knew that... :facepalm:

Rubber Mallet test should be sufficient... are you saying that the transom from the pics on craigslist look like it is shot?

Do you think this is a decent price? Or a problem boat he would be getting into?

 

[dingbat]

Re: '83 Grady White friend wants to buy.

I wouldn’t base a conclusion to the soundness of the transom on the rubber mallet trick alone. There are far too many suspect areas for that. The transom looks like it was used for target practice. You need to pull a couple of pieces of hardware to take a look. Especially since it’s a freshwater boat.

Price wise, it’s hard to tell. If the hull is sound and had a decent running outboard hanging off the back a price of $5.9K would be fair. I can’t say with the I/O. Locally, they don’t sell very well (saltwater) to begin with. Throw in an OMC outdrive and who knows.

 

[ccave04]

Re: '83 Grady White friend wants to buy.

Thanks appreciate the input. I think I am going to tell him to steer clear, it is his first boat and I think there are many other boats that fits his needs / desires other than this boat... he was just down on the coast and kept seeing Whalers and the Grady's and now they are stuck in his head as the only boat he should buy...

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: '83 Grady White friend wants to buy.

A fair-weather, occassional use, non-mechanical type should spend the money on reliability. It sounds like he'll keep it at the lake, and wants to drop it in and go on the few times he uses it?
A rack marina might be a good way for him to go

 

[ccave04]

Re: '83 Grady White friend wants to buy.

A fair-weather, occassional use, non-mechanical type should spend the money on reliability. It sounds like he'll keep it at the lake, and wants to drop it in and go on the few times he uses it?
A rack marina might be a good way for him to go

Yeah, I think he may pay for a slip. I personally was trying to talk him into a 22' cuddy or so, something that could handle a bit of waves on lake ontario if he got caught out but he could still have fun. I am not sure what his final move will be, last week when I talked to him he was thinking about buying a Whaler from Florida and having it shipped here and today it was lets go look at this boat. I think I am going to talk him out of this and like you said spend his money on reliability and not messing around with an OMC drive.