What to look for on Hurricane sunk boat?

[Chris611]

I see on ebay and other autction sites that they are selling boats that have been sunk during hurricanes. Some of them don't look too bad off. No structural damage, just water and some minor scrapes and scratches. What would you expect to find. I imagine the salt water wrecks havoc with everything. Complete engine rebuild? What about interiors. The boat I was looking at was a 2001 Rinker Captiva 212. Looks like it has a fiberglass floor. Does that mean no wood to rot other than in the chairs? New gauges and switches? How about the outdrive, just new bearings and clean? Sorry for the rampling. What do you guys think?<br /><br />Thanks<br />Chris

 

[KiHoPro]

Re: What to look for on Hurricane sunk boat?

Chris_P – My uncle lives in Ft. Lauderdale. He has several times purchased sunken, or burned out yachts for real cheap. Then he takes his time on the rebuild. Most of the time he comes out way ahead. <br /><br />Two items you need to be aware of:<br /><br />1. Time<br />2. Money<br /><br />It takes a lot of time and money. Time is money and if you don’t have the time it could cost you double.<br /><br />My Uncle did everything himself. He was a true tradesman. This is why he came out way ahead.<br /><br />Good luck to you… and your gi-normous undertaking <br /><br /><br />~Cheers~

 

[OBJ]

Re: What to look for on Hurricane sunk boat?

Hi Chris....if the rig was well kept, the outdrive should be good...they are supposed to be water proof. I think KiHo hit the nail on the head with his comments. If I were going to look for such a buy (sunk boat) I would understand that the engine will need overhauled..maybe not neccessarily bored or anything like that, but to clean it out real good. Boat interiors and how they are built differ from boat to boat so this is problamatic call. As KiHo said, if ya' got the time..might be the way to go.

 

[Tufan]

Re: What to look for on Hurricane sunk boat?

look AWAY

 

[umblecumbuz]

Re: What to look for on Hurricane sunk boat?

Never bought a sunken boat, but we once bought a few flooded cars.<br /><br />The structure and upholstery were easy to fix, with time and care, and the engines just took a bit of painstaking work, and performed fine afterwards.<br /><br />The big problems came later - and they were always electrical. Terminals slowly corroded, often in impossible places. In the end, we vowed never again. A boat isn't used as often as a car, so I can see problems with the electrics more than anything else.

 

[Chris611]

Re: What to look for on Hurricane sunk boat?

Do boats have salvage titles like cars? Time is one thing I have a lot of. I was looking for this to be a winter project. I currently have a '96 21' I/O. My intent would be to fix up the salvage one and sell it or if it turns out nice enought, keep it and sell my current boat. Thanks for all the replies. My biggest problem is I am in central IL and its hard to really look at the boats in FL. I bought a car from FL on eBay. It worked out good, flew down and drove back.

 

[rwidman]

Re: What to look for on Hurricane sunk boat?

Originally posted by GhostRider23:<br /> look AWAY

Agree, Agree, Agree!!!<br /><br />Unless you plan to fix it up and unload it on some poor unsuspecting newbie. <br /><br />The hull may be OK, the engine and outdrive will need to be overhauled and every electrical wire, connection, and component will need to be replaced. Same with any upholstry, carpet, etc.<br /><br />These parts cost a lot more as replacement parts than they did as original parts. And I assume your time would be worth something.

 

[Mark42]

Re: What to look for on Hurricane sunk boat?

Plan on replacing every inch of wire and every electric device and appliance and all soft products. <br /><br />If its a late model boat that you get really cheap, and you do all the work yourself, I could see it being very financially advantagous.<br /><br />Saw a program about a company that salvages cruisers, guts to the hull and then custom outfits them to the new owners specs. They sell quite a few of the boats. They also re-use nothing but the hull.

 

[Scaaty]

Re: What to look for on Hurricane sunk boat?

Originally posted by stillfishing:<br /> big problems came later - and they were always electrical. Terminals slowly corroded, often in impossible places. In the end, we vowed never again.

I would like to second this advice...its what ya don't see that will strand ya far from shore.