Quote:
Originally Posted by Swelbo1
Looking at a 1985 25-27 ft Hunter. We are new to sailing, but I am familiar with fishing boats. The hull looks good and has been taken care of. What are some things that I need to look at and what are some needed questions should I be asking?
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On a smaller inexpensive boat there are a couple of problems. Major items if needing replacement can quickly outsrip the value of the boat. A new
engine professionally overhauled and installed could run $12k. Bad standing rigging resulting in mast
lost. The mast, boom and rigging is worth $15-20k. A set of
sails for the Hunter is probably $5,000.
There is a temptation to self survey or to skip the survey. Try to get a pro to look at it (unless you are very experienced with boat maintenance) but understand the limitations of most surveyors. They will look for and see the obvious stuff and assess
current condition. They will likely not dig into maintenance
history to assess "remaining" life of boat systems.
A 1985 boat is going 27 years old and probably has had lots of maintenance. I would want to nail down any maintenance records of standing rigging, mast and spars,
engine, elecrical systems,
batteries and the age and condition of
sails.
Finally - Unless the boat has been really well maintained it is going to be old and tired and stuff will break relatively frequently. My boat was purchased at the
tender age of 25 and I have replaced a lot of stuff. You will likely find all kinds of bodges in the
electrical system. In assessing electrics the main thing is if it looks like a spaghetti crap it probably is crap.
There are a couple of Hunters here in that size range. Boats here tend to get a premium due to supply is limited but one Hunter might have closed a deal this week at about 20% off the asking price and about 16 grand less than asking. In addtion the owner has put in about 10k in upgrades in the last two years. So $25k "loss" in two years kinda stings. The second boat is not getting any offers in the last 4-5 months.
Good luck with the purchase and if you
budget in some
money in the first year to fix stuff properly you will be ok. I spent about 50% of the purchase price of my boat on needed maintenance and upgrades in the first year. The price was low so in terms of real dollars I spent about $7500 in maintenance in year one. Over 6 years of
ownership I average about $400 a month all up including
mooring and
insurance.