shopping for a boat... for a 7 y/o 40' sloop - how many hours...

[Sterling]

... would you consider reasonable?

i'm mostly shopping for j/boats, so my expectation is that hours would be low, as the engine would be mostly used to power in / out of a marina, and thats about it.

thoughts? anyone care to throw out a number?

thanks

[Cheechako]

I have seen 7 year old boats with 500 hours on the meter, but beware, low hours may not necessarily be a good thing. Nothing is worse on engines and shafts in salt water than little use . The oil builds acid residue, the shaft corrodes in the cutlass bearing due to oxygen depletion, the diesel gums up.....etc. Also, just short trips out of the marina dont allow the engine to warm up. So you just need to judge each engine on it's own merits. IMHO

[Fishspearit]

Engine hour meters are for owners to use when determining when to change oil, filters, etc. They shouldn't be trusted for determining the condition of the engine.

[Chief Engineer]

Some engine hour meters don't give an accurate reading because they are installed incorrectly. i.e. activated when the start circuit is on. I have seen a number of boats with thousands of hours on them.....and there is no way that could occur.

The best way is to do the detective work....copies of old bills, log books, appearance of engine.....sometimes a nicely "painted engine" just looks outta place.

One guy I know (my mentor in the biz) used to call the "Detroit Diesel Tuneups" referring to the Alpine Green Paint on everything.

[Joli]

Pretty sure J uses exclusively Yanmar. For a 7 year old boat maybe 500 to 1500 hours. Like others said, check the log book, see if the engine has regular oil/tranny/filter changes. We ran our Yanmar on the Schock for 15 years with no problems, great engine. Changed the oil in the spring and fall, tranny once every year or two.