I'll make an attempt here to try and keep this boat related. I certainly understand the frustration trying to sell a boat in these times. By that I do not mean covid or any
current or past administration or any EPA laws or any of that other nonsense. I was trying to sell a
Rawson 30 Pilothouse not too long ago. I was in the middle of recoring the decks. The factory had done a shoddy job coring the foredeck using a inadequate bonding method that I could tell. All that needed to be done was to fair everything, give the
perkins prema a once over and a new lower
rudder shoe. I was asking $10k.
What I got were low life bottom feeders. Constant con attempts were made to whittle the boat from me for nothing. A barrage of insulting
phone calls and an array of
email offers, sight unseen. I even had a couple of fresh off the boat Russians try to whittle me down to nothing.
Two things became apparent. 1) I was in a low money category that brought out all the boat
fender kickers and 2)The times of DIYers had past years ago. In the end, I found it easier to take a partial payment and a Chevy Tahoe in payment. I was able to flip the Tahoe in a week. But what a hassle!
No longer are there
DIY yards, where blue collar people build boats from scratch. I remember a yard in Redwood City on the
SF bay where you would see a literal community of boat builders. Some
living aboard while they built. Every one of them with the dream of taking off to sail the world. These were the days that manufacturers like Westsail
sold kit boats. As technology made advances and less and less blue collar jobs needed, the ability to
work with ones hands also declined. I doubt much of that will ever come back.
Take a look at the thread "
Re: Boats Less Than $30K Recent Noteworthy Finds" , under
Monohull sailboats. That thread has almost 2600 posts. Many incredible deals. Mostly light fixers. Yet not one of those posts mention any of the dreamers here
buying one. Instead you reads more like..."Well if it wasn't so far away, I'd jump on that one" or "It needs a
mast, that's $40,000". Most people only want to keep their dream alive by pretending they are going to do something significant with their otherwise boring life. It is an incredible leap to dedicate 20 hours a week, 5-6 days a week of there life for 2-4 years, reconditioning a boat to go cruising. It is a lot easier to come to this forum and talk about it and being an armchair sailor. People might not like this view of things but it is never the less...true.
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