Barnakiel (and the others who posted), as promised, a report on our attempt to
purchase a used P37 in
Guatemala. For the sake of brevity I will try and be brief. We wound our way from the
airport in San Pedro Sula into Rio Dulce and did an overnight
cruise with the owner. It all went fine, and my wife and I found the vessel to be in decent cosmetic condition. The owner is proud of his yacht and it presents well. The SAMS surveyor had been on the job for a few days before our arrival, and went over his findings on board the cat with us. He pointed out a number of troubling areas, some major, most minor. There was some new standing rig (wrong strand) mixed with original 20 year old wire,
electrical DIY dangers, a few soft spots on the deck, a cracked original plastic
fuel cell (fuel fill neck), legacy electronics, cracked/leaky front
portlights, water and crud in the
fuel cells (not much), inside
propane locker with no sensor/cutoff, a
watermaker way oversized for the
electrical system requiring a 5000w coleman
generator onboard to run it, and a host of smaller details that would cost a little something to fix. Diesels good. Not disclosed was that vessel had been in
charter for five years before his
ownership and was in really rough condition when he took
delivery. No
maintenance log. No cruising log. The high end of the survey evaluation range came in 17k under the ask. Owner came down 5k, and we came up 5k. That still put us 7k apart so we turned it down, and that was before haulout. Owner became quite angry at our offer and then came the dark side. He doesn't like Jews nor Americans, and conversation soon became uncomfortable. He called the surveyor dead wrong, and disagreed with most of his findings. Otto the storm was beginning to
head uphill, we were startled by the Jekyl 'n' Hyde thing, so we booked out three days ahead of schedule. The owner's parting comments: “No matter which foreign port you sail into, they hate Americans, so you should watch yourselves.” And finally, “You don't deserve to own my boat.” Sure thing pal, and you don't deserve to have vocal cords. I didn't say that to him directly, as we depended on him to give us a
dinghy ride back to town, which he did. Whew! Outta there.
A vessel
for sale by an owner still cruising is a slippery affair. Its
for sale at a set
price and if it doesn't sell, they continue to cruise. That is not a yacht for
sale in my opinion. Always something to learn from a tale like this, and in his defense, there are always two sides to it. Next time I will have the survey done before booking a flight. Another point; surveyor said that his findings would probably disallow an
insurance policy. I really should have waited for that information before traveling. All in all, my wife and I had a mostly pleasant trip to a new and interesting place. The quest for an experienced feline continues. ----->bruce
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