Gulfstar 39 vs. 41 ... smaller yet twice the price !?

[christmasisland]

Hello all,

I'm looking for my first sailboat with plans to liveaboard. It will be me, my wife and my son (12 yrs.).

I was wondering why a 1981 Gulfstar 39ft is two or three times as much as a 1974 Gulfstar 41? I am very interested in the 41 ft. because it is solid fiberglass, tabbed bulkheads and a center cockpit; am I missing something?

Thanks in advance,

Mike

[anotherT34C]

Not knowing anything about those boats, but knowing something about the market, I'd guess that it's primarily because of the seven years. There seems to be a general perception in the market that newer=better, but I've yet to see any real evidence that a 35 year old boat is intrinsically any more decrepit than a 25 year old one, assuming equal levels of maintenance. What wears out in 35 years that hasn't in 25?

Of course, I may be completely wrong about this particular situation. I do know that Gulfstar has gone through some good engineering years and some bad.

[bstreep]

Dittos the above. You can find great Gulfstars, and you can find a lot of lousy ones (my opinion, only). The lousy ones have made an impact on the price of the good ones too. For liveaboards, Gulfstars seem to be VERY popular.

Might also look for "CSY" boats that were built at the end of the CSY era - they were built by Gulfstar, as I recollect, for CSY's charter business.

[christmasisland]

Thanks ... when was the CSY era?

Also, do you have any more information about which years may be better for Gulfstars than others?

[bstreep]

Basically from the mid 80s until they went out of business. Think it was around 1990. We were to charter from them, and they closed the week before our charter!