I purchased a boat from Sunsail and I am also the third owner of an older
C&C.
The 5 year old Sunsail boat has more hours on the
engine than the 30 year old
C&C but which engine do I have more faith in? The higher time one. It has seen regular maintenance, injectors have been serviced,
oil changed regularly and engine run routinely. The
Yanmar in my C&C has only seen light duty use in fresh
water with a fraction of the run time and I would love to pull it out and
rebuild it.
Another big thing about buying a
used boat from a private owner vs a charter fleet is dealing with all of the "DIY"
repairs and after market installations. A boat from the charter fleet is generally in the same configuration as when it left the factory. No funky
GPS installs where the
power supply has been tapped or spliced into the 12volt line running the
refrigeration. No added
deck hardware that hasn't been bedded and is slowly flooding the
core in the
deck. Seriously, many owners are a boats worst nightmare IMO.
I have never purchased a
used boat where a pre-purchase survey came up with say 50 items and the vendor agreed to address each and every one. Sunsail did.
So the experience has been a good one but like anything else. You need to do due diligence.