Hurricane damaged boats - bad idea?

[RSH]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

I'd worry what was left after years of people picking the best one's and scavenging the best parts.

I had the same thought-the "experts" have scavenged the "best" ones and what's left is

Originally Posted by paul28

Well, I don't know what deep boat experience means (fiberglass skills?) but I do have a long life of rehabbing houses that were completely gutted. And I have lots of time (retired) to go anywhere.

I grew up with a dad and grandfather who were carpenters, my parents flipped houses before it had a name, and I renovated a 1970 house and sold it in 4 days during the Great Recession for a profit. I'm also a new boat owner, and my skills don't have nearly the overlap I thought they would. It's an entirely different ballgame. I am glad we bought a boat in good condition.

Originally Posted by docwood

Now I'm a rookie in the boat world so I'd take the advice of the more experienced sailor and most them are at least throwing up huge buyer beware signals.

Same here. I've watched my brother renovate a Chris Craft boat for *years*, and he's really trying to get it running so he can do tours or something along those lines. He did not realize how much of his time it would eat up, and he is experienced with boats and he has higher carpentry skills than I have.

Originally Posted by riki

As many others i had this idea too. I ended up buying a used, smaller cat and i can tell you one thing: after i saw the expenses and the hard work involved in a good condition vessel, i can imagine what kind of sorrows and adventure a hurricane damaged boat can be. Go smaller, go older, but buy a seaworthy[/URL] boat.

Same here. And just adding ac and new toilets on has eaten up the entire summer and caused a cascade of other repairs, like a new inverter and repairing the fuel tank (due to an old aftermarket Espar heater leaking diesel into the bilge of my formerly great smelling catamaran because it wasn't designed with enough clearance for the pipe coming out of the fuel tank).

There's a YouTuber, Parlay Revival, who bought a Lagoon 450F right after Irma, and has been trying to repair it. It's been nothing but trouble for him, and now he has it back up on the hard while he's back at work as an engineer to earn more money-to fix the boat. Again. It's kind of heartbreaking, but very instructive to those who think they might want to take it on.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYr...lKodK2Onpt6KgA