Should I buy it or not?

[papapete]

Hi everyone,
I am looking to buy a boat (catamaran) and have found a Woods Mira 35 for sale locally. It is an open deck cruising cat, very well suited (or so i think) to the kind of cruising I intend (or am able) to do. That is, local, short distance trips mostly weekend, sometimes as much as a week in the Ionian, with my wife and 3 kids. The boat was built in 1989 and has been lying here for a while. Also there has been some damage to the hulls from a grounding, but this has been repaired and both hulls look to be staying dry at least. Equipment-wise, it is fairly basic, but being a chandler, I can soon take care of that...

What do you think she is worth? I know it is difficult to evaluate on such little info, so if you need more please let me know...

I look forward to your answers!

Papapete

[Pblais]

These boats suffer one serious issue. The come from standard plans but are home built. No two can be built to the same level of detail or quality. Many home builders can do an exceptional job so I would not ignore the boat, but it really needs going over by an expert to look for all sorts of details no one here could see or know about.

[northerncat]

having built a boat from plans i would agree with the above statement in all but one area, having looked at many others who have are going downb the same road as i, i do not believe you need to be an expert to tell if it has been built well, if you poke your head into enough corners you will soon notice whether or not it has been built well as this is fairly obvious
sean

[freetime]

Do you have any pics?

[usa-068]

Originally Posted by Pblais

These boats suffer one serious issue. The come from standard plans but are home built. No two can be built to the same level of detail or quality. Many home builders can do an exceptional job so I would not ignore the boat, but it really needs going over by an expert to look for all sorts of details no one here could see or know about.

having built a boat from plans i would agree with the above statement in all but one area, having looked at many others who have are going downb the same road as i, i do not believe you need to be an expert to tell if it has been built well, if you poke your head into enough corners you will soon notice whether or not it has been built well as this is fairly obvious.

This is very true, and could not say it better. My Bruce Roberts Offshore '38 was superbly built by it's owner using contractors, otherwise known as professional tradesmen. It could not have been built to a higher standard. Nonetheless, a Bruce Roberts is considered a homebuild by reputation. Thus the boat was greatly undervalued due to it's perceived inferiority. Yet it's compliant with many ISO standards, including stability (port lights, hatches, draining cockpits, decking, etc). The steel construction was compliant with NACE and SSPC for treatment with epoxy resin, which are basically US Army Corp military specifications. And so on, regarding just about all of the equipment on board. You might luck out and find that once in a lifetime deal.

[Pblais]

Friends built a Corbin and it was a jewel. They did several trips across the Atlantic to Norway and back. Many really were junk. You have to look at them like they were different boats. You really are not buying the whole company or a plan. Who cares if the designer was famous. He didn't build the boat. You just want one good boat. They all have to be checked out one at a time. Just because someone saw one they hated does not assume the rest are too or the other way around.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by papapete

... What do you think she is worth? I know it is difficult to evaluate on such little info, so if you need more please let me know...

According to the Multi-Hull Maven, the cost to home build a Woods Mira 35 is approx: €27,021 / $39,676 US.
Woods Mira: Low windage ocean cruising catamaran

I wouldn’t think it’s likely to be worth €66,000 (or even €42,000).

Catamaran sales in Greece introduced by Almi Yachts

1989 WOODS Mira 35 Boat For Sale

[papapete]

Thanks all for your advice and comments.
I do intend to have the boat checked out by a surveyor friend of mine. GordMay, the boat is the actual one referred to in the listings you quoted in your answer. I have found at least 5 or 6 references to it in various sites and about 4 just on Multihull-Maven. all with different prices quoted. It is currently owned by the yard that did the repair on it, and they are selling it. I know them personally and have an idea they have been "lumbered" with it for some time now, because they seemed very keen to sell. I was told not to pay any attention to the price quoted on their site(25.000 euro). I was thinking to make them an offer for 15.000 but I will probably wait for my friendly survey first...
I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile any further comments, ,always appreciated...

Btw the boat was built by a yard, or so I have read... The construction looks ok to my eyes... The one thing I was not very impressed with was the existence of what looks like polyurethane foam in the bottom of one hull.\ not so sure about that...

[papapete]

Just to keep you posted, we had a look today with a surveyor friend of mine, and there are some issues with moisture content, and a few cracks that need to be investigated. Even for him it was difficult to say. He reckons if the price is right (meaning as low as possible) it could be a viable proposition, but resale value? not really... Although I like to think of myself as been a good salesman...haha... maybe i'll take it on as a challenge!

That's all for now, more later

Papapete

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by Pblais

Friends built a Corbin and it was a jewel. They did several trips across the Atlantic to Norway and back. Many really were junk. You have to look at them like they were different boats. You really are not buying the whole company or a plan. Who cares if the designer was famous. He didn't build the boat. You just want one good boat. They all have to be checked out one at a time. Just because someone saw one they hated does not assume the rest are too or the other way around.

Corbins were either kit boats or factory finished boats. They were not home built from scratch. The cheapest kit you could get was a hull and deck and you could get any combination from that to a factory completed boat.

[DtM]

Buy it as cheap as you can. Do not be afraid to make a really low offer. A wise friend of mine once told me that you should take your losses early and hopefully the yard will think the same way.

I would be careful of a boat that becomes a shore bound project so that you do not get to go sailing.

Good luck.

[Jmolan]

Whenever I crawl on a boat I go into an automatic "these are the things I can see, what about the other 75% I can't see" mode. You can bet if the engine is rusty and the hose clamps leaking and the wiring is a mess...well I walk away. I recently bought a little known boat design (Coast 34) after looking at it for about two hours. It was so pristine and well taken care of. Top drawer all the way. I sold it for a nice profit two months later....not something I can say I would do again...but the idea was, it was so nice......just some thoughts.
If you are buying a boat for yourself, the emotional attachment can be deadly. I know a guy in Seattle who consults boat buyers. He told me he has met guys who buy airplanes, heavy machinery, buisnesses, across the board for a living. But when they get their eye on a certain boat, it is like all reason flys out the window.:-)
That is the tough part. A boat is an emotional buy. You gotta love your boat...many of us do. And a bad buy is like a bad spouse I think. A big let down to all the hopes and dreams you had when you took it on. Hard not to love it and keep an objective eye on it when considering buying it. It is why you are checking it out in the first place.....:-)

[Woods Designs]

The Mira you are interested in was professionally built to a high standard. The hulls were moulded by Palamos Boatbuild and the rest was built by Bridge End Boatyard, who are very highly thought of in the UK

So I wouldn't worry about the original construction. However the boat has had a very chequered history. See a Practical Boat Owner magazine article for the latest episode - and there have been others.

I was tempted to buy it myself, but I don't live in Greece and so the logistics of refitting it were too complex for me. Instead I bought a Romany (also my design and similar to the Mira but with a central cuddy) in Virginia which we plan to sail to the Bahamas this winter.

So a good inspection by a boatbuilder is sensible. I say a boatbuilder rather than a surveyor as in my experience they tend to have a more realistic view of what work is really needed and what is purely cosmetic.

And remember the boat is now 20 years old.

Hope this helps

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

Woods Designs Sailing Catamarans