rhys wrote:
Agreed, but I would make a side observation that I've found has
real-life application.

If a home builder of some skill (say a professional welder working
from a Bruce Roberts kit) gets to the 90% complete mark in finishing a
cruiser (say, temporary "plywood and bench" interior, but with engine,
mast(s) and all hull work finished), and then decides to give it up
due to a host of reasons (age, illness, loss of interest in cruising
offshore), you can purchase the equivalent of a $150,000 vessel for a
small percentage, and then have it custom-finished to your
specifications.

Not so. The "equivalent of a $150,000 vessel" would be one that was
fully found and ready to put to sea. What you're getting is a potential
vessel, which needs an undetermined amount of future expense & labor.

If the potential boat is exactly the design you've always wanted, and
the previous builder was a meticulous perfectionist who spared no amount
of money on tools & materials and no amount of his own time, and is so
sick of the potential boat and/or desperate for cash he'll hand it over
for a song (or better yet, pay you to haul it off), then it can be a
good deal.




I have looked at several such boats, ranging from "hopelessly rusting
empty hulls" to "just add teak", and it is very surprising just how
finished an unfinished and "hard to sell" boat can be.


Not surprising at all, at least not to my cynical eye. They're trying to
sell a very personal dream. Only a person who shares the dream will be
at all interested, and most won't have much money.


Obviously, competant and focussed surveying is essential in such
cases

IMHO what would be most essential would be a complete and honest
estimate of how much $$ & work is required to get the boat sailing. That
estimate, doubled, is probably near the lower threshold of what it'll
*really* take.




There are a lot of "stillborn" boats out there, but some can be
successfully revived.

This has to be offset by the availability of decent used boats in your
area, price point, etc., but I've seen some half-finished interiors
that have allowed me to peer at absolutely top-notch gear and systems
that will never see the ocean when a capable home builder falls ill,
gives up or dies.

A tad ghoulish, but there it is. Better the boat gets used than not.


True. Actually, home builders may find your attitude ghoulish but IMHO
you're a starry-eyed optimist. Consider another part of the same
equation: the number of perfectly good (or at least, completed) boats
that sit unsailed in marinas everywhere.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King