On Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:20:15 -0700, Go Bucks wrote:

How does low hours determine if a boat was beat on? I have seen some
very high hour boats in great condition and some low hour boats that
were neglected.

That's a good question.

Based on how you phrased it, the answer is obvious. A high hour boat
in excellant condition is probably a good boat - the owner took care
of it and the evidence is in how it looks.

However, a beat up boat with low hours engine isn't indicative of it's
mechanical condition - it may be in perfect shape mechanically, it
just looks worn and used. For example, I have a friend who has a
aluminum hulled work boat built by Pacific and it's been used hard in
all kinds of weather and sea conditions - he uses it to inspect
bridges, pilings, wharfs, sea walls and dive/salvage work. It's
dented and diinged and looks like it has been used hard.

Mechanically? It's like new. If something goes wrong, he fixes it
immediately, he rotates his engines every two years and every thing
mechanical on the boat is in Bristol condition. It just looks used.
It' s the most seaworthy 26' boat I've been on.

As a rule, you want to look at things like scrapes, dings and gouges.
If there are a lot of them, tha't probably not a great deal. Look in
the bilges and see what kind of condition it's in. Relatively clean,
then the owner has probably taken care of it.

On the other hand, I saw a boat recently that was a hurricane boat
(Andrew if memory serves) - 32' Hydra-Sports CC that was, and I'm
serious about this, totaled. The difference between the damage and
the boat today is incredible - it's looks nice, but if you look
closely comparing the photos to the boat, you can see where the
repairs weren't perfect and little flaws here and there.

The only true way to determine the condition of any boat is to have a
professional look at it. Without bragging, I know a fair amount about
small (under 26') boats and in particular center consoles and what I
know based compared to what a professional surveyor knows is night and
day. I learned that lesson on a Topaz I almost bought. I thought the
boat was in decent condition, made an offer and had a surveyor look at
it. The deal was off in five minutes - he found more wrong with the
boat in five minutes than I did in an hour.

I'm looking around at returning to the large CC world and I won't make
a move until the boat has been surveyed - I learned my lesson quickly
and I will never make that mistake again. Even if it's new.

There is also the relative satisfaction factor. Somebody I know very
well has a boat that I wouldn't be caught dead in for any reason. But
he's perfectly satisfied with it - it's safe, it works, needs
occasional repair, but he only paid $5,000 for it six years ago and
has put maybe $1,000 in it on this and that. He hauls his lobster
traps with it, fishes out of it, occasionally goes camping in it and
other than covering the engine over winter, does no maintainence on
the hull. Blisters? Just reams 'em out, preps it, puts some Marine
Tex on it, repaints and that's that.

So, I don't know if that answers your question or not - yes/no?