On Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:03:38 -0800 (PST), Frogwatch
wrote:

On Nov 30, 5:42 pm, Gogarty wrote:
Congratulations on your gift. It is the gift that will keep on taking.

This probably is not very helpful. But your budget of $15,000 will get you
nowhere.

Get a survey. Ignore Wilbur. If you want to insure the boat you will have to
get one anyway.

Then resign yourself to the fact that you will have $30,000 in that boat
within the year. Heed the voice of experience with a surveyed 1976 Dawson 26.
And that was twenty-five years ago. You could read all about it in an article
entitled "We'll never fall in love again" in a magazine called "Messing About
in Boats," long defunct.

$30,000, what nonsense, what are you doing, gold plating everything?
If your budget goes over $12,000 you are wasting money on BS. Its a
1976 boat probably worth maybe $10,000 guys, get a realistic grip.

The OP was talking about "upgrading" the engine, which would be 8-14K
all by itself.

The bottom line is that what you paid for a boat that age doesn't have
much effect on what it costs to bring it up to snuff. On a boat in
better condition, that costs more to aquire, you will be replacing all
the same things within the first few years regardless. People don't
usually do a complete refit right before they sell. Usually it's the
opposite. They know they will be getting rid of the boat and stop
doing even basic maintenance, let alone major replacements - sometimes
a few YEARS in advance.