O'Rourke wrote:

What is this boat worth paying for???

The one I'm interested in is a Cheoy Lee Robb 35 built in 1964 Teak
over Ipol with bronze and copper fastners. The engine is an Isuzu
Pisce 3 40hp 3 cylinder (which was new in 1976 and has 910 hours). The
boat can be view at: http://www.cheoyleeassociation.com/Sale/Tigre.htm

I did an inspection this weekend and found the following:

snip of some very bad stuff
A little history on the boat. I believe the boat has been on the
market for almost 2 years. The original asking price was $35,000. In
June, the price was reduced to $26,000. Just this month the price has
been reduced to $22,000. The owner has left on a long cruise on his
new boat and the sale of the boat is being now handled by a broker,
although the owner can still be reached through email.


I'd run, not walk, away from this one. There are too many structural
questions that even your novice eye caught. I would bet that there are
even more substantial ones that you didn't see. Only 910 hours on a 25
year old boat is a warning sign to me. (we have 1200 hours in 10 years'
use.)

This sounds like a boat that'll be worth $15k after you've sunk $60k
into it and you still shouldn't trust the basic structure out of
protected waters.

If we haven't dissuaded you, hire a surveyor that really knows wooden
boats. Best would be one that has built them and is a naval architect.
He may not be able to dissuade you with the litany of ills HE finds, but
at least you won't be able to come back and blame us for your being too
starry-eyed to listen to reason...

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/