RCE wrote:
.

According to him, 6000 hours on these engines has just about broken them in.
Most problems are associated with the bolt-ons.



And poor maintenance.
But you're right, if these engines haven't been abused then
6k hours is no problem at all. An oil analysis would tell
much of the story quickly and cheaply; in the absence of at
least that much data then specualting about whether it needs
repowering is kind of pointless.

The 120 is my least favorite Lehman, it's big & noisy and
has the older style injector pump that needs regular user
service. We have the Lehman 135 which is a jewel of an
engine. We have 2200 hours and the engine's biggest problem
is that it doesn't get run enough. With the care that I take
of it (well within the skills of the average person) I
expect that they will get to 10k hours with no major work


says...
... In the case of this DeFever, the price is depressed in part due to a
perceived "risk" of a 6000 hour boat. Buyers are going to be skeptical,
and rightly so.

It's not the engines they should be skeptical of, it's the
rest of the boat.

... All the people who say, "Don't worry, she's got years
and years and years left in her" will do nothing more then express
surprise when something does break loose and it is the new owner who
will be footing the entire bill. Let's say nothing major went wrong,
jps ran the boat for 10 years and then decided to sell a 38 year old
boat with 7400 engine hours.........good luck!


You can sell anything if the price is right... and *that* is
the reason for the price depression IMHO, plus the common
perception that a boat like this will be a fuel hog.



My impression is that the market has discounted this boat for
something- and the most obvious suspect without an inspection has to be
the engine hours. The boat may not be sale-proof at $100k, but up in
the middle huns where you find boats of similar age with half the
engine hours it probably is. We can be pretty sure the seller didn't
start off at $100k, and that the current pricing is the latest step in
a series of measures (that included moving the boat from FLA to the PAC
NW?) to try to find the "spot" in the marketplace where the perceived
value at least slightly exceeds the price demanded and it becomes more
likely that a buyer will appear.


I also wonder if it's just beat-up looking and not
particularly well equipped. It could be a "bad first
impression" boat.

jps wrote:
Completely agree. If the rest of the boat is in decent condition and
engine replacement is the only big issue, the boat could still be had at
a reasonable value with fresh engines. Obviously, there's lots else
that can require attention in a 25+ year old boat.


Very much so. In fact if the figures being quoted on engine
replacement are accurate, you can count on spending at least
much on other stuff the boat will need. Shucks, a good set
of dock lines for this boat will cost a couple hundred. New
cushions? Canvas? Ground tackle? Battery bank & smart
charger? Inverter (plus some professional wiring work)?

The most recent addition we made to our boat is a bow
thruster, which I installed myself and am very pleased with.
It cost in the neighborhood of 4 boat units; getting it
"professionally" installed would have cost twice that. Of
course, a boat with twins won't need a bow thruster
(actually we didn't really "need" one) but you get the idea.


I'm not yet convinced that another sundeck or flush deck style vessel is
in order, given the aft line handling and boarding challenges they
present.

The length is about right but I'm pretty convinced the next vessel will
have a cockpit along with diesel engines.


Why would you not have diesels in a heavy inboard-powered
vessel?

There is an excellent book which I highly recommend on
weighing the factors in choosing a cruising power boat:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/sit...935312-9318226

Fair Skies- Doug King