I've either made a horrible decision or a great investment
Posted: November 20th, 2015, 1:00 am
In my 32 years of life I have been smart enough to rent or borrow other peoples boats despite being a certified marine mechanic... until now.
The guy that surveyed my fathers 37' Marine trader turned me onto this boat. It was part of an estate of a gentleman who passed away 4 years ago. The family is still struggling with the loss but after all this time have received permission from the attorneys to start liquidating assets to close out the estate. I was fortunate enough to have talked to them before they just handed the title over to the marina for the balance owed for storage.
I stole this thing for $1,500. Now before everyone starts bringing out the pitch forks, it came with a healthy slew of problems, mostly mechanical and a lot of mold/mildew inside, mostly in the stateroom.
At some point before it was hauled out of the water the sea lift it was kept on broke and allowed the starboard aft corner to drop into the water. I have not yet heard the motors run. I do know that the port side will turn over with a breaker bar on the crank bolt so it should be savable. The starboard motor is frozen. There is no water in the oil so I'm hoping I can pull the plugs, find the rusty one and dump some penetrating oil into it and work it back loose. Worst comes to worse, I'm looking at a remand long block. I'm really really really hoping the genny is okay but right now the motors are my priority.
Both alternators and both water pumps are froze up and I have not yet checked the starters.
Its a shame really because the hour meters on the motors only show 31hrs and 41hrs. It is my understanding that these are not the original motors though and tonight while cleaning out all the moldy bedding and trash in the cabinets I did find 2 hour meters showing only 350 hours, give or take. From what the family has told me, the father kept really good care of his boat and had both engines and both V-drives replaced and I have no reason to doubt them though I am curious why with so little run time.
Along with the boat I received all the paper work they had, even a receipt for a new Garmin 4212 GPS and radar module.
This damn thing is 100% complete, right down to the Carver embroidered pillow cases. Every piece of paper it came with from the factory is still on the boat as well as manuals for any upgrades installed. All the canvas and framework is there but some of the clear plastic windows have a few cracks. The upholstery is 7/10 with only 1 seat, the one forward of the cockpit, needing redone.
Really my only other concerns are the pumps under the floor. Tonight I pumped out probably 50 gallons of water and there is no telling how long the pumps and motor for the bow thruster have been submerged luckily it is fresh/rain water. Did I mention it has what is claimed to be a brand new bow thruster?
I'm expecting to dump about $10k into it in the next couple months. I'm sure thats only 2/3 what I'll really spend but even then, I'm still way under book value.
My goals are to make it tip top and live on it in one of the marinas here is Port Canaveral for a year or two and trade it towards a nice blue water sail boat.
Anyways, thanks for having me here. I'm sure that the wealth of knowledge will benefit me greatly and I look forward to getting to know you guys.
edit: For anyone interested in the condition it is/was (I cleaned the junk out of it tonight) here is an IMGUR album of the pictures I took. http://imgur.com/a/BJ0wL
http://imgur.com/a/RCwTx
The guy that surveyed my fathers 37' Marine trader turned me onto this boat. It was part of an estate of a gentleman who passed away 4 years ago. The family is still struggling with the loss but after all this time have received permission from the attorneys to start liquidating assets to close out the estate. I was fortunate enough to have talked to them before they just handed the title over to the marina for the balance owed for storage.
I stole this thing for $1,500. Now before everyone starts bringing out the pitch forks, it came with a healthy slew of problems, mostly mechanical and a lot of mold/mildew inside, mostly in the stateroom.
At some point before it was hauled out of the water the sea lift it was kept on broke and allowed the starboard aft corner to drop into the water. I have not yet heard the motors run. I do know that the port side will turn over with a breaker bar on the crank bolt so it should be savable. The starboard motor is frozen. There is no water in the oil so I'm hoping I can pull the plugs, find the rusty one and dump some penetrating oil into it and work it back loose. Worst comes to worse, I'm looking at a remand long block. I'm really really really hoping the genny is okay but right now the motors are my priority.
Both alternators and both water pumps are froze up and I have not yet checked the starters.
Its a shame really because the hour meters on the motors only show 31hrs and 41hrs. It is my understanding that these are not the original motors though and tonight while cleaning out all the moldy bedding and trash in the cabinets I did find 2 hour meters showing only 350 hours, give or take. From what the family has told me, the father kept really good care of his boat and had both engines and both V-drives replaced and I have no reason to doubt them though I am curious why with so little run time.
Along with the boat I received all the paper work they had, even a receipt for a new Garmin 4212 GPS and radar module.
This damn thing is 100% complete, right down to the Carver embroidered pillow cases. Every piece of paper it came with from the factory is still on the boat as well as manuals for any upgrades installed. All the canvas and framework is there but some of the clear plastic windows have a few cracks. The upholstery is 7/10 with only 1 seat, the one forward of the cockpit, needing redone.
Really my only other concerns are the pumps under the floor. Tonight I pumped out probably 50 gallons of water and there is no telling how long the pumps and motor for the bow thruster have been submerged luckily it is fresh/rain water. Did I mention it has what is claimed to be a brand new bow thruster?
I'm expecting to dump about $10k into it in the next couple months. I'm sure thats only 2/3 what I'll really spend but even then, I'm still way under book value.
My goals are to make it tip top and live on it in one of the marinas here is Port Canaveral for a year or two and trade it towards a nice blue water sail boat.
Anyways, thanks for having me here. I'm sure that the wealth of knowledge will benefit me greatly and I look forward to getting to know you guys.
edit: For anyone interested in the condition it is/was (I cleaned the junk out of it tonight) here is an IMGUR album of the pictures I took. http://imgur.com/a/BJ0wL
http://imgur.com/a/RCwTx