What would you do ?
 

OK ...I bought a 89 311Sr from a guy in Michigan in April. I never saw the boat but had it Surveyed. Because of the cold conditions the Surveyor could not run the motors and so did not offer an opinon ... Got the boat down here and ran the boat and the port motor got hot and sucked alot of water ....We found the clamps on the suction side of the seapump had not been put back on at all.....very loose and slid back on the hose ...I took it to my mechanic who is a merc dealer ...30 years experience . long Story short we pulled the motor and really never found anything specific other than riser gaskets ...but he found alot of issues ...ALL the alarms had been disabled and Wiring harrness had been cut and spliced several times ...Bottom line is I have spent alot of money .... I also have about 5% of the purchase price ....I had gotten to know the owner pretty good and also his mechanic ...I know nothing is intentional ..but is he responsible for all or some of this ? The motors had crossovers ..and everyone knows the issues there ....No pressure relief ...ie holes in Thermostats or bypass measures ....the exhaust Hoses where very damage from heat ...
Do I just belly up and pay him or should he be responsible ?

I think it depends on how the boat was represented to you. Did the seller state that everything was in A-1 condition or did he say it's an old boat and is sold as is? How was the boat priced? Was it a low price for year and model? Once you get everything repaired will the extra costs have you burried in it?

How come the surveyer didn't see all the wiring issues, etc? Just because it was cold doesn't mean he shouldn't have done a visual inspection of the engines and wiring.

Is it the boat you really wanted? Do you plan on keeping it for a long time? If so, you may want to bite the bullet and get everything squared away now. Then just enjoy the boat. Unless the seller missrepresented the condition of the boat I'd say just pay to have it fixed.

S.O.L. :(

Yup, these are minor items, try stringers and bulkheads on top of all that and you are only 1/2 way to where I was when screwed by a dealer on a boat. Sued him and won but the boat was never right. I would be replacing all these things anyway, hoses, wires, belts, T Stat, cap, rotor to start. At least now you arn't throwing away good stuff. I don't trust anyones work. I will admit the AT I bought was set up very well, that is a first, but I now know the seller very well, had a survey and had 4 die hard boaters crawl all over this boat. I still have found things but that is to be expected, I am a freak about these things. Good luck and we are here to help when you get to the spaghetti of wires under the dash.:D

Buyer beware. These are older boats and none come with a warranty that I'm aware of. Pay.

buyer beware is correct, we saw our boat, had it surveyed, kept money in escrow until the sea trial thought everything was great. However we spent most of last season working on it to keep it barely running. Spent this past winter completely tearing apart the motors and rebuilding them to run efficiently and safely and poured over $20,000 into it. We might have mumbled some stuff under our breath but never thought once about going back to the seller. In most instances you buy a used boat as is and the stuff that happens later is pretty hard to prove.