The True Value Of An Historic Boat
 

Thanks to HORBA, (And thank you very much) we have seen a recent surge of interest in historic race boats, how are we to determine the true value of such a craft. Is it's value based on the original owner, the driver or how many races that particular boat has won? I ask this question due to the fact that my boat the first Sutphen Great Adventure has been the topic as of late. I have been quoted as being "unreasonable" as to thinking that the boat was worth 25k. I have also read a thread that I was asking (4) times the boats worth, so my boat is only worth $6250.00 ? I dont think so do you?

Re: The True Value Of An Historic Boat
 

Is this the boat where the bottom came out and was replace.

No Motor ????????? No trailer

Mike

Re: The True Value Of An Historic Boat
 

Is this the boat

Re: The True Value Of An Historic Boat
 

Mike, herein lies the problem. First of all, the bottom did not "fall out of the boat", there was a fracture between the 2nd and 3rd bulkhead in the bow; big difference. The repair was never done properly but I'm correcting that. I will post pictures throughout the restoration on the Horba site. As for the engines and transmissions, the Merctrans that were in the boat will be insufficient for the power we have for the boat. The original power was junk. Other than that, this boat is complete. By the way, I do have the original trailer, in perfect condition.

Re: The True Value Of An Historic Boat
 

The boat is worth monetarily, what you can get for it.
Ask what you want, and take constructive criticism.
Post the boat for sale on this site and see what happens.

btw... i'm not too sure if the actual value of old race boats has gone up... maybe just perceived value.

the only historic race boat i know of that could have fetched alot of $, was the original Cigarette, whose demise was recently discovered.

Re: The True Value Of An Historic Boat
 

The boats with a lot of history will end up being worth more in the long run. It will follow the same route that the sports cars took and probably over the same time period....10 - 15 years.

Thisis what we are trying to establish with our presence at the big Amelia Island Concours this year....the time for collectors to look at these boats is now.

Your boat is a production class boat...it won a lot of races and is famous for being the first production class Sutphen.
It would be similar to the Porsche 911 that won it's class at the Daytona 24 hour race when the 911 first came out.

Years later that 911 is worth some good money, but it will never be worth what the car is worth that won overall at Daytona that year.

The Open class boats were the stars back then, and will remain the boats that people will be looking for when the market starts to move up.

The production boats will always have value, but they won't be the top investment for collectors....just like that 911 isn't worth what a good Porsche 962 is..... even if the 962 has less of a history to it.

Re: The True Value Of An Historic Boat
 

Good explanation and analogy, Charlie. It is also worth remembering that some individuals speculated in the Classic Cars market and got 'burned', so to speak.
Although I can understand the reason for 'investing' in a classic race boat, preservation of the history of the sport as advocated by HORBA seems to me a much more worthy motive.

Just my two cents,
Phil.