bn

My brother made a deal on the 36 Fountain that they have advertised at Gainesville Marina in GA. He had a survey done, transferred the money to escrow, and we drove down 940 miles (1 way) to pick up the boat this weekend.

It turned out to be the biggest POS that I have ever seen. Both the surveyor and the marina said that it needed a LITTLE TLC, I sure would hate to see what they would mean by a lot of TLC. What a waste of a holiday weekend driving almost 2000 miles to see this thing.

The red and orange stripes on the side look like they were painted on, the cockpit and cabin were full of mold, the throttles were bent, many of the gauges would not work, the port motor would not go up, the boat was tied at the eye hook to the trailer (no hook on the strap), the list goes on.

These pics are too small to really see what's wrong with it and do not even do justice to how bad it is, but here goes:

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clearcut3

Damn...when you can see the mold in those pictures that's a bad sign. Sounds like this one will be available for awhile. Look at it on the bright side....at least it wasn't a lot of hidden problems that would be found out after the purchase.

I would DEFINITELY discuss my opinions with the surveyor and find out what he was thinking. If it's that much worse than advertised I would want my money back.

blownincome

What was the Price???Did It reflect condition??or did they have it at market value???
60-70K thats too bad but I see it alot have looked at 98s in that condition..(a shame)

kageman

There ad on the internet said they wanted 49,900 for the boat. Indicates
it was a bank repo. Sounds right, guy can't pay for the boat, how can he
afford to keep it maintained or looking nice.

Count your blessings you didn't get a boat that looks great but turns out
to be a piece of crap

bn

My brother got them down to 35k and we figured even if it needed 20k, it would still be a good deal. I think that it might be a good deal at 10k now.

kageman

By the looks of the exterior condition this boat was kept in, it would probably be safe to assume that the same maintenance schedule (or lack of) will also be indicitive of the mechanicals on this boat.

I have done a couple of project boats and have learned that whatever you
estimate will get the boat back into presentable condition at least double
that amount if not triple it, if all goes well. Once you begin working on the boat it will very likely begin to snowball and become a hornets nest by having to repair/replace one thing after another.

Although once the project is completed it is very satisfying, the money spent
on the boat still does not equal what the boat is worth when you go to sell it.

If you can find a boat at a fair price that has been owned by someone that
had the financial ability to properly maintain the boat you will get much more
enjoyment using the boat rather than being concerned about what will break
or go wrong each time you use it.

As the old saying goes you do get what you pay for.

Goodluck on your boat search.