Used Boat Purchase "gone bad Stories"
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05-08-2006, 07:35 PM
#13
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Re: Used Boat Purchase "gone bad Stories"
Amazing how rods can break trying to get an engine started on the trailer
Insptech i was wondering how long it was gonna take those pictures to arise
Looking for a 420 long block
Insptech i was wondering how long it was gonna take those pictures to arise
Looking for a 420 long block
05-08-2006, 07:58 PM
#16
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Re: Used Boat Purchase "gone bad Stories"
Didn't buy it, but had a very close call. Almost bought a 43 Black Thunder in Washington at a dealer who was brokering it. They sent me a survey from a SAMS member where it showed more than they were willing to sell it for. They said it had rough paint overspray all over the cockpit, drives, etc. Thought that was weird so tracked down another surveyer and he looked at the boat for me. Come to find out, it was the Black Thunder that was totaled on the trailer from N Carolina and it had been sold for salvage to some people in Canada who fixed it with Auto Bondo. I guess at one time almost 8 feet of the nose was smashed and a who lot of other structural damage. The estimate for fixing it was over $40,000. Needless to say I did not buy it and got my deposit back. However, if it wasn't for the second surveyor, due to a suspicious mind, I would have owned it. The second surveyor said it looked as if it had been fixed in a Tiajuana auto repair shop. Not even glass filled bondo or two part epoxy.
05-31-2006, 01:41 PM
#18
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Location: Milwaukee, WI
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Re: Used Boat Purchase "gone bad Stories"
I purchased a boat through a broker. Went on a sea trial, had a buyers inspection done, went through all of the "proper" precautionary steps and everything looks good. It's a 1999 with a 5.7 Mercruiser/Alpha with 180 hours on it. Everything looks clean, you could eat inside the engine compartment.
So... I pick the boat up on a Saturday with a few buddies and then decide to drop it in the water for a quick spin. 40 minutes later, BOOM. Broke a connecting rod in cylinder 7. No warranty, due to it being a brokered boat and no legal recourse that I can take to the owner, broker, or inspector. So I'm stuck, just bought a boat and under an hour of driving and it's dead. I take it back to the broker to have them look at it (they offered to pull the motor and diagnose the problem free of charge). After 2 weeks of screwing around with it, they still couldn't determine the cause of the rod breaking other than "it was a casting flaw from the factory". So, I picked the boat up yesterday, threw the broken engine into the back of my truck and it's now waiting at a different shop to get a remanufactured engine installed. Talk about unexpected expenses
At least I'll have a warranty now though, but it should've never happened in the first place.
So... I pick the boat up on a Saturday with a few buddies and then decide to drop it in the water for a quick spin. 40 minutes later, BOOM. Broke a connecting rod in cylinder 7. No warranty, due to it being a brokered boat and no legal recourse that I can take to the owner, broker, or inspector. So I'm stuck, just bought a boat and under an hour of driving and it's dead. I take it back to the broker to have them look at it (they offered to pull the motor and diagnose the problem free of charge). After 2 weeks of screwing around with it, they still couldn't determine the cause of the rod breaking other than "it was a casting flaw from the factory". So, I picked the boat up yesterday, threw the broken engine into the back of my truck and it's now waiting at a different shop to get a remanufactured engine installed. Talk about unexpected expenses
At least I'll have a warranty now though, but it should've never happened in the first place.
05-31-2006, 03:55 PM
#19
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Re: Used Boat Purchase "gone bad Stories"
Recent nightmare:
I sold a Donzi center console cuddy to a guy driving a nice hummer with the $10,000 watch. He wanted to leave the boat at my dock while he looked for a slip or house on a canal - so in the purchase agreement I wrote that it had to be gone by end of the next month - he had 5 weeks. He puts down $1000 cash on a $22k deal.
Two weeks go by and he stops by and asks if he can take the coaming pads and cusions to recover them while he searches for a slip. I reluctantly agree and tell him I dont want him making improvements to a boat he doesnt own yet - he says it'll be his loss if it falls through and he is waiting on a guys who owes him money to pay for the boat.
Then he dissappears for more than a month, two hurricanes roll in and out of town - he's nowhere. Then he shows up on a saturday with a personal check book in hand and decides he wants to lower the price because of a small ding from a storm...I say no, he is 2 motnhs late on thsi deal, deal is off if not at agreed price, and give me back my cushions. He tells me he wants his deposit back plus $4000 for the cushions since he had them redone - he then says he is going to sue ME. jackaz
I sold a Donzi center console cuddy to a guy driving a nice hummer with the $10,000 watch. He wanted to leave the boat at my dock while he looked for a slip or house on a canal - so in the purchase agreement I wrote that it had to be gone by end of the next month - he had 5 weeks. He puts down $1000 cash on a $22k deal.
Two weeks go by and he stops by and asks if he can take the coaming pads and cusions to recover them while he searches for a slip. I reluctantly agree and tell him I dont want him making improvements to a boat he doesnt own yet - he says it'll be his loss if it falls through and he is waiting on a guys who owes him money to pay for the boat.
Then he dissappears for more than a month, two hurricanes roll in and out of town - he's nowhere. Then he shows up on a saturday with a personal check book in hand and decides he wants to lower the price because of a small ding from a storm...I say no, he is 2 motnhs late on thsi deal, deal is off if not at agreed price, and give me back my cushions. He tells me he wants his deposit back plus $4000 for the cushions since he had them redone - he then says he is going to sue ME. jackaz
05-31-2006, 04:08 PM
#20
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Re: Used Boat Purchase "gone bad Stories"
A little different approach the seller ran into some bad luck......Went on a sea trial in Miami in a 33' Center Console w/ twin 300's, I tell the guy I'm interested we are a couple of thousand dollars apart but close enough for a Sea Trial and I would make a decision on the survey at my expense of course(we are in his back yard and I was flying home the next morning) so we go for a ride, the boat is running great, took the turn to run out of the inlet and the starboard motor blows up..... I'm glad it happened on him and not me but I felt really sorry for the guy, limped home on one motor, a broken boat and no sale.... 
