Offshoreonly.com - Pier 57 Horror stories

Here's my take on these types of scenerios.

In shogrens defense, especially on a consignment, deal, they simply are not going to dig deep into a 30 year old boat, disassembling engines to verify camshaft numbers, valve sizes, tuning engines, etc. Especially because they simply don't even own the boat! Technically it was still "Larrys" boat if it was on consignment. All they are pretty much doing putting a seller and buyer together, for a fee, and obviously offering services like financing, etc with that. I'd imagine Scott has to rely on what the seller/owner is telling him, or providing him with.

In Chris's defense, the whole "its a 30 year old boat, so suck it up and eat $hit " talk doesn't seem right. Just because its a 30 year old boat, for what some may consider "cheap", it may be a lot of money for Chris. When you buy a 30 year old boat, for say 30k dollars, that's worth maybe 30k dollars in good running condition, you should get what you paid for. Why should it be any different that the guy who goes in and buy a 250K dollar 46 Cigarette, that books for 250k, that's supposed to run great, but turns out to be a turd once you get it home. I just don't think the whole "you paid cheap money, so you should expect problems" attitude.

With that being said, from an outsiders view from what I've read on oso on this deal, it sounds to me as if the seller, just wanted this boat gone. He probably didn't know, nor care, what was inside those engines, how the carbs were tuned, or any of that. If this is the boat I remember, it used to have the engines that the 357 Formula in that link has (little blower engines). It would make sense that 'Larry" bought the 357 with the "365/420 clone" engines, and simply swapped them into the 402, and installed his "blower" engines into the 357.

Now, I can totally see all 3 parties standpoint on the deal. I have had friends buy from shogren with great experience, one has had 7 years of trouble free boating with his boat, and another who bought a boat with HP500's that were a mess. Its a gamble with any used boat, from any seller/dealer. What I would recommend to anyone, especially a friend, is to NEVER buy a used high performance boat, based on someones "reputation". And its nothing at all against Scott, or any member of his crew. I just wouldn't expect them to go thru every single used boat they take in, and do full teardowns and tuning sessions on them. If I were going to purchase a boat like that 402, or any used boat, I would have wanted to do a full inspection myself on the mechanicals, a survey, and a sea trial. I almost would consider everything I'd buy, to need engine work, and factor that into my budget/offer. If it doesn't, then its a win. If it does, you prepared yourself mentally and financially for it. I will never buy, or let a close friend buy, a high performance boat without a sea trial any more. And I'll tell you why.

First boat was a Four Winns liberator. Had a shiny sweet freshly built 540ci. All the best stuff. Guy had receipts, dyno sheet, etc etc. Engine had 15 hours on it. I bought it on a winter day. Took it home, awaiting spring. First boat ride, no oil pressure after a short cruise. Long story short, bearings were toast from who ever assembled it, didn't know how to check clearances. That premium price I paid for a boat with a "new" engine, wasn't worth it because it lasted 1 ride before I had to totally rebuild it.

Think I woulda learned my lesson. Boat #2. Bought it on a winter day. Come spring, first boat ride, 20 minutes later, transmission burned up. Nothing like the look on the MRS face when I told her this "cream puff" I just bought, is gonna be down for a while while I have to pull the engine and get trans rebuilt.

Good buddy of mine buys a boat in the fall. All new hardware, rigging, real beauty. No sea trial. First ride after taking owner ship, had electrical issues. Got about a 20 min ride in before taking it home to put away for winter. Never even exceeded 4,000 rpm that day. Come spring, 1st ride out doing some carb tuning, drive grenedes at 40mph cruising. Turns out both drives were toast and needed full overhauls. Doesn't matter who's fault it is at that point, because he owned it. However, he would not own it today if that had happened during a sea trial, or at least not bought the boat until either the seller/broker had the drives rebuilt, or reduced the selling price to cover it.

Another friend DID do a seal trial on a boat he was buying. Big bad azz blower engines, all nice stuff. On the seal trial, the crankshaft broke!! Needless to say, he had a little bargaining room on the price at that point, and still decided to buy it, but at a much reduced price. Good and bad, because all he thought he needed was to rebuild the engines, but also turned out the #6 drives were shot! Didn't find that out till after the purchase.

I have more of these stories, but what I am getting at, is in these cases, used high perf boats are like playing Russian roulette. As a buyer you really need to do your homework and what not. The only advice I can give the OP, is move on. I'm sure you learned from this experience, as have I and many others in these situations. You got yourself a cool old boat, sounds like your getting the bugs worked out, and go enjoy it. As for Shogren, obviously they have a lot of happy customers, and been around a while with a good reputation, so that speaks for itself right there.