Offshoreonly.com - Boat shopping after action report #1

And so the shopping begins! The Admiral and I took a day-and-a-half trip cross-state to look at candidate #1, a 1999 Donzi 28ZX. We like this boat because it’s a bit unusual (don’t see your boat coming and going), is towable with our current vehicle, and the small blocks/Bravo combination should be pretty bulletproof. The boat is being brokered by a marina and was described to me as being as lift-kept, clean, and well-cared for.

Details:

1999 Donzi 28ZX
Twin 350 Mags, approx 240 hrs
Silent Choice
Latham external steering
K-Planes
Mechanical drive and trim indicators

The spec sheet from the brokerage had some details on equipment (see above) and gave the following ratings:

RATING: 1-10

Hull: 9
Engines: 9
Canvas: 9
Upholstery: 9
Interior: 9

The boat sits on a brand new Manning aluminum trailer. It is a two-owner boat.

So, after a leisurely 3 hours of watching our Durango suck fuel (that thing got a Hemi? Yep, I’ve got the gas bill to prove it!), we arrived at the marina. The boat was in heated storage in their service area.

First impression – the boat is dirty. There is a visible scum line on the transom (lift-kept??), the deck is filthy (the boat is listed as having two covers, mooring and cockpit, but I only saw a cockpit cover), the cockpit upholstery is dirty as well. Now, I’m of two minds on this one; on the one hand, the marina is closed the week between Christmas and New Years, and they came up just to show us the boat. Boats get dirty, it's a fact of life. OTOH, you’ve got a potential client that is driving over 200 miles one-way to see this thing, doesn’t that warrant taking 20 minutes to hose it off with some soap and water?

Anyway, the hull and deck look good. Few more dings and scrapes than I had expected, but it is 5 years old and there is nothing serious that I didn’t already know about. Gel had a nice shine to it, even on the deck. Graphics looked good. Hullsides are straight, rubrail is straight, no caulk oozing out, etc.

Under the hatch it looked good as well. Nice red diamond plate on both gunwales and on the back of the bench. Rigging was OK, not great but not bad either. No signs of oil leaks or any of that sort of business. Gotta love small blocks, there was room for me to put two fists between the motors! :)

On to the cockpit. Carpet looks good. Upholstery was noticeably yellowed, both the bolsters, bench, and sunpad. “ZX” stitching on the bolsters was noticeably faded. And everything was dirty, not sure how much a good scrubbing would help.

There were no tears or rips that I could find. Both bolsters worked (manual models). None of the gauges were fogged, but one of the tracks on the mechanical drive/tab indicators looked like it was out of place relative to the others - broken? Windshield has a brace in the middle, it was missing one of the eight or so bolt/nut combos that held it together. Cover for the electrical panel was off-kilter, looked like a hinge was loose/broken.

Helm has Gaffrig gauges, the speedo and tachs were not mounted straight, not sure if it came from the factory this way. Other than the stock (?) Clarion stereo in the cabin, the boat has *no* electronics. No VHF, no GPS, not even a depthfinder.

Speaking of the cabin, it is bare-bones. No fridge, no sink, not even a cooler. The head is not plumbed for a pump out, so it would have to be hauled out of the boat every time it needs to be emptied. Again, the cabin was dirty (lots of spiderwebs in the hatch screen, etc.)

While I was buried under the hatch, the Admiral flipped the cushions over and found mold under nearly every one. It also looked like mold was coming through the seams on the headliner. Essentially, everything from the centerline over to the starboard side was moldy. Obviously, water had gotten in there and sat for a while under the cushions. And I’m wondering what is going on under the headliner (maybe nothing, maybe something).

Overall, I thought it was a decent boat that probably hadn’t seen regular use or care; I’d give it a 7 on a 1-10, excluding the mess in the cabin. From what I understand, it was kept at a vacation house, so probably didn’t get the upkeep that a boat sitting in your driveway might get. And it is a base model boat, there are no options that I could see except the Latham steering and the drive/tab indicators.

Based on my research (selling prices, not asking prices), the price I had discussed with the broker was $5-7K more than the average. This was before I saw the boat. Now I’d be more inclined to swing the other way. A good day’s worth of elbow grease might square away a lot of the issues I saw, but the lack of amenities/options and the mold under the cushions and possibly under the headliner really give pause on this one. What do you guys think? Continue negotiations or look for another fish in the sea?

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Couple of design thoughts on this boat. It is really more of a sit down layout. I could not stand in the bolster and reach the wheel, and at 5'9", I'm no Nort. ;) Sitting, however, was very comfortable.

The boat has an anchor locker, but it is a screwy design. There is no gasket around the hatch, and there is about a 3" gap between the top of the anchor locker and the deck. You can see the cabin headliner from inside the anchor locker. And there is no way to secure an anchor, so it just bounces around while your underway, the boat we looked at had a few good gouges inside the locker. I think an anchor locker is a great idea, but Donzi's execution was pretty half-assed, if you ask me.

Anyway, I snapped some pics while we were out there.