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I have a friend who just went through a similar decision on another brand of boat, same motor. He ended up deciding that while the FICHT had a bad reputation, after 14 years on the water if it was going to blow up, it would have. He made a low offer based on the motor's bad rep, and the seller took it.

With any outboard with that number of years on it, you have to be prepared for a repower - older outboards don't have much value, whether they are FICHT, Mercury, or something else. So if you think the boat is otherwise good, and you can get it at a price that factors in the potential need to repower down the road, maybe it's worth it.

You should be able to tell from looking at it thoroughly whether the Sea Drive conversion was done properly - certainly the Armstrong bracket is one of the accepted ways to do that conversion.

Good luck!