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Well I'm going to guess that this will be a first on this board. I'm a banker on the coast of Georgia. If there are any other bankers on this board, they can tell you that lending is a little slow right now. I had a few extra minutes today so I wrote out a question I had about purchasing a 13 footer. As I was proofing my post, my bank was robbed at gun point. I spent the rest of my day talking to local police and the FBI and calming down a very upset Teller. I came home tonight and decided to see if I got any response to my post when I realized that in the chaos, I never clicked the post button. Seems a little odd to lead into my question like that but I thought you might find that interesting.

Earlier this week, I was travelling on a back road and spotted a 13 footer on the side of the road with a for sale sign on it. I stopped and looked it over for a few minutes. Its an 84 with a 50 horse Evinrude on it. The key was in the boat so I turned it over and it fired up immediately. In the bow area there is a 3 inch hole where it looks like some sort of seat had been installed at one time. There was about 2 inches of standing water in the hole. The original seating had been removed and a beat up swivel chair had been installed. It has a fiberglass console that doesn't look original. The boat needs some tlc but I have definately seen worse. My question is that knowing this limited amount of information is there a magic price out there where you just have to drag it home. They are asking $1500. I don't need another Whaler but if I could pick it up for $1000 I'd have to do it. A little elbow grease, a small amount of Fiberglass work and a new Mahogony interior and I could have a little jewel.

Is there a magic price?

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You didn`t mention if there is a trailer with the boat. Is the engine an `84 also? A decent rolling trailer is worth $300. Well the engine t least starts, if you don`t do a compression test its a parts motor, worth maybe $400/ I would take a chance on $100 if it has a trailer, and the boat is not waterlogged.

BTW you didn`t give a description of the robber. There are over 8000 members of this forum, probably one of us has seen him.:D
rich

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Woops, I meant to say $1000, not $100.
Rich

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In my opinion, (whatever that's worth) you should have already hooked that baby up and pulled it home before someone else finds it. You may have a project boat, but it sounds more like cosmetic work. Put some cash in your pockets and whip out $1000 in 50's and wave it in front of him and you may get it for that. Cash talks big these days. However, I personally don't think you could go wrong even if you had to pay $1500 :D
PS
I hope there were no injuries other than maybe a few pairs of underwear!

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Life is (can be) to short - hooked her up. Glad to hear everyone was o.k.

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I hope that in the meantime, someone doesn't go fire up the engine and leave it running. Beyond that, sounds like a fun project boat.

BTW: Very happy to hear no one was hurt in the robbery. People are plain nuts these days.

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I hope that I caught you in time. Do not buy that boat! It is a terrible deal, you will regret it forever. It probably leaks and will sink the first time you take her out.

Ah, exactly where is piece of poo boat locate at?

Doug

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PLUS you owe the guy a new water pump impeller after you cranked the motor out of the water!

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It actually scared me when it turned over. I was not expecting it to be functional. I shut it off as fast I could!

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add a toasted water pump to your cost, hook it up and go even for $1500 if it has a trailer.
mw

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If the impeller was 20 years old and brittle as a rock, firing it up might break a vane off, but if the impeller is any good to start with, running the motor for 5 or so seconds will not hurt the impeller. If you or anyone else buys that boat, one of the first things they should do is change the waterpump impeller. I would be more worried that someone before you started it, and let it run for 5 minutes and cooked it.
rich

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I finally spoke with the gentleman who owns this 13 footer. His story is that he bought the boat some time ago. The first time he put it in the water, it took off from the dock like a rocket but about 100 yards later one of cylinders quit firing. He says that as long as he was idling, both cylinders fired but when he got up to speed, one dropped. He took the boat out, cleaned the carburators and he hasn't put it back in the water since then. He says its been sitting in his yard for the past three years. he's since gotten another boat and no longer wants this one.

So whats that sound like? Is $1500 still a drag me home price? What would it cost to rebuild a 1984 50 horse Evinrude?

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I'm figuring re-power with a 40 HP ( a 13' Whaler with a 40 HP engine is a "JET"), so I'm figuring 4 to 5 "Clams" to re-power (depending on engine choice), that put's you at about $5,500-$6,500 for a 13' Whaler with a new engine.
mw

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I think "Georgia's Bank", will be an appropriate name for that vessel....:)

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YOU HAVEN'T PICKED THAT THING UP YET? GO ON AND GET IT AND STOP TRYING TO TALK YORSELF OUT OF IT! Always remember that the deal you were looking at today and wanted to think about until tomorrow.............someone else may have been looking at yesterday! :(

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Forget about rebuilding a 24 year old motor, unless you have the skills to rebuild it yourself. Buy the boat, and then find a similar good running motor so you can use the same controls, and save the old motor for parts.;)

Rich

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GeorgeaWhaler, in rereading your first post. You mentioned that lending is a little slow, right now. Would you say that bank robbing is picking up?:) BTW did they catch the robbers yet?

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I wish I could report that they have caught the robber but he is still at large. They do believe that its the same guy that robbed a small finance company a few days earlier so he is pretty bold to step up to a federal crime so quickly. All we have to go on is a blurry surveilance shot and description of the getaway vehicle. Older model Green Buick LeSabre with a partial tag number WX43... The robbers physical description is 6 foot 1 - 230 lbs mid 40s black male. He was wearing glasses and had some sort of tattoo or marking on his right arm.

How about this. If you have information leading to the arrest of the man responsible for robbing Atlantic National Bank in Brunswick, Georgia, I will see to it that you get the 13 footer that we've been discussing in this thread as your reward!

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I'll take the $10,000 instead....;)

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Ok, enough talking about this boat. Go put it in the water and run it to see if it's what you want. If it runs well then you have a boat to take home. If it doesn't then you have to decide whether you want to spend the bucks for a new motor. I got just about what you're talking about and took off a running 1970 Merc and bought a new Nissan 40 tldi. I couldn't be happier with it.
Mike

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Georgia,

I dont know if this helps you or not, but several months ago, I sold a 1984 13 Sport, in below average condition with a 2002 9.9 Merury and trailer for $2,300.00. It had the small motor b/c I had purchased it years ago for my son's 10th birthday. The guy that bought it planned on pulling the motor off and putting a larger one on. So, he was really just buying the hull and trailer.

If the guy asked for $1500.00 that's fair. He'll probably take $1300.00. The big expense will be to repower it. As others have stated, you could probably write off the engine that's on there now as toast or drop 2-3K to rebuild a very old motor, which you dont want to do. So basically, to get that rig powered, you're going to
have at least $5K in the boat. That's a conservative estimate and would include what you paid for the boat.