HOW BOATS "FIND" YOU POST # 3, 24 AUGUST 2016
Boats are like stray dogs, feral cats, street children or the one-off domesticated wild animal. They are usually abused (sometimes hopelessly so), and have stories that can be told when you get to know them, see their scars, and correct their problems, they respond to love, and each is really unique.
I posit that when you begin your boat search . . . you will not end up with what you "thought" you were looking for, nor as cheap as your very well planned out budget allowed. you may even end up in Motor-Sailer when you went looking for a trawler, or a gas-powered boat when Diesel was omni-important, how about a 45 footer when the search was for a 36?
After quitting the commercial boat "building", I migrated to doing Marine Surveys (for courts, banks, potential buyers, and sellers) I toured and did forensics on over 50 foot commercial and pleasure craft both. I always did a "historics" sheet of boat origin, builders, designers, materielle sources, previous owners, etc. (plus the conditional/valuation/sea trial/ hull inspection).
Now, as a "buyer" I did the same on the final prospects, we found our Tollycraft 40 as an unwanted mostly well-kept older 8 years-at-the dock boat, but it was gasoline-and "twin" engined. . . not a single screw diesel ! but, it was on the market at about 1/2 price, so, we took a second and third look before deciding.
So...fea is one of the very last (of 182) 40 foot Tolleycrafts built between 1970 and 1980, her design was fully perfected/corrected by the time she was built up in Everett, Washington. lust like my above thoughts, she is not the single screw-diesel I sought, but instead has twin 454 Chev. 4bbl 330 HP engines, she is smaller than we wanted by 5 or 10 feet, and $10,000 more expensive too ! But, such is the insane art of the boat search/buy.
I posit that when you begin your boat search . . . you will not end up with what you "thought" you were looking for, nor as cheap as your very well planned out budget allowed. you may even end up in Motor-Sailer when you went looking for a trawler, or a gas-powered boat when Diesel was omni-important, how about a 45 footer when the search was for a 36?
After quitting the commercial boat "building", I migrated to doing Marine Surveys (for courts, banks, potential buyers, and sellers) I toured and did forensics on over 50 foot commercial and pleasure craft both. I always did a "historics" sheet of boat origin, builders, designers, materielle sources, previous owners, etc. (plus the conditional/valuation/sea trial/ hull inspection).
Now, as a "buyer" I did the same on the final prospects, we found our Tollycraft 40 as an unwanted mostly well-kept older 8 years-at-the dock boat, but it was gasoline-and "twin" engined. . . not a single screw diesel ! but, it was on the market at about 1/2 price, so, we took a second and third look before deciding.
So...fea is one of the very last (of 182) 40 foot Tolleycrafts built between 1970 and 1980, her design was fully perfected/corrected by the time she was built up in Everett, Washington. lust like my above thoughts, she is not the single screw-diesel I sought, but instead has twin 454 Chev. 4bbl 330 HP engines, she is smaller than we wanted by 5 or 10 feet, and $10,000 more expensive too ! But, such is the insane art of the boat search/buy.
