Buying a used watercraft.. how to inspect?
 

Hi guys,
My uncle is looking to buy a used boat for the very first time ever and is wondering how the inspection process works.. We are the ultimate noobs of purchasing a water craft and ANY information helps. I did a simple google search and still not getting the hang of it quite well

Is there an official inspection facility for water crafts/boats prior to purchasing? (sort of like a pre-purchase inspection checklist for used cars). Do i need to tow the boat to that facility or are they mobile? how does it work? what are the commen steps to look out for purchasing a used boat thats about 10 years old? your advice & input is greatly appreciated

If it's on a trailer just bring it to a boat shop and have them check it over. The engine, well it's just like any car engine. Look for rust, signs that they aren't cleaning the engine/boat after using it in salt water. Check the hull for scrapes and what not. See how clean it is. Most boat owners are super anal when it comes to keeping their shit clean and immaculate.

In my opinion. If the boat doesn't look like it came out of the detail room, I would walk away.

"If it fly's, fucks or floats, it's cheaper to rent"

I'm looking for my first boat as well actually. Your best bet is to take it to a shop and get it looked over. If you can get it in the water for a test run, that's also a great way to check things over.

If it's in the water, you need to get it out of the water and look it over. Don't buy anything you cant inspect properly.

Is it a fresh water only boat you are looking at? Or do you plan on taking it into saltwater?

Boats are a nightmare.

Functionally, boats are pretty simple.

Your main concern is the condition of the hull, is there any damage or rot?

Mechanicals: If it's an outboard there's not much to them besides gear oil and water impeller changes, spark plugs (engine oil if it's a 4-stroke)

If it's a sterndrive (inboard/outboard), especially a raw water cooled then the maintenance requirements increase tenfold.
If this is your first boat, I'd stay away from a sterndrive unless you have deep pockets or time to spend learning and working on it yourself.

One thing that a lot of people forget to consider is trailer maintenance. When you get into bigger boats (21'+) that need tandem axles and trailer brakes you are going to have to service that equipment as well . If you launch in salt water, expect to service your brakes (you'll have four sets of them) at minimum once a year .

I've got a 25' Thompson Carrera with the 5.7L Mercruiser. It's a fuckton more maintenance over the little 16' K&C thermoglass with 115hp 2-stroke johnson on it. However, I can go 25miles offshore fishing pretty comfortably in this boat, whereas you'd have to be suicidal to do it in a 16'. And V8 muscleboat sound for the win!

Bust
Out
Another
Thousand

^ Great advice.

My whole fathers side of the family are boat people. Mostly mechanics.

The advice i've received is to stay far away from I/O's. They seem simple, but cost can be extravagant. This is coming from my father who know's i'll try and tackle things on my own. His personal opinion is to go for an outboard.

I want a ski/wakeboard boat. He said the straight inboards are much better then your I/O. The direct drive/V drive are quite simple. Most of the older boats are easy to work on, but the new boats filled with electronics can be nightmares as well. Ballast systems can be a PITA, and make the boats hard to work on/access. Best piece of advice is to pickup the best maintained boat you can find.

Haha...even straight annual maintenance on an I/O is a pain in the ass. For the shop to do the engine and drive maintenance is about $1k, probably half a day's work if you do it yourself.

If it's an older boat you'd want to check the condition of the transom as well, if it has had any water ingress there could be trouble. Especially if it has a rotted wood core.

As the others have said, have a boat shop or marine surveyor check it out, it'll be worth the cost.

Q: What's it like owning a boat?
A: Stand under a cold shower and rip up $100 bills

If all you're doing is sticking to a calm lake, then inboard is definitely the way to go.

That's a really good point though, picking the correct type of boat for your intended purpose is very important.

Ok, so we came to a conclusion that we want to hire a professional inspector to go over the mechanics of the boat prior to purchasing. I've searched and called around and got referred to a few private watercraft mechanics with no real reviews. Do any of you guys know if there is an actual big time company that offers these type of services?

For example with used cars, people would bring it to TSS, Nixon Automotive, Dealerships etc. where they have a properly formatted inspection sheet, check list template which will be provided to potential buyers.

Having worked on boats most of my life, I can tell you, it's going to be a steep learning curve just owning it. Not just the maintenance factor, but boat safety, personal safety, etiquiette, how to read charts, proper use and training of communications devices, etc.

There are no brakes on a boat, lol. Mooring procedures, hidden costs, etc.

The vessels I've worked on were mainly commercial fishing boats - more wear and tear than your typical pleasure boat.

Anyway, you hadn't specified what type of boat. Is it wooden, fibreglass, ferro-cement, aluminum, etc. How big is it and can it be hauled away easily and stuff like that. Pics?

My uncle has a boat.. What a MONEY pit that thing is..

Geese. be prepared to spend money. Lots and lots of money.

Do you know where you're going to keep the boat when it's not in use? Do you have a place to park it? You can not park it on the street unless it is hooked up to a car.

He has a 18ft power boat and it's simply a money pit.

He has had it for over 10 years and regrets it every single day.

It was pretty fun when he first got it, we went boating, tubing, and crabbing. It was really really fun. But, after a couple years, we simply got bored of it. He probably takes it out on the water maybe 2 times a year.

On average, he says he spends about $600 on it per year.

Honestly, you guys should just rent the boat when needed. It's not worth it to buy a boat. Especially, if you are buying a used boat... You never know what real problems there are.

But, if you're buying a used boat, low ball them. Because most people that are selling are desperate

I'll find out which shop my uncle takes his boat to and report back to you.

It's somewhere on Clark I believe.

I found a boat for my family. Getting it inspected at Pitt Meadows Marine Services. He figured it would be $350 for the inspection, yikes. But they even launch it and go for a good joy ride. Since it's going to be split between my sister and I, it will give me sleep at night knowing someone else checked it over.

Am I the only that doesn't think this is much?

If you got into a boat and didn't think it was going to cost you any money, you should have done a little more research.

Are you looking at some sort of fishing boat, or something to sleep in?

If just a fishing boat. Go aluminum, its expensive but its low maintenance and holds it's value better than fiber boats.

I know a couple people who work, fix and live in the shipyards in Richmond if you want me to ask.

Lol, exactly. "I bought a car, but oh my gosh you have to change the oil...and tires, they WEAR OUT!"

I dunno, Dad does all his winterizing, oil changes and other maintenance on his boat himself, and it costs him very little annually. It's almost 30 years old, and looks brand new. No fading of anything. Care for them properly, and they'll last a long time.

While everyone always says boats are just money pits, most of the people i know have had excellent boats that have rarely required anything outside of regular maintenance and damage repairs

getting that good base is super important, a lemon is a lemon whether its a boat or car

I will say that Proximity/Ease of access to a good boat launch makes all the difference, especially to how much you'll find yourself using your boat.

Having to pack up and drive for an hour to the launch and compete with every other weekend boater sucks. As a kid, my dad would use his boat like twice a year.

With my boat on the island, it's a 5 minute drive for me to the launch, in the water in half an hour. We end up going out every other weekend in the Summer.

Buy a boat = instant friends!

If you're actually using it often, it's not bad. If you're only using it 1-2x a year, that's a lot compared to just renting and letting it be someone else's problem.

Yeah, like the other member said, $600 isn't that bad, but if you're only using it 1-2x per year, it's quite a lot.

It's also a pain in the butt to store. He's paying some guy $100/month to let it sit in his back car port.

He paid $26k for it, plus the $600 in maintenance, plus the storage, plus insurance, plus gas, etc. It adds up.

For that total amount of money, it's better to just rent, in his opinion.

--

On another note, I just heard back from him and he said the one place on Clark ripped him off, they over charged him and upsold him in his early days, so don't go to the one on Clark, he forgets the name.

He says he goes to " Galleon Marine" in Richmond now. The guys there are honest and true he says.

Goodluck !

If you have to pay a marine mechanic to work on your boat. Be prepared to pay a shit tonne of money every year for yearly maintenance and then even more when unexpected things break. I'm on my second boat and I've been lucky to be able to do all the work on my own. The most difficult thing I had to do was change a head and headgasket because my circulation pump pulley decided to quit out on my 4.3l alpha one. This season I spent about 2000 in parts and saved a couple thousand on labour. I actually thought about selling it, I'm so glad I didn't. Then my bearing for my trailer decided to fall apart shortly after fixing everything. That's how it is when you own a boat that isn't brand new.

Sorry to threadjack, but I have more boat questions.

I just bought my first boat, a 1990 Centurion Falcon. I’d post an offtopic build thread but photobucket killed that.

What taxes am I paying and do I actually own this thing yet?

I am doing a standard ICBC transfer form for the trailer, that is normal and I will pay PST on the value of the trailer.

My questions comes from the boat. I have a bill of sale with broken down prices of boat and trailer. I have applied for a pleasure craft license transfer. Is this correct, or should I be “registering” the boat? No where in this application process does it ask for value so I’m so confused about taxes. Anyone do this recently? The whole process is online now.

Anything else I need to do? It all seems so unofficial. Do you guys insure your boats? Remember this is a cheap boat for my family and friends to use. Wouldn’t be devasted if it sunk and we were now down the value of the boat.