Re: 1989 celebrity 19 SE......LOOKING AT BUYING
Yeah, that boat is 24 yrs. old. Lots of time for neglect to happen and rot to spread.
If this is a 1 owner boat and has always been kept trailered and garaged it might be worth the asking price, but those kind of boat and owners are rare.
A popular trick with boat sellers to unload an old rotten boat at a good price for them is to throw new plywood down on top of the old rotten decking and stringers, then install new carpet to make it look spiffy and they call it "restored" or with a "new floor". Check inside the ski locker and around the motor well for 2 layers of plywood decking, if there's 2 layers instead of only 1 you should leave right then.
Take the boat for a test drive out on the water, but before launching pull the bilge plug with the boat on the ramp and see if any water comes out (there shouldn't be any water in there). Stay out for as long as you can on the test drive and when you get back to the ramp and pull the boat out of the water pull the bilge plug again to check for water... there shouldn't be any then either.
Even with doing all this stuff, there's still a chance the boat could be a rotter... it's a big roll of the dice when buying a fiberglass boat that has that many years on it.
You should drop down to the restoration forum and read some of the restoration threads to give you a better idea of what to look for. You just can't be too careful when buying an old fiberglass boat and we see many people on this forum get burned doing it every year.
