sold a boat and it busted!

[country_bumpkin]

Okay, give you the nitty gritty if asked, but very simply I listed my boat on Craigslist in Nasvhille, some young guy in Knoxville (about 180 miles away) saw it and desperately wanted it. Sight unseen (there were pictures on the listing).

oh, here is the listing:http://nashville.craigslist.org/boa/366922720.html

He sent me 100 on paypal to secure the transaction.

I met him yesterday with my wife and daughter to complete the deal. We took him out, showed him the ropes, pushed the boat to the limit, had my daughter (13) ski behind it, and then gave him the boat.

He signed a bill of sale that specifically said this boat is sold " as is, no
warrantys"


Now, I have had this boat for 2 years, it's run great, aside from one tachometer problem, which I discussed on this forum.

It ran great yesterday, on his test run....................

NOW! I get a call from his mother today, saying it threw a rod (or just blew up) she says they took it out for 2 hours today and I'm responsible. They want to pull the boat back to me and have me refund their money in full!

I'm going to leave my reactions out of this for awhile, but what should I do?

I just bought a sailboat, in anticipation of selling this boat.....and needed the money to pay for my daughters tution...(yes, seriously was counting on it).


I'm sure this happens all the time in life with boats, cars, builidings etc....I'm just at a loss.........I feel for them, but...........what responsiblity do I have?

 

[lime4x4]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

one word NONE.. The boat worked great for his test run and he took the boat after the test run and on the bill of sale u had no warranty and being sold as is.Also how do u know this guy didn't have it full throttle for a solid 2 hours? Or doing full forward throttle to full reverse throttle.It's the chance u take when u buy a used boat.the samething could happen buying a used car or electronic device.As long as u know the boat was working perfect prior to it leaving your possesion i wouldn't worry about it.

 

[karma_2@charter.net]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

Yep, he's screwed. Pretty much either really bad luck on his part, or he mis-treated the boat when he took it out and blew it up himself. He'll never admit that though.
Even if he takes you to court, he has no case. You went further than most people do in showing him everything works.
I'd feel bad for him too, but just tell him you are sorry and there's nothing you can do.

 

[ziggy]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

Mercruiser 488-this is an inline 4 cylinder engine.

you've already been educated. they should have known better than top buy this package, their loss, yer gain...ya did good.......man, that's a cold statement, but i've been on the recievein end too. sorry no symathy...

 

[Bondo]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

He signed a bill of sale that specifically said this boat is sold " as is, no warrantys"

Ayuh,...........

That seems Very Clear to Me...................

 

[EricR]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

First off, does he have pictures or an estimate from a mechanic to show you or is he just fishing for money? Look, sorry to hear it blew, but he could have over revved the snot out of the thing, run it low on oil, anything! I don't think the 170/488 etc family of engines are "bad" any more than another engine is "bad". Friend of mine has twin 170's in an early 80's SeaRay. Another has one in a 19' 1979 Baja that sat for ten years and had the engine stuck solid. It freed up and ran the next day.

If you really feel bad, maybe offer him $500 towards the repairs or something. But honestly, you owe him nothing and he hasn't a leg to stand on in court if he goes that route.

By the way, that was a SWEET looking boat, I loved the woodwork.

 

[Bigprairie1]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

......"his mother called". Well, nothing that ever starts with that on behalf of a young man who, the day before, is old enough to pilot a one ton boat could ever end well. "Hi this is Tommy's Mom, I'm calling about the boat you sold him"...."click" (comes to mind).
He is out luck. Private purchases are buyer beware. If he needed or wanted a warranty he should have bought a new bought.
Your paper trail made it quite clear. You showed excellent intent and honest follow through by taking him out for a test ride. You owe this guy nothing but good luck. Perhaps you can suggest how he can take it on as a repairable project and offer him some mechanical and parts sourcing advice. Seems to work for the rest of us.

 

[jjay74]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

That really sucks for BOTH parties involved! One of my friends just went through the EXACT same thing!

He purchased a 2005 Sea Doo Bombardier Utopia 185 from an individual. He went up to the marina for the test drive and everything tested good. The individual that he purchased the boat from gave him the full history of the boat.

Well, the very next day, we went out on the Alabama River and she lasted for about 45 minutes before shutting down. There was no horseplay involved, no overrevving the engine, etc.. No alarms, no lights, no warning period. Shut off and wouldn't crank. Long story short, the engine was pulled hoping that the impeller bearing on the jet foot went out, but he wasn't that lucky. The plastic ring on the crankshaft that drives the oil injection pump was broken. The block is now at the machinist shop getting bored and new sleeves installed. Going to be an expensive adventure to say the least.

He did call the previous owner, but for different reasons. He wanted to find out if the jet foot was ever worked on (still hoping the impeller bearing was locked up) and if so, when? The previous owner felt terrible about the situation, but they both agreed that the sale was made "as is" and in good faith. Life deals bad hands every now and then, but all you can do is belly up to the table and keep on playing.

 

[6228SH]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

taking him out to let him try it is proof enough to me that you had no idea it was going to fail-even if someone knows the are unloading a time bomb on someone else, on used stuff between private partys once money changes hands it's theirs.if I were on his side,I'd be mad but not at you-just at circumstance.if I were you,I'd feel terrible but I'd get over it.if the money went to my kids,I'd get over it faster.my 2 cents.

 

[scb2377]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

Even if you sell somthing "as is", you MUST disclose everthing that you know is wrong with the boat. Unless you do that, and they can prove you purposefuly witheld information, they might have a claim against you. Otherwise, it is just bad luck for him.

 

[studlymandingo]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

My guess is: Young kid buys older I/O, wants to see just how fast it will go, drives I/O around for two hours revving well over max RPMs, motor blows, tells mommy, mommy calls says you better give my baby his money back cuz he's all upset!!!​

 

[Silvertip]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

The young man should have noted oil pressure and water temperatures which would have given a clue if there was an engine problem. I'm with the others -- he saw the boat, agreed to its condition, and left. I had two instances like this -- one with a car and one with a boat. The boat story is funny enough to relate here. This was a HiRyder Tri Hull with a Johnson outboard. I sold the boat to my neighbors boss. About two months later my neighbor began quizzing me about the condition of the transom and that it "broke". I said tough, get it fixed and don't bother sending me the bill. A few weeks later he pulled up with the rig to show me the nice repair job. The engine had not been reinstalled yet and was laying in the boat. The first thing I looked at was the prop. It was folded over on all three blades and obviously struck something pretty hard as a chunk of the skeg was also missing. So I played detective and began quizzing the neighbor about where this happened, etc. My last question was "who was driving?" My neighbor said what's that got to do with this. I pointed at the engine and said "does that look normal to you?" End of conversation! Turns out the son had the boat and later confessed to hitting a rock. I suspect something similar happened in this case.

 

[reelfishin]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

The way I see it, AS-IS means AS-IS, no warranty. he had the opportunity and responsibility to inspect that boat before making the purchase. The boat ran fine on the test drive, and you have no way of knowing how he ran it or what he may have done to cause the problem, so it's his baby now.

Unless there was something that was done to hide or cover up a problem or to not disclose a defect, I don't see where he has any recourse other than to have his mommy call for him. He may be able to file a claim in small claims court but I would fight it all the way. (That will depend on your local laws there).
My guess is that he wasn't happy with the 35 or so miles per hour that that boat will do and hammered it all day till it popped. I've been around motors and machine work all my life, small inline 4 cylinders are pretty hard to blow up without some serious abuse, so I would be very suspect of any story that said "It just blew up". Motors tend to give good warning before throwing a rod, either a loss of oil pressure or knock long before it lets go. So even if it did fail, unless he was running it full bore, it would have given him some sort of warning, to which any intelligent driver would heed and cut cut the engine to prevent further damage.

There's more to the story than your getting. ... but... If you are at all inclined to take the boat back, I would inform him that you will take action against him for any damage done if it shows that it was abused, and make it very clear to him that such damage will be evident. Chances are he'll go away. If the motor was just rebuilt, is there any warranty remaining on it? If so, will the re-builder honor the warranty for a new owner? I would be diplomatic about it, but nothing more.
If you wish, you could contact the re-builder or simply pass on the info to him and tell him sorry, but it ran fine when you bought it and that it's never been and make it clear that it is a used boat that was sold AS IS with no warranty.

There is no way I would eat the cost of the repair, let alone take the boat back, the bottom line is that a deal is a deal and you clearly stated it was sold AS-IS.

 

[Mano del Sol]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

I agree with everyone else. If everything you say is true and complete then they are doo-doo out of luck IMO.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

I agree with the others. As Is means that. WIth a test run everything worked. What he did with it afterwards is his due to his own ignorance. Sounds to me he "Free Rev'd" it to cause the rod to break.

There are many repairs that have been done due to the lack of knowledge of the inexperienced owner.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

let the buyer beware. common law.

 

[Dakota47]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

Thats his bad luck. tell his mommy to go jump in a lake. whats she doing calling you anyways. a deal is a deal, as is means your buying it as you see it, NO REFUNDS.. Just be nice and say sorry i sold it as is no refunds...

 

[country_bumpkin]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

Thanks for all the input. I feel the same way, bad luck.

Several things stick in my mind:

1) The boat was running great when we closed the deal (as it had the past two years that I owned her!)

2)As noted in many of your posts, I have no idea of how he operated it on his lake yesterday!

My guess is: Young kid buys older I/O, wants to see just how fast it will go, drives I/O around for two hours revving well over max RPMs, motor blows, tells mommy, mommy calls says you better give my baby his money back cuz he's all upset!!!​

Now there may be some truth to this paragraph. He was a young guy, he had just sold his motorcycle to buy a boat. In addition the tachometer did not work. That was noted in the Craigslist ad, and also pointed out to him on the water.

One more thing I did mention to him was that I had never replaced the raw water impeller. I explained to him what it did and that I had read on this forum that it should be done every 2-3 years. I had the boat for 2 years and if I were going to keep her I would replace it next year.

I did not tell him to baby the boat, but that is what I did (I realized the boat was 20 years old). I would constantly watch the oil pressure and water temp., warm her up gently, ease her up to speed. Each time before I went out I checked the oil, water, cables, air pressure in the tires....it was like a pre-game ritual that took an hour. I kept her clean and covered.....

I feel terrible, but really don't know the extent of the damage at this point. If he has a mechanic look at it and gets an estimate I may offer him a few hundred toward any repairs.

 

[tommays]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

Looking at your add the boat is very well kept and you should NOT be held libal for owner error


MANY new boaters destroy brand new boats with mistakes


Tommays

 

[tmh]

Re: sold a boat and it busted!

No way to ever find out what really happened that caused the problem. The fact that his mommy made the call tells me he's not admitting to something. Let's see......young man.....had a motorcycle....sold it for an old boat......now THAT is a set-up that is just looking to end bad!

Obviously, you didn't try to screw the dude, so they have no right demanding anything. You could help him find the problem maybe but it's not local so that's a problem. Pay him some back? Nah....now YOU get screwed, unless you feel he paid way over market price for the boat, then MAYBE just to make your conscience clear.