cobia sportdeck tree damage, need help

stang32

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 16, 2004
Messages
513
I had a tree land on my boat this winter, 96 cobia sportdeck, it landed diagnally, from left rear to right front, it bent up the railings but good but no severe crushing, just bent them. also damaged the head station/helm which is molded into the body, not removeable, for all who are not familiar with this boat.
the insurance company wants to total it & offered me 1st right of refusal, i can buy it back for 1000 bucks.
& fix it at my leasure,
it is a 4.3 I/O.
I am up in the air as to fixing it or getting rid of it, my thing is, just last summer i bought the boat, replaces all the hoses/bellows in the gimabal assy, gimbal bearing, shift cable & engine coupler as well as flushed out the trim pump/replaced solenoids, & tuned it up, only to find out the engine was beat. I picked up a replacement engine & was building it up in my garage when this incident happened.
so I have a rebuilt 4.3 vortec motor ready to drop in.... or sell.
my wife feels the boat is jinxed & I should get rid of it & start new, my feeling is, I spent so much time doing all this stuff, only to get rid of it & start over w/someone elses money pit is a real waste. the damage to the helm i can repair if I really wanted to , I have done body work & built kit cars(fiberglass) so I know what that intails although making it match the gelboat is going to be tough. the railings have no access points to unbolt them, so i would have to cut holes behind the seats to access the screws & repair them. I would also need to bend the railings back or find someone who can.

the insurance company is giving me 10k - 250 deductible so i would walk away with 9750.00 + the trailer + the rebuilt vortec motor.
or i can buy the boat for a grand & still have 8750 to fix the boat at my leasure, through the rebuilt engine in & work on the fiberglass as the summer progresses. as for the railings, they can wait till next fall.
what would you do?
 
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