Re: New boat owner too
What the mechanic was thinking was, "he'll never get his money back and this boat isn't worth (the money)"
And from that perspective he is correct! However, most of us MFGers don't own our boats and fix them because it is going to make a profit. We do it because we want a cool, old, strong, nice handling boat, and we buy them cuz they don't cost much.
Basically you will probably fix your boat for far less money than buying a fairly new runabout, but you should fix the old one cuz you want to. If you plan on keeping a cool old boat around it is definitely worth fixing it. I love it when someone all excited buys some old Bayliner for $3500 and then spends $3000 "fixing" it only to have it crap out the next year. When you fix yours, not only do you have basically no up-front investment, but it will likely go for YEARS at low to no cost other than routine and obligatory maintenance.
My two cents as usual
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