Who's got the cheapest boat?

[inthedirtagain]

Ok, so we all know that a fella could go bankrupt purchasing/owning/restoring a boat. What I'm curious to know is how cheap that same fella could get, given the right circumstances. I'm not talking about a friend or relative GIVING you a boat, but honest-to-goodness purchases, trades, or ingenious repairs that have allowed you to play on the water. I'll go first and provide a good example:


1984 Invader 181BR with the OMC 3.0L and model 400 outdrive. A co-worker's family member was selling their boat because it slipped off the trailer (roller, not bunk) when the bow strap broke at the boat launch. It rolled off the back of the trailer (safety chain not attached) and the outdrive smacked onto the concrete, thus cracking the drive and snapping all four motor mounts off the stringers. Everything was supposedly functional, but the asking price was a low $300, including the trailer. I got it for $100. This price included a fish finder, bimini top, dual-batteries, stereo, new trailer tires, and a full tank of gas. The P.O. had already sealed up the cracked outdrive with JB weld when I picked it up. He fired it up on muffs to show that everything still worked. I bought some plate and 4in angle steel, as well as some grade-5 nuts/bolts, and went about chopping/welding up some new motor mounts. Including the purchase price of the boat, repairs, insurance, registration, and a few water toys found on Craigslist...........I'm into the entire package for less than $400. To make fishing better, I've been offered electric and gas trolling motors from family members who no longer fish. Score!!! We've yanked each other around the lake about 5 times now, and all repairs are holding up just fine. She's not the prettiest or the fastest on the lake, but I'm not complaining. Should do just fine until my wife finishes school and we upgrade in 2 years.

Tell us what you've got!

 

[smokeonthewater]

read the links in my signature...... nuff said

 

[inthedirtagain]

Good read, but the thread appears unfinished. Did you get the project done, and if so, what was your total price? Not including the reg/ins/toys, I'm into mine for about $120, including repairs.

 

[southkogs]

Mine's not too bad. Like Smoke - in 5 years I've only got about $5k into it including purchase price, repairs and gas. Not the common story, but not unheard of.

 

[greenbush future]

I bought a Smoker-Craft 16 foot tin with a running 40 Merc 2 stroke for $140.00, Found a $20.00 bill blowing in the wind as I pulled out of the trailer park, so my final cost was $120.00 LOL.
After removing about 3 rotted floors, and 10 pounds of stainless steel screws, I ended up selling a good running fishing boat for $2200.00
Been hooked on boat restoration ever since.

 

[Maclin]

My latest was $1,650, solid floors and hull and engine, water ready, needed nothing to run it on the water first time for an hour, got new battery later just for peace of mind. 1980 Glastron SSV167 16 foot Vee hull bowrider with 90HP Mariner, all original. Is in great condition, all seats original and still pretty, nothing missing, good gelcoat. I added a top for $150 is all so far. Looked for 3 years to find one like this. Getting too old and cranky to work on them anymore :grumpy: (but I will if needed, sigh).


P.S. Came with working and original to the boat (ski and fish model) trolling motor and bracket and foot control, gave all that to my brother as he fishes and I do not, and the bracket was taking up some bowrider room right at the front. I probably could have sold it for $150 for a net boat price of $1500. Maybe.

 

[Brian 26]

I like the thread, I have a good one although it's for a jet ski not a boat.

An ad came up on craigslist for a 2008 Yamaha jet ski and a 1996 Seadoo XP 800 on a double trailer. I text asking if he’d sell just the XP, he said yes but it needs work. I already have two but I'm a sucker for seeing these restored. A 5 minute phone call later I find out it’s the old story of ran last year but doesn't now, cranks over but doesn't fire. He has to bring it back from his cabin so I talked him into bringing it by my house, which I think is great because he’ll be fresh off an 8 hour drive and sick of dealing with jet skis.

I get home from picking my son up at school and the guy’s in the street in front of my house trying to get it jumped started off a jump pack. 10 minutes later we can’t get it started, cranks a little but won’t fire, it did crank enough for me to do a compression test, 155 +/- in each cylinder (cheap gauge). No beeps, VTS not working, rusty spark plugs and gray fuel lines (no surprises there). While I was looking it over the guy mentions something about “I’m so sick of this thing, I would have just taken it to the dump but they’d probably charge me”.

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]I really didn’t want to take on another project but the hull looked extremely clean which is rare for these and I figured it’s worth a low ball offer, if all else fails I knew I could sell it to my mechanic friend as a parts ski. I told him $300 and “it’ll be out of your life”. He took it without hesitation, looking back I probably could have got it for next to nothing.[/FONT]
I bring it into my garage and start by pulling the battery and find the guy had only finger tightened the bolts for the old battery that was in there. I took that one out and put a good one in, got two beeps, it fired right up and the VTS worked a working VTS box and motor are worth $250 on their own. All the gauges work and still look new which is rare for these. The guages alone are worth decent money. But it was running like crap so I pulled the carbs and old fuel lines, the internal filters were clogged here's the old one vs a new one so I thought I had found the problem to it running rough. Also did the rest of the usual stuff for these, VTS boot (old one was wide open), RAVE valves, oil lines, cleaned fuel selector, etc. But when I got everything back together it still ran rough and started hard. That was frustrating after doing all that work. After talking to my mechanic friend and checking a few things he mentioned, he suggested a new ignition coil. I got one from him for $50 and put that in and it runs perfect.

So for a $50 part the guy dumped the jet ski, didn’t even bother to wipe the dirt off before showing it to me. Grand total of $300 + $140 for carb kit +$50 for a used ignition coil and some time in the garage I have a coveted almost mint condition X4 delivered to me with all the gauges working, everything’s been done to it, computer says 83 hours, registration paperwork and if that’s not enough he bought 3 year tabs for it right before he sold it to me.

Funny story, after the deal is done and he's ready to leave the guy says "I have a spare key for that in my truck do you want it" Uhhhh you mean those keys that are $50 and have to be computer programmed to the machine with a programmer that dealers don't even have, no just throw that thing right in the garbage buddy. Yes I want the spare key.

 

[inthedirtagain]

Not bad, fellas.........keep 'em coming!


I bought a old Yamaha XS1100 from a fella at work because he thought the trans was going (hard 1-2 shifting). Bought it for $50, w/title, got it home and found that it needed a new clutch cable. So I got a full fairing, stereo, and saddle bag'd street cruiser for a grand total of $61. He wouldn't talk to me anymore after that.

 

[Maclin]

Inthedirt, what pitch prop did it come with :laugh:

J/K of course, what a deal. I had one of those brand new, 1979 I think now, awesome machine.

 

[Maclin]

Brian, good for you, I bet that is a pretty toy.

 

[Maclin]

Man, you guys with the free and $100 ones, crazy good deals for just some small parts budget and sweat, cool!

 

[redfury]

I'm still trying to get my 300 dollar hull floating...lol. 9 years later I finally have the bottom of the boat painted and am going to mate the top and the bottom back together again. Can't complain about my cash outlay though, the 125hp Force with new carbs and water pump for 500 that's going on it should make it all worthwhile.

 

[nitsuj]

Mines not quite as cheap as the rest of yours, but if we got by ratio of amount of boat vs. amount of money, I don't think I did bad. Few years back, 86 Bayliner 2550 cabin cruiser showed up on my local craigslist. Owner said first time he took it out, it started over heating, so he shut it down. He was convinced it needed a new engine. Hull and everything else was in good shape. I got it for $1400. Got it home, found it was beached and the block and manifolds were clogged with sand, and the PDS bearing was bad. Pulled the engine, replaced the PDS, and flushed the block and manifolds. Tons of sand came out. Put the engine back in and it fired right up and purred. Bonus, the boat is an 86, motor isn't the stock carbbed 5.7. It's a 96 fuel injected engine. So with the engine running, I set about some other small clean up, and PM on the drive. Then splashed it. Final tally: I got a 26', 9.5' wide beam boat, fully working galley, and manual head, sleeping for 6, new engine, rebuilt Volvo drive. Counting first years dockage I was in for less than $5000. Not likely the best deal on the site, but I've been pleased. BTW, 4 years later and I'm still using the boat with only routine maintenance.

 

[sublauxation]

When I found out we were having twins I put out the word that I needed a bigger boat. A couple weeks later a family friend called my dad saying his buddy had an 18 ft Aluminum Sylvan hull with a running 35 Merc and trailer that he'd sell for $350 if my dad was there in 1/2 hour. The guy was serious, it took my dad 45 minutes to get there so it ended up costing $400. The guy had gutted out the interior a couple years earlier and parked it in the garage, that day his wife told him it had to go immediately!

When my dad got home he went through the pile of pieces in the hull and found a couple really nice Cannon Downriggers. After selling the Merc and downriggers I was a couple hundred bucks ahead....until the restoration process began.

 

[john_g]

my current project is a dateline brought in June for a very quick and bad restore.. I already had an engine, in pieces, and a serviceable trailer..and steering etc..
Boat cost about £70 ($100?)
but a fair bit has been spent so far..
engine going back together in the next days...

will post some pics soon, but it may not be to everyones taste

John, Kent UK

 

[inthedirtagain]

As long as its sea worthy!

 

[bgeddes]

$50 12' aluminum V-hull. 1969 model. Only thing it needed was transom wood. Freebee plywood and a can of spar varnish and it's fixed. I'm in it for $70. A handful of motors (both gas and electric) in the garage capable of pushing it so on the water for less than a tank of gas.

 

[inthedirtagain]

Been awhile since I responded to this post, sorry about that. Went through some financial issues and the Missus is not happy with me. I ended up selling my almost free boat to pay bills. Kinda sucks because we only had it on the water about 6 times after I got it water ready. Still, I paid $100 for it, put another $20 into it, and sold it 3 weeks later for $1500. I'm not complaining.

Well, fast forward to last weekend and there's another boat sitting in my backyard! Visiting with extended family for vacation and my mom and grandmother tell me to take grandpa's boat home with us. His health rapidly declined about 5yrs ago, so it just sat in the shop. Since his passing 2yrs ago, no one else in the family was interested in it, so grandma says she wants me to have it. Sweet! Its a 1969 Silverline DeVille (16ft, closed bow) with the original Merc 1000 OB. Also came with a new suntop and side windows, new canvas cover, 2 sets of skis, 8 life jackets, a tow rope, Hummingbird fish finder, 4 fuel tanks (2-6gal, 2-12gal), and a 15hp Evinrude kicker. I'm planning on using my FIL electric troller and battery, so I've got the Evinrude up on Craigslist for $650. Seems a fair price. Had to put new tires on it to get home, but with the sale of the kicker, I'll be at a NEGATIVE $550. Can't complain about that!!!

 

[JaCrispy]

I paid $1600 for my 22' Imperial. It was running when I bought it but still needed alot of work. 95% labor and 5% cost. Seems I'm always buying gaskets, hoses, seals and tuneup stuff mainly. I think the biggest purchase was a replacement battery. "Break Out Another Thirty" in my case. lol