Please help me make a decision. 19' Century

[jejeosborne]

I am currently in search for our first family boat. One that has cought my eye is a 19' 1983 Century Sport XL 3000 open bow boat. This boat only has 330 hours and is in very good cosmetic condition. Had a compression test done and found all 8 cylinders to be between 100-125 psi. It has the mercruiser 260 5.7 liter engine. This boat is loaded with features such as a built in wine rack, cooler, new stainless prop and even a windshield wiper. Trailer is a nice tilting tandem also in very good condtion. I test ran the boat in the water and took it up to 45 MPH and it came out of the water quickly.

Now for the problem........ In the storage area on the starboard side, the floor was soft under the trim motor assembly. I proceed to poke around on the transom where the two meet and found a soft spot about 8" in diameter on the transom. The area around the engine is still solid and when bouncing on the lower unit I get no flexing. The other side and everywhere else is solid. It appears that this could be repaired without removing the engine and only removing the power stearing and trim motor.

I am pretty handy with construction and maintenance and don't mind a little elbow grease.

So.........Should I run like the wind and be scared or should I make buy it and make myself a winter weekend project? She has lowered the price to $2800 with the trailer. I am thinking the trailer, prop and engine is worth that?
Thanks for any help.
Jeff

 

[grahamh]

Re: Please help me make a decision. 19' Century

Honestly, unless you are looking for a project, I would walk away.

From what I understand, often once you get into replacing rotten wood, you find much more than you thought.

Just my thoughts though, i've never done it, so someone else may have more advice.

There are LOTS of boats from the 1980s and early 90s in this price range, so you can afford to be picky.

 

[RWilson2526]

Re: Please help me make a decision. 19' Century

25 PSI difference in compression readings is getting border line bad as well....not necessarily a deal breaker but it is more than 10% which is one rule of thumb and more than 21 psi which is another I have read....I agree $2800 for '83 is not a steal....Its hard not to fall in love with them when the seats and all are pristine especially when compared to the rest of the crap out there that people are trying to sell.....

Its a crapshoot really....a winters worth of work and you could have yourself a great boat and not having to do much cosmetic work like seats and such will save you a ton of cash at the end.....

sorry, not much help here....I guess my advice would be to look around some more and if its still the best you've seen go for it.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Please help me make a decision. 19' Century

A 26 year old boat with 300 hours on it tells me it's done nothing but sit most it's existance.

Every peice of rubber on the boat is dry rotted by now. Figure on replacing all the rubber (i/o bellows, fuel lines, etc.) on the boat as well.

 

[jejeosborne]

Re: Please help me make a decision. 19' Century

I appreciate all of the input and it sounds like I should continue my search. I have been searching hard for two weeks and have come up empty handed. I do want to get something somewhat soon so that I can run it a few times before it is time to winterize. Not because I am so desperate for a boat, but because I would like spend some time with the new purchase and determine what needs to be adjusted and spruced up over the winter.

Let me add that all the rubber and seals have been replaced and there are no leaks. The previous owner owned a marina which makes me believe that the maintenance was done professionally. They were the only owner for the life of the boat. Let me add that it includes all covers including a camping cover and there appears to be absolutely nothing else that is wrong or that doesn't work.

I am not afraid of putting 40 or so hours of my labor into fixing a boat, but I don't want to put and additional $3000 worth of parts in a $3000 boat. A "small" transom repair to me appears to be something I could do myself for little money. I just don't want to open a can of worms and it be worse that I am currently thinking.

SOME ONE TELL ME I AM NUTS!
Jeff

 

[RWilson2526]

Re: Please help me make a decision. 19' Century

you're not nuts.....like I mentioned earlier its unbelievable the crap that people are trying to sell these days....sounds like a cherry with exception of the issues you mentioned. To add new canvas to another boat (and canvas is SWEET) would cost you thousands.....maybe give it one more look over...really tear into as much as the owner will let you....remove some seats and get a good look and be as confident as you can that the rot is limited to that area.....not that you want to throw away $3k but if you are in a position that losing 3K wont bankrupt you go for it...if you can patch it up , get a few years out of it, develop a sense for what you like and dont like about the boat....sell it a few years down the road or part it out like you said in a worst case scenario and you got a few years of boating for a 1k or 2k....


I always thought that minor boat rot was hugely blown out of proportion anyway....of course a really bad transom is dangerous as the outdrive can rip out of it and sink you but from what you describe the boat could be used for a very long time and be fine even the way it is....there's tons of boats out there being used everyday with bad stringers and floors and its not like you see them sinking all around you.

this is all just my opinion, and what the hell do I know

 

[salty87]

Re: Please help me make a decision. 19' Century

if you've looked around and you like this boat, throw a low-ball at her.

sounds to me like they have ownership goggles on. a 26 yr old boat with 330 hours never really got used...13 hours per year on average. the concerns about hoses and seals dry-rotting is true, include bellows, exhaust, tires on the trailer...they're probably thinking to themselves that the boat has lots of life in it because they barely used it, doesn't really work that way. things don't like to just sit for long periods of time, especially in a marine environment if it was kept at a marina.

have you looked around the restoration section? grinding fiberglass and removing rotten wood is a nasty job but not without its rewards. i think you should expect to set aside at least $1k for transom repairs. rot is always worse than it looks.

let's see a pic

 

[Backyardhockey]

Re: Please help me make a decision. 19' Century

Within two years you will probably be replacing the ENTIRE floor and transom. Been there. Not fun. Are you up to pulling the engine out in your backyard? The whole thing is a huge DIY or $3K if you find cheap labor. Of course you run this risk with any older boat. If you like it and can really low- ball it.....

 

[RotaryRacer]

Re: Please help me make a decision. 19' Century

Take this from someone who hasn't been able to use his boat all summer b/c he lacks to motivation to get a "simple" transom repair complete.

If you want a project and don't mind working on the boat make a low ball offer and see what they say.

If you want to use a boat this fall and early next spring find one that you can be sure doesn't have any rot.

Now, to contradict myself. Rot isn't always worse than it seems. On my boat I had a lot more solid, dry, virgin, undamaged wood in the transom than rotten wood. Strangely that is half the reason I haven't been able to get it done. To repair a transom "right" really requires removing all the wood so that it can be replaced with solid continuous pieces. There is no appropriate patch repair that can be done for the area that is damaged on this boat. If it were around the outdrive hole you could use seaca$t ($$) to make an ok repair. With what you describe I think you will need to replace the whole transom.

 

[tmh]

Re: Please help me make a decision. 19' Century

Many here have "been there, done that" on the rot issue - no fun while you're doing it, but as was said, somehow rewarding when done. That one almost for sure has rotten floors, transom and stringers somewhere. A BIG job to fix but can be done if you want.

It's worth very little $$$ though - 27 year old boat, older 19' bowriders are selling for next to nothing in this market. Wine rack and wiper add zippo, IMO.

 

[allpoints360]

Re: Please help me make a decision. 19' Century

Mmmmm, let's see... it's a 26 year old boat with soft spots in the deck and transom, the engine has compression issues, the "marina owner" owner has only put 330 hours on the boat in nearly 3 decades and they are willing to drop the price to only $2800?

How many red flags do you need?

Old saying' "The two happiest days of a boat owner's life are the day he buys the boat and the day he sells the boat."

Good luck!

 

[Dr. Boat Master]

Re: Please help me make a decision. 19' Century

Repairing rot can vary greatly in difficulty depending on where it is in the boat.

You said that it is in the storage area and the transom. I would bet that it is also in the stringers as it sounds like there have been some fairly good leaks in the fiberglass. Is the floor connected to the storage box with fiberglass? If so, you may have to cut the storage box apart to fix the floor under it. Once you decide to fix the transom, it only makes sense to check the stringers for rot. You would not want to put all the time into fixing the transom and the floor only to find out the stringers are rotted too.

My opinion is that you should reduce your decision to 1. buy the boat real cheap and risk the rot, or 2. keep shopping; there are plenty of boats out there.

Good luck!

 

[nitsuj]

Re: Please help me make a decision. 19' Century

I'd walk. For that age and price range there are lots of deals to be had. You say you've been looking for 2 weeks, don't be discouraged. 2 weeks is nothing to find the right boat. Prepare to look for months. You can find much older boats than that in better shape. And much newer ones in worse shape. Deals are out there, you just need to be careful. It's easy to get sucked in and excited by a test ride.

You're right when you say the trailer engine and outdrive are probably worth the purchase price. But that is faulty logic that sellers use all the time. Do you have another boat that needs a trailer, engine and outdrive that all those parts will fit on? If not, you don't really need parts, so they are of no value to you. I guess you could pull the engine and outdrive and set them on the trailer in your driveway, but it would be tough to water ski behind. I had one guy try to sell me a beat up old boat for $2000 because it had a good engine in it, and he figured the engine was worth the asking price since I could pull it and use in a truck. I informed him that I don't have a truck or a boat needing an engine, so while it may be worth 2 grand to someone, it wasn't worth 2 grand to me. All that boat would have needed was $1200 manifolds, a floor, transom and seats and it would have been ready to go. Thanks but no thanks.

Keep looking, in that price range, the boats are out there.