DCBD
Senior Member
Geesh. What a sad situation if true. Both Dave and Eric have good points....that is that you can afford to spend some money on these boats and still recover a good part of your investment, especially if you do the work yourself. It would be a shame to loose one. As far as I know, 98 out of the 99 built are still around. One burned in a marina fire several years ago. The hull is an uncompromised full displacement but is not built for blue water assumptions. I know a lot more about tearing apart these boats then I do behavoir in blue water so I'll yield to my more savvy cruising colleagues. However, I do think the Manatee's limitation in rough seas has a lot more to do with its high helm position (wear and tear on the pilot) than vessel capability.
In all fairness to the boat, this guy was looking to import the boat into Canada, so 9.5% tax because it was built outside of the Nafta agreement, 7.5% Provincial Tax plus 5% Federal Tax. Plus he was going to have it shipped up here using one of those delivery ships. No idea what that would cost but not cheap I bet. So he was probably spending $30,000 just to get it into Canada. At the time the owner was looking to get $118,000 for the boat. If the price is right it could be worth it but go into it with both eyes open.
There are no problems that time and money can't solve.