The one?

Hi All. Been lurking for a while =) Curently have a Pearson 31-2 but wife and I are ready to make the switch. a 40' Present Trawler "Presented" herself to us and we have a survey lined up this week. She is beatiful and huge! Pros: Glass decks, great layout, fun name (I dont rename boats lol) and really great price. Cons: Steel tanks, and a couple leaky windows (not much wood damage tho). As long as survey doesnt turn up anything other than the tanks, I will be joining the ranks here

Welcome and good luck with your survey!

Good luck, Sailor. Let us know how the survey plays out.

Welcome aboard. So, what's the name??

"Bar Hopper" sounds like a fun name to me:


1981 Present Trunk Trawler Power Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

Diesel Duck 492 said:

"Bar Hopper" sounds like a fun name to me:


1981 Present Trunk Trawler Power Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

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Good thing your not likely to go to Canada with that name.
They are really negative on boats and boos.

LOL. Nope, she is not listed online. If fact, its hard to even find pictures of a similar boat online. I will fix that lol. The boat's name is Mistress and my wife says that its the only one I am allowed to have ;-)

Welcome to the forum.....hope all goes well on the survey. Get someone who loves their moisture meter.

Welcome aboard, and I'll add another "good luck" on the survey! Let us know how it turns out for you............and of course..............PICS!

Cons: Steel tanks,

Steel tanks are no problem if properly installed and kept dry outside.

No visible rust? sleep we;ll.

Fair Point FF. It's really hard to see them behind the false wall. Will get a better look tomorrow.

Thanks to all for the good vibes. I will get some pics to share tomorrow =)

Awesome!
Good luck with the survey.

Look forward to hearing about it and eventually seeing pics of your new boat.

LOL. Would you say its a bad sign when the surveyor doesn't finish the survey?

Terms like: death by 1000 cuts, strongly advise against it and the bilge is "funky"

So sad =(

That happened to me also.
It was the wrong boat for us and the surveyor told us so, before he even pulled the boat out of the water.

Not only that, he had been recommended by the seller's broker.

We've had nothing but good luck with both brokers and surveyors.

You'll find the right boat soon.

I thought that was very respectable on his part. He said once he decided that he could not recommend us buying the boat, he simply stopped so we wouldn't have to pay for the whole survey. Probably saved me (and took out of his pocket) $500.

I love the boating community

.....The search continues

Good luck with the search. Our last boat was a Pearson 303. Loved that boat and miss sailing in silence, but the extra room, comfort and weekend range that comes with our current boat certainly lessened the pain of watching our Pearson sail over the horizon without us.

Interesting report, Sailor. What did the surveyor name as the most serious deal killers?

Blissboat said:

...What did the surveyor name as the most serious deal killers?

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I`d say it was that anchor.
Though it cost you some $ and time, you learnt more, and your surveyor sounds a fair man. Keen to hear what he found.

Sorry for the lag. Was on a 10 day trip in and around Narragansett bay. Prudence, Point Judith for the 4th (GREAT SPOT) Block Island for 5 nights and a night in Wickford. Batteries: recharged!

So he called it death by 1000 cuts. He felt that there was a lot of small things and the big one with the tanks. He did not complete the report. He said that every window was actively leaking, That leaking of course lead to a fair amount of interior wood damage. Much of it laminate, that would need to be replaced not refinished. He couldnt find a seacock that would operate. There was a milk jug collecting fuel from somwhere. I talked to him more and he said that its not over the cliff yet but if I couldnt do much of the work myself it wasnt worth it in his opinion. I told all that to the sellers and they knocked another 30% off the price lol. He is going to finish the survey on Thurs, with me there. He had kinda scared me away at first but at this price I am still considering it. My wife and I sanded and painted the topsides of the sailboat 2 summers ago and it came out great. We got some skillz ;-)

SailorFromRI said:

He felt that there was a lot of small things and the big one with the tanks. He did not complete the report. He said that every window was actively leaking, That leaking of course lead to a fair amount of interior wood damage. Much of it laminate, that would need to be replaced not refinished. He couldnt find a seacock that would operate. There was a milk jug collecting fuel from somwhere. I talked to him more and he said that its not over the cliff yet but if I couldnt do much of the work myself it wasnt worth it in his opinion. I told all that to the sellers and they knocked another 30% off the price lol. He is going to finish the survey on Thurs, with me there. He had kinda scared me away at first but at this price I am still considering it. My wife and I sanded and painted the topsides of the sailboat 2 summers ago and it came out great. We got some skillz ;-)

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Guess the important thing now is how you want to use the boat. If you want to use it to work on, then that is one thing. I'm not being facetious with that, since some people do indeed get a whole lot of joy out of just working on their boat. But if you want to use it to get out on the water and enjoy in the traditional way, then you might want to really give it some serious though. And by the way, if the seller dropped it 30% that quick, he will drop it more, I would strongly suspect.

jwnall said: "And by the way, if the seller dropped it 30% that quick, he will drop it more, I would strongly suspect."

Concur. Whatever the sales price winds up being, for any boat, it's always just the beginning. In order for low purchase price to offset deferred maintenance, repairs and restoration, a buyer should expect to recover that investment through long, happy days of using the boat. That money is unlikely to come back to you on resale.

When the surveyor finishes, he'll (presumably) provide a cost estimate to address the boat's unmet needs. A pragmatic strategy: add that to the purchase price, put a value on your time, and then take a good leisurely look around at what else is available for that money. If this boat be "the one," you'll know it in your gut then, but you won't be depending entirely on your gut.

Bon chance, and please keep the updates coming!

Sounds to me like emotion and rationalization is getting in the way of good decision making. Death by 1,000 cuts means financial disaster. Don't walk away, run as fast as you can. There's another boat waiting for you. Howard

All fair points. Im sure that there is a little bit of emotion involved. We love the layout of this boat. It's perfect for how we want to use the boat. I feel like its worth the price of the survey to have ALL the info and make a decision from there. The boat has a lot of upside imo. I really like the factory glass decks. It has twin fords with low hours and obviously twins are better than single (haha jk ). The boat happens to be in the boat yard that we keep our boat (no hauling etc). As for the price. It is literally 1/4 of the lowest comp that the surveyor found. To me that means that even if I had to put double or triple the purchase price in to it I would still be in a reasonable place. My wife is a school teacher (read: summer boat slave) who used to be a union construction worker. She loves to work on boats. Im pretty handy in mechanics, wood, and just took up sewing. (Made a bimini for the sailboat and it came out darn good if I do say so lol) So bottom line: Windows and seacocks, we have that in our bag of tricks. If the tanks do need replacement, we can swing that np. That would mean we end up with a trawler we consider perfect that has no leaky windows, no leaky decks, low engine hours and brand new gas tanks. All for maybe than half of the lowest "sold" price of this model boat. Am I way off?

I really appreciate all the comments and guidance. This board is awesome.

Blissboat said:

jwnall said:

Concur. Whatever the sales price winds up being, for any boat, it's always just the beginning. In order for low purchase price to offset deferred maintenance, repairs and restoration, a buyer should expect to recover that investment through long, happy days of using the boat. That money is unlikely to come back to you on resale.

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I totally agree. We plan to eventually retire on to this (or another) boat. We figure we have the next 15 years to really get it where we want. =)

If you continue on with this boat, I would have the surveyor come back do a complete survey and sea trial then take the survey call local yards and get several estimates to resolve all issues brought up on the survey, then add 30% for uh oh's. After that, if it doesn't give you a heart attack then go for it, but negotiate the price from those numbers.

SailorFromRI said:

Am I way off?

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Maybe, maybe not. I am rather curious about the black iron tanks. You say the decks are factory glass but apparently moisture got to the tanks anyway. Are you certain about the decks?

It kind of reads like the survey will be completed without a sea trial. So, how do you know what kind of condition the engines are in? They could be as stuck as the seacocks.

Sounds like you and the mate are looking for a project so this might work out fine. I know a couple who bought a sailboat 15 years ago. They have sailed it 3 times and have worked on it almost every weekend. It was a beautiful boat. They sold it (maybe I should say gave it away for a small pittance) and bought another slightly larger sailboat for twice as much. Yep, they sailed it once and are working on it almost every weekend. Allegedly, some day REAL SOON NOW they will retire and sail away.....errr, if they don't decide to do more work on it.

Some folks are just gluttons for punishment....no accusation intended.

I am sure about the decks. I am not sure about the tanks. They could be totally fine. (every once in a while even a blind squirrel finds a nut? lol) Surveyor said there was a milk jug collecting diesel but didnt know where it was coming from. I think that might have been what sent him running lol. Water could come in from fill fittings that need to be re-bedded. Im taking it one step at a time. He is going to finish the survey on Thursday. If he doesn't find anything else major, then I will move on to an engine survey and sea trial. No point in arranging those if the hull is full of blisters etc.

I guess that is the whole point. Until he finishes up the survey, I just dont have enough info to decide to continue or move on

By ignoring the obvious faults and surveyor advice, you could end up with a vessel that is an even more difficult sale to the next potential buyer. Unless of course you put considerable money into it likely exceeding the cost of a proper vessel purchased initially.

Then there is the time factor, are you wanting to be a rebuilder or a boater? Have a friend who is going through this exact thing on his 28 year old President 43. Invested $$ so far exceed the purchase price and still climbing.

Here's the basic truth

Buy the boat that you like in the best condition for the least amount of money you can find.Unless your looking for an expensive hobby project don't think you can save money with a bargain boat that needs repair. Every repair you make will cost you more to do than finding a boat that doesn't need that repair and paying for in the purchase price. Whether it resin, screws, wire , wood , or hose your going to be paying far more for it than than buying a boat that doesn't need that repair. I have been working on boats for dreamers that end costing them far more than they ever dreamed. Don't get caught up in the the I can fix this and I can fix that and she can do this syndrome. Unless you both agree that the project boat is the recreation your looking for don't get fooled into thinking your going to get your particular dream boat at a bargain. You may end up, if your talented, with your dream boat, but it won't be a bargain. I work on these dreams all the time. Only I get paid to do it.