Checking batteries during pre-purchase surveys

[psneeld]

You are reviewing your purchase and want to know as much about the boat as you can possibly learn. In the end you will either accept the condition or reject it. But.......
“ I see one cylinder head is painted differently from the rest of the motor”. “ was there head work?”
Oh yeah I forgot to mention I had an overheat last year and blew a gasket.
1. Who did the work?
2. Was the repair just a gasket?
3. Did you deck the head?
4. How much did you deck the head?
5. What thickness head gasket did you use?
6. Did you do a valve job?
In this regard I do not agree with “who cares”. These are important questions that effect the current, and future operation of the boat.
Knowing as much as you can is fun, prepares you for the future, and in this purchase tells you a lot about who you are buying your boat from.

Big difference in "who cares" about maybe $1000 worth of batteries which many would replace anyhow....and possible engine work on a $500,000 boat and who knows what engines.

And wow...I keep all receipts too....OF current stuff. Every receipt???? including stuff that no longer is on the boat or has been replaced?

Records and receipts might tell you something...not a guarantee...any more or less than a lck thereof.

 

[ksanders]

If and when I sell my boat, photos of my had written maintenance log books will be available electronically, and a copy will be left on the boast for inspection by prospective buyers.

Good log books are a selling tool, as well as a great took for the owner for tips and tricks to do things, part numbers of things replaced, even clean painted performance Vs dirty hull performance.

 

[Kawini]

Again, I want to thank everybody for weighing in with their opinions. It’s really helpful and encouraging to have lots of intelligence and experience out there, and I appreciate the sharing.

Here’s the thing: this is a boat that the owner has lavished with love - but not so much with $$$$. I’m not going to blame him or condemn him or judge him. I know nothing about his personal finances, and maybe love was all that he had to give.

For obscure reasons that are probably irrational (sorry guys!), I prefer not to identify the boat now. (It’s a private sale; not on YW.) I can say, however, that it’s an unusual floor plan on a make and model that we like very much, and that we’ve chartered before. The more-or-less unique layout makes it hard to pass on this one, and move on to the next.

Still, I’m trying to keep my wits about me as we move forward with the transaction. My partner, less so. He is pretty determined to get this boat. Not necessarily hell or high water, but pretty close. His view is that we will be well informed once we get the eyeballs of the surveyors on the boat. We’re having a general survey and mechanical survey. The surveyors are well recommended, and I have confidence that they will do as good a survey in their one day as any surveyors could do.

For me, however, the apparent lack of $$$ spent on the boat simply gives me pause. Yes, I realize that batteries are a relatively small item. At bottom, it’s more the cumulative effect of ALL the things that haven’t been done. 12 year old electronics, 12 year old dinghy. Heck, for all I know the batteries are 12 years old.

On the important stuff, I do know that this boat has a Cummins QSB 5.9 that suffered from a known issue with the lift pump. (That is, it is known that the QSBs of this year had a known issue, and this particular boat has it.) The long and short of it is that when fuel is low, fuel feed gets erratic and the engine sputters. I’ve researched this issue up the wazoo, and there is a pretty well known fix. However, this owner (original owner) for some reason elected not to go with the fix (which is a spiffy after-market pump) but instead elected to install a dip tube to suck fuel from towards the bottom of the tank. His view is that this is OK because the Racors will catch any water in the fuel, and there’s probably not much water in the fuel anyway. If it had been me whose lift pump failed four times . . . .

There you have it. Maybe it’s not a boating issue at all. Maybe it’s a relationship issue. One of us feels strongly committed to this boat. The other of us loves the boat, but has some trepidation about the obvious lack of $$$ investment in upgrades (and, likely, maintenance) over the years.

The surveyors will have the third to last word on this. Thanks again to everyone.

 

[Comodave]

I want the fuel dip tube to go to the bottom of the tank. Any water that gets into the tank, I want removed into the filters ASAP. Much better to change a fuel filter than change a fuel tank due to water damage.

 

[MYTraveler]

I want the fuel dip tube to go to the bottom of the tank. Any water that gets into the tank, I want removed into the filters ASAP. Much better to change a fuel filter than change a fuel tank due to water damage.

When I had my boat built, I had two pickups on each tank -- one the conventional couple inches off the bottom, and the other right at the bottom. On long trips I run off the higher pickups. Around town, the bottom ones. Seems to be the best of both worlds.

 

[Comodave]

If you draw fuel off the bottom there will never be any significant amount of water there so the need for a higher pickup is just unnecessary complexity. And more points of failure and possible leakage.

 

[High Wire]

I would have looked at the batteries before the initial offer. If they were new great. Otherwise they can go at anytime and consider them suspect. The surveyor is not going to waste any time on them unless they fail during the actual survey. Normal wear items. This is like turning down your dream Ferrari because the tires are worn.

 

[FF]

"so the need for a higher pickup is just unnecessary complexity."

Some boats use a higher pickup for the noisemaker , so it does not leave the boat stranded.

 

[Pete Meisinger]

The original poster made an interesting comment. "The owner lavished love but not much $$ on the boat" . I once tried to buy a boat that the owners lavished love but little else. This was 50 years ago so remember boats on the market were much different then.

It was an old (even then) Richardson, maybe a Chris. Single engine, sedan. It had been well kept up, it was probably 30 years old at the time. Very dark original interior, in fact everything was original. It had NOTHING added to it. No radio, no depth sounder, GPS had not been invented but Loran was around, it didn't have Loran. No genny , antique toilet had been removed and replaced with a porti potty . No fly bridge , which I really wanted.

To sum it up, it was a beautiful old boat, good condition. It was overpriced. Both the owner and his spouse often referred to the boat as "Our Beloved Boat".They wouldn't bend on the price, too much love involved!

You may be up against this same issue. They want to sell the boat for one reason or another but really hate to see it go. I think you should back off for a while, They probably sense your desire for the boat. At an asking price of a half a million, they really should come down at least $50,000. Maybe they don't want to sell it ?

pete

 

[sunchaser]

Kawini
If the after coolers have never been removed and properly serviced you will likely find other normal maintenance items overdue. You can easily have $5 -7K per engine in front of you.

If the vessel is a planing design and engines (under load) cannot reach full rated RPM plus 50, anticipate expensive repair issues at some point. Yada yada on things to look for under the hood.

But, if you are buying this vessel because of floor plan and choose to overlook normal marine maintenance gotchas, a dock centric vessel may be just fine. Until you eventually cruise the boat or head offshore that is.