Struggling with what to offer on a Chris-Craft

[GMandGW]

HUGE thanks to everyone who advised on this thread. We've read every bit of it and learned a lot.

This boat looks like a perfect opportunity to look for other boats.

 

[Solly]

You could always get an estimate on replacing the tanks and genny and take that off the asking price if really interested.

 

[Benthic2]

This seems like a great opportunity to spend $40k to get a $10k boat.

 

[FF]

"Almost no electronics in evidence, not really a bad thing. Guess it might indicate the boat never went far offshore."

Not always true, a $100 hand held GPS is fine for most ocean travel , as it will bring the boat to harbor with ease.

The massive electronics are frequently found on dock queens that have no idea of what an A buoy is.

 

[Peter Keating]

"I avoid anything to do with Popyachts" X2

 

[Leatherneck]

"I avoid anything to do with Popyachts" X3!

 

[Bill V]

Perfect name for this boat is "Money Pit" and it all starts at whatever price you get it for too, even free.

 

[Captain DJ]

Hello! Before we buy a big liveaboard in 2023, we decided to get a weekender and have some fun. We really loved the layout of a 1972 Chris Craft Coho 33’ we looked at. Great for our dogs, which is important to us. The boat is in terrific shape with twin diesel engines and upgrades. However, the generator is shot, one of the fuel tanks need to be replaced, and it needs a bottom job. They’re asking $28,500. IMO it’s nowhere near worth that. It’s been on the market a long time and we’d like to make a realistic and reasonable offer before having it surveyed. Any advice is welcome. I’d post the ad link here, but I don’t know if that’s allowed.

I owned a 1972 Chris Craft Coho with twin gas engines. It was my second boat ever. I traded my first boat + $9k, a 1988 Sea Ray cuddy cabin with an i/o engine and trailer for a boat always kept undercover in freshwater (this was 1993). I reckon I had maybe $17k invested in 1990s dollars in the boat. Had only one major problem, I blew out a Paragon V Drive and had a hard time getting a new one. But aside from that, IT was an awesome boat.

We had it for several years in a covered new Marina in Decatur, AL. and one year I got two-foot-itis, you know, that disease for wanting a boat just a bit bigger, and I had my eye on a 38 ft Marinette with two full staterooms and head. Now everyone on my dock seemed to be trying to sell my boat. I put my little For Sale sign up and the first guy that looked at it said, okay, how much?

I said $25k, and I will be dog gone, he said ¨okay, I will buy it.¨ I regretted selling ¨Quick Recovery¨ before I even shook the man's hand, but a deal is a deal. And I let it go....never again would I get a boat THAT good for that amount of money.

 

[Art]

Hello! Before we buy a big liveaboard in 2023, we decided to get a weekender and have some fun. We really loved the layout of a 1972 Chris Craft Coho 33’ we looked at. Great for our dogs, which is important to us. The boat is in terrific shape with twin diesel engines and upgrades. However, the generator is shot, one of the fuel tanks need to be replaced, and it needs a bottom job. They’re asking $28,500. IMO it’s nowhere near worth that. It’s been on the market a long time and we’d like to make a realistic and reasonable offer before having it surveyed. Any advice is welcome. I’d post the ad link here, but I don’t know if that’s allowed.

If I were you...

Tell owner I'd pay full price as long as he gets two new tanks installed and gen set running well.

Then, I'd realize the chances of him doing so are nill [and, if he said he would, the tanks and installation need a guarantee].

Soooo - I'd forget that boat and Keep-On-Shoppen!!

 

[kkristmann]

It has Diesel engines. Not distributor on engine. Off them 1/4 of asking price.

 

[Circumnavigator]

I don't know the boat at all, but I doubt very much that the hardtop on the flybridge is original -- perhaps someone else here knows. With that much weight up high, she might roll more than you'd like. Certainly don't buy her without taking her out in a beam sea with a 15-20 knot wind.


As for price, do you know what's wrong with the genset? "Not running" could be anything from run out of fuel and needs bleeding to thrown a rod through the block and needs replacing. Unless the genset has many thousands of hours on it, a failure suggests poor maintenance which in turn suggests that the mains have also been poorly cared for.



Try to identify why the tank is leaking. If there was a specific deck leak or other identifiable reason, that's one thing. If it is probably simply rusting from water in the fuel over the years, then you're likely to have to replace the other one soon.



The best way to deal with it might be to offer say $25,000*, with it all in escrow until the owner fixes the genset and the tank and any other problems that show up on survey. Give him say 60 days to do the repairs and if he doesn't meet the deadline, you get all your money back. That way, the risk of the repairs costing more than the sale price is entirely on the owner.


*Or whatever our colleagues here think she is actually worth with the repairs done.


Jim