Buying a Fixer-Upper By Gary W. Dickinson
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more than the boat is worth when it is finished. In fact, I eople say the two best looked at a boat recently that I thought was a good deal, but days in a boatowner’s once I added up the costs to restore the boat, it would have life are the day they became a money pit. You need to do your homework and not buy a boat and the day they just buy a boat because it is cheap and you can afford it. Make sell it. I think that is true for sure it is something that you really want! most, but there have been Every boater knows how expensive having a boat can times in my boating life be. Not only do you have the purchase price of the boat, but that I was sad to see my you have all of the maintenance that goes with it. That may boat go—and still miss her be why some boats end up neglected—owners who have years later. given up on their dreams who didn’t realize what the true For the first time in years, The Hunter Tramp as found cost would be. I find myself “boatless.” I in the weeds. My friend George bought a fixer-upper. He found a am dreaming and day1983, 20-foot Haines Hunter Tramp in the weeds that had dreaming all the time about not seen the water for a decade. During the research on the getting a boat. Every day I look at my empty dock and feel like I am missing out by not being on the water. It is almost painful. It does not help that everywhere I look, I see other people’s boats sitting proudly in their yards, waiting for the next adventure. I was curious to know just how many boats there are here in Florida. According to my findings on the internet, I discovered that there are more than one million registered boats in the state, not counting kayaks and other personal watercraft that do not need to be registered, so maybe it is not just my imagination when I feel like everyone but me has a boat. For many of us, the price of a new boat is out of our reach, but buying a boat that needs fixing up can solve this problem. You can buy a boat that has been neglected and bring it back to life. For those of you with self-discipline, drive and basic mechanical skills, this might be a way for you to not only realize your dream of being on the water, but in turn resurrect a dream that over time died. You have all seen the ads for cheap or free boats, but free is not a good price if the cost to bring the boat in working order is Transom repair with oak backing plates inside the transom.
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October 2015
SOUTHWINDS
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