[C320-list] Pre-Purchase Survey Recommendations - Need Advice

[Jack Brennan]

Mike:

View the survey as a sunk cost. Whatever it cost you, it saved you 10 times as much.

Troy is right. I have spent tons of time working on my 320. But I am retired, have plenty of time and enjoy tinkering with boats. You obviously have a different situation. Also, my 320, while neglected, had only been daysailed a few times a year for 20 years.

The original sails are still crisp. The gelcoat gleams. The diesel had about 500 hours on it and ran like new after I performed the needed maintenance. I knew it would be a good boat once I whittled down the list. I’m pretty sure I could get 50-55K for it if I ever decided to sell.

>From your survey, you could easily plow 20-25K and hundreds of hours of your time into the boat. Would it be a gleaming dock princess at that point or just another neglected boat that got brought back to life?

Properly maintaining a boat should cost you $3-5K a year, some of it fixing problems and some of it doing needed upgrades. If you don’t do it, the list grows quickly, as does the cost of doing them. 

Before I bought my 320, I looked at a Catalina 34 in condition similar to yours. The price started out in the 40s, dropped to 35K and then to about 20K as I kept saying no, but I still couldn’t bring myself to say yes. 

I knew that no matter how much I did, it would still be a tired old boat. 

Jack Brennan
Sonas, 1998 Catalina 320
Tierra Verde, Fl.



Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Mike Johnson
Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2020 7:06 PM
To: C320-List at catalina320.com
Subject: Re: [C320-list] Pre-Purchase Survey Recommendations - Need Advice

Man, am I glad I came here for advice. You guys are rockstars for taking the time to respond with details and experience. The boat was listed at $55k, on the market a year, now $50k, we agreed at $44k pending survey. Survey obviously wasn’t great. Here is the listing: https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2000/catalina-320-3598706/

Does this sound like a good deal or no?

On Sep 22, 2020, at 6:49 PM, Troy Dunn <troutwarrior at gmail.com> wrote:

Oops...should say Gunboat 68...my bad.