Used Boat Buyers Beware

[BM]

Hi guys,

Thought I'd share a story briefly from a recent boat inspection.

I was engaged to inspect a Mastercraft X15 Ski boat from the US. Very classy boats. 2007 model and $60K was the price. Looked the goods on the outside. Very swanky boats!!

I climbed in under the rear hatches to access the Indmar 5.7 Chev to pull the plugs out and comp test her. Noticed a couple of twigs in the bilge and that started me off. Noticed a bit of dirt in the bilge and some dirt marks on the engine block. Looked around some more and noticed dirt inside a fuse holder that was above engine height. Then I looked down each side of the boat from the access hatches in the rear and the carpeted sides of the hull in the hatch areas was perfect but about 4 feet forward (out of normal sight) the carpet wasn't grey but completely brown! Dry mud!

This boat had been sunk and my customer would have bought it as in all the obvious places it had been fairly well cleaned and no mud was visible. But this girl had been completely under water. So for $250 he saved himself a 60K mistake. Cheap insurance methinks!

Buyer beware!!

[koastal]

Good work
are you a surveyor ?

[scottar]

Always a good idea to check for high tide lines in the out of the way places. Saw a couple of these when I was looking to buy my rig.

[Feral]

grubs trying it on.

[Rodpal]

that's unreal .... if the boat had been sunk surely/ possibly written off under insurance?

if so would something like this show up under a vin search ?? ... like a car for example (noted as a repairable write off on a revs search)
... just wondering that's all

cheers rod

[mitc69]

depend tho, if he did claim insurance then yes it would show up, if he didnt and got it private repair then it wont.. but likewise if you buy used boats and dont surveyor it then your just asking for it

[Oceanic Dave]

Good catch mate!

[swof63]

If it was written off in the US then brought out here to sell would that show up in a vin search here? Could have been done recently, or the last guy that bought it ( now selling) might never have known. It wouldn't be the first - post Katrina I heard of a few boats from that part of US that had been freediving and subsequently were for sale here.

cheers

[fisho64]

Just think how many boats were damaged/swamped/flooded during the various US hurricanes etc
Many will have ended up here