Getting your Nice Boat on The Cheap

 

OK So I am wandering around the lot at Marine Dynamics, looking at various boats to replace the 3 go fast ones I just sold and I stumble across this old 1988 Wellcraft Coastal 2800..... Now the price at $5997.00....... I am pretty sure I can wave cash under their noses and get it for less but it is still reasonable enough I started digging around figuring out how much it would cost me to fix her up and make a pretty good runner out of her. So first thing I did was tell Willy to go down and checked the prices/lowest book value on the boat as equipped. Found out that they normally sell around 12-14000.00 Not too bad considering we used fair as our reference when gaining the numbers. Looked on a couple of used boat sites to make sure the bluebook and Abos were on par for a change... sure enough running it is a 14000.00 dollar boat.

   I got to playing around on the boat knowing I was not really wanting another project but at the same time wanting to tink just to see how much it would cost to fix her up. First thing I did was check out the hull itself, Check - good and solid. Next thing I did was walk around on everything that I could looking for soft spots in the deck - not a one. This is a fine example of why a new 28ft Wellcraft Coastal (ok they bumped it to 29 these days) is going to cost you almost 200 thousand dollars by the time you get it home with what you want on it. So bearing in mind that by the time of this writing I had already cut the check for a new Wellcraft Scarab which will be in, fitted and done by this spring or mid-summer. They had to order the one I want and I got a pretty fair deal on it at 140,000.00.

   Back to the Wellcraft 2800 Coastal.......here are some pictures of her:

Interior appears to be in really good shape, stove works

I noticed that some of the zincs are aging but still fine. Were it me, I would replace them before I put her in the water because I am not the kind of person to trailer a boat much less one this size.

Whoever put in the gas tank did a good job of it and based on what I saw of the seal it cannot be more than a year or 2 old. So that is one not to worry about for a few more years.

The head looked pretty good and seemed to be equipped with a fair macerator pump. Head itself is clean enough for most girlfriends and there are mirrors, vents, cabinets and everything seems to be readily accessible. True to Wellcraft Style it is a well designed, roomy enough to drop a good one in comfort...... head. Looks like someone had it out and re-sealed everything already too.

Looking at the crew/kid bunks, I noticed that they are in really good shape other than the covers will probably need a good washing to get rid of the "boat been sitting a while" smell. All of the icing glass, canopy and such are neatly folded and stowed on the bunks.

There is a fairly large panel below that seems to indicate a hefty power inverter - this was backed up by the fact that I did not see a generator on the boat and both engines have over sized alternators. Appears to be an inverter, shore power and shore charger on her - all the wires no matter where I looked (with one exception) are clean, no corroded contacts, all connections are quality crimped, soldered and sealed where it counts.

 

So you are assuming by now that the engine pictured below is why I did not buy the boat? Wrong answer - the other engine is in good shape - been sitting 8 or 9 months - started after about 10 minutes of futzing with it (helps if you remember to put at least SOME gas in the tank).

  Now taking a closer look at the engine that had been on fire, I found that it had blown the center out of a Spark plug and caught that side on fire. The boat is equipped with a halon fire extinguisher which did an excellent job of getting the fire out with not much more than smoke damage to the compartment. The engine itself will need a new carb, spark plug wires and about an afternoons worth of replacing all the vacuum lines, hoses (whether they look like they need it or not) and possibly replace the regulator in the alternator. Other than that it seems the pretty easy fix.

  I just used this boat as one example - there are finds like this on nearly every marina's lot. Most of the sales guys wont want to sell them to you and will point you to a boat they can make a fatter commission on  but they all pretty much have one or more on the lot. Sometimes it is good just to talk to the mechanics and ask -"hey which one needs the least work" because it is the mechanics.... not the salespeople who know what each one on a dealers lot needs.

   In conclusion, this would be a good boat for someone with a family that needs the space or a fisherman that just wants something comfortable with a couple of days range to it. I have had one of these in the past that made it through 6 and 7 foot waves on more than one occasion - not something I would do on purpose but it is nice to know you have a vessel that can handle some action if you get stuck in it. I went with another go-fast boat but if someone is willing to spend a day maybe 2 re-wiring and re-hosing one engine plus a few minor nit-picky things...they will end out with a boat that is rock solid and at lower speeds quite economical while at the same time they have made an investment that lasts in that even if you have 8 in it by the time you are done - you still have a 12-14000 dollar boat and that means you can keep it a couple of years and it will still be worth about what you have in it (provided you take as good a care of it as the former owner did). Shame to see her just sitting like that