quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
There is no wood in the hull/stringers of a Regal boat. It looks like a hole in the pic but it’s just discolored fiberglass and composite. It does look pretty bad though.

I think the consensus is to pass.

Most boats in that time frame have a wood transom including that Regal.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
My social media has figured out I’m in the market for a boat and recommended this amazing ship! Sigforum group buy? We could charter “adventure/pirate” trips along the Somali coast. Ammo prices are coming down. A themed anti piracy Cruise in that region complete with simulated drone pirate ship attacks (and possibly real ones) could be big. It would need a hell of a waiver..

I don't have any idea who would have a use for it, and I'm sure it would be very expensive to clean up and keep running, but damn, that still seems like a hell of a deal.

I guess the operating costs must be so much higher than a modern vessel that it is essentially worthless.

Thats only the damage you can see, if they took that poor of a job taking care of it, I could only imagine the underlying issues.

It's only too much if it exceeds your willingness to mess with it. Fiberglass work isn't difficult, nor particularly expensive in terms of materials. Spraying Gel Coat is a bit more involved as is spraying anything, but fiberglass work in the 12"-square or less category is easy for most even fairly mechanically inclined people who don't mind getting dirty. We were using foam to make molds and were making custom door panels and speaker boxes molded into spare tire holes and junk like that in late high school and I'm no savant at those things, it's just not that difficult... especially in the YouTube era.

The glass work isn't particularly difficult, but if done improperly can lead to other issues. To do that properly, a larger area is going to need to be cut out, glassed, and finished. The integrity of the gel coat will never be the same. The areas with significant loss of gel coat indicate damage to the structure, and possibly some delimitation going on. The area should be cut out and re-glassed, but as it would have been built over a gel coat in a mould, it will have to be blocked internally by foam and built up; it should be vacuum bagged, too.

The metal corrosion looks like it was put in salt water and not washed.

quote:

Originally posted by TXJIM:
Run. No telling the rot you can't see.

First response is the best response. Run, don't walk, away from this hole in the water.

too much is always a price and time issue. Glass work is one of the things in life that doesn't require very much in terms of tools or acquired skills (some will object but skills is relative). You can learn to be very good at it, I did and I'm pretty average otherwise. If your first attempts aren't good trying again is relatively easy and the materials are inexpensive. Your risk really is your time. The outdrive I don't know anything about so I'll pass on judging that. Parts are expensive especially for the Volvo. What I see wouldn't bother me in terms of glass work. Don't know the exact hull construction layup but I doubt its beyond the almost immediate area in terms of risk. But hey sometimes you lose a bet. I started to fix a balsa cored hull with what looked like a small area and it extended eventually to 96 sq ft. But the materials to fix it were really cheap and the time wasn't very bad. just an example.

I think you should buy it and video the restoration, saving all receipts and logging all the hours of enjoyment rebuilding it.

Don't buy somebody else's problem.

Bust
Out
Another
Thousand

My FIL has a boat (second boat, upgraded the first then sold it off when something else caught his eye). I’m quite sure the man hours spent maintaining, modifying, installing, fixing is at least 3:1 compared to time underway. New engine, fixed transome, fiberglass work, install a tower, blow a motor, chase down wiring problems for a year before rewiring the whole thing.

In the end boat repair is his real hobby.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
The hit on the stern looks fixable but the blisters along the left side of the boat are worrisome. The corrosion on the outdrive is also something I’m worried about.

Yeah, the entire boat is worrisome.
I wouldn't take that boat for free, let alone pay actual money for it.

That boat looks like trouble. The transom damage almost looks like a breach in the hull.

Keep looking.


...

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
My social media has figured out I’m in the market for a boat and recommended this amazing ship! Sigforum group buy? We could charter “adventure/pirate” trips along the Somali coast. Ammo prices are coming down. A themed anti piracy Cruise in that region complete with simulated drone pirate ship attacks (and possibly real ones) could be big. It would need a hell of a waiver..

I don't have any idea who would have a use for it, and I'm sure it would be very expensive to clean up and keep running, but damn, that still seems like a hell of a deal.

I guess the operating costs must be so much higher than a modern vessel that it is essentially worthless.

Trust me when I say that when the Coast Guard gets rid of a boat...it's DONE. My dad was on a ship made in 1938, when I enlisted that ship was still in service and was decommissioned in 1990's.

We had a 25 Boston whaler on the Gulf that took us only two years to fully break due to ops tempo.

I was on a patrol boat that only lived ten years before it was so ravaged and falling apart that she was scrapped.

Trust me, stay away from DRMO/.gov sales of boats.

quote:

Originally posted by mod29:
Yeah, the entire boat is worrisome.
I wouldn't take that boat for free, let alone pay actual money for it.

This ^^^^^

quote:

Originally posted by TXJIM:
Run. No telling the rot you can't see.

Yup. Junk.

Run before you are forced to swim!

I'll tell y'all this: The stuff stick's coming up with in his search is making me feel very good about putting our boat up for sale next spring

Now is the time to buy and I know it’s hard to say no when you really want one, but be patient and the right one will come up.

As to capacity, you would not like that size boat with 9 people. Maybe 4 adults and a few kid if the water is reasonably calm.

Don’t be afraid to look in another state. You may find some nice deals around Knoxville. The farther away from salt the better.

10 grand can buy something fun and reliable here but we have a ton of boats.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by mod29:
Yeah, the entire boat is worrisome.
I wouldn't take that boat for free, let alone pay actual money for it.

This ^^^^^

+1 agree

Posted by ensigmatic,

quote:

I'll tell y'all this: The stuff stick's coming up with in his search is making me feel very good about putting our boat up for sale next spring

Nothing but questionable projects so far. To be completely fair if I posted up the specs of my first boat and the concerns I had at the time I probably would have gotten a similar consensus to run. My first boat had a hole about the size of a basket ball in its deck which was remedied by placing a steel plate over the hole and carpet over the plate. The engine was a two stroke Johnson from the early 1970’s. I still got three trouble free years of fun out of that boat and never came close to a grand in repairs. A new battery and chasing down a bad ground were the only two issues I encountered.

My first boat was a "beater," too. Had a ton of fun with that little boat in New Jersey's inland waterways.

But the hull and engine were sound. (Except the starter was bad, so I always had to pull-start the outboard.)