Chuck, what's wrong with this picture?

From the fact that it's being represented by a Florida broker that specializes in DeFevers, I expect it's a Florida boat that made its way to Seattle.

http://yachtworld.com/core/listing/pl_boat_detail.jsp? currency=USD&units=Feet&checked_boats=1286341&slim=ywpbs&

RCE

One reason to consider repowering almost right away: It may be possible with a little poking around to find a couple of naturally aspirated engines. Most engine companies are being forced to turbo charge everything in order to meet clean air standards. For example, I recently learned that there are only a few 135 HP Perkins/Sabre 354 cid in-line six's like mine remaining in inventory anywhere. The new version of the 135 HP Perkins is a turbo charged four cylinder. I don't have a problem with a turbo in marine applications, but on a displacement boat all you're going to gain from a turbo is the whine. Even on my semi displacement hull there was no decrease in performance when dropping from the 165 HP turbo version to the 135 NA.

Just because some people will live to be 105 doesn't mean that every 75 year old should absolutely count on doing so. :-)

In the case of this DeFever, the price is depressed in part due to a perceived "risk" of a 6000 hour boat. Buyers are going to be skeptical, and rightly so. All the people who say, "Don't worry, she's got years and years and years left in her" will do nothing more then express surprise when something does break loose and it is the new owner who will be footing the entire bill. Let's say nothing major went wrong, jps ran the boat for 10 years and then decided to sell a 38 year old boat with 7400 engine hours..good luck!

The good news with this boat is that if it's available for $75k, $80k, or even up to the $100k asking price there's a potential (depending on the condition of other systems and cosmetics) for the value to increase by about as much as it would take to repower. Most of the time a buyer going into a boat that needs to be repowered doesn't expect that to be the case and only discovers after it's too late that he needs to spend another big pile of dough. My impression is that the market has discounted this boat for something- and the most obvious suspect without an inspection has to be the engine hours. The boat may not be sale-proof at $100k, but up in the middle huns where you find boats of similar age with half the engine hours it probably is. We can be pretty sure the seller didn't start off at $100k, and that the current pricing is the latest step in a series of measures (that included moving the boat from FLA to the PAC NW?) to try to find the "spot" in the marketplace where the perceived value at least slightly exceeds the price demanded and it becomes more likely that a buyer will appear.

I'm not yet convinced that another sundeck or flush deck style vessel is in order, given the aft line handling and boarding challenges they present.

The length is about right but I'm pretty convinced the next vessel will have a cockpit along with diesel engines.

jps

I would be happy to render an opinion if I knew which boat you were interested in.

I did run all theDeFevers in "Seattle" and didn't see any represented by a broker that doesn't have an office in the NW.

More info, please.

Thanks

It's weird 'cause it's represented by two brokers at two different prices. Oviatt has it a $125K and another broker out of Florida has it listed at $99.5K.

It's quite a bit of boat for $125 but it's quite a bit more attractive at $100. The Lehmans actually have closer to 6000 hours so I wonder if replacing them is figured in...

jps

With 6000 hours, there's a good chance this has been a charter boat.

My impresssion from the listing and without inspecting the boat, is that it is probably something of a fixer-upper. If you ultimately wind up with $200k in the boat, you could have bought something a lot newer (but not with new engines) in the same size category for that same money. For somebody who wants to wind up with a freshly repowered, cosmetically resurrected boat for something around $200k, a boat like I envision this DeFever to be could be a good starting point *if it is structurally sound*. If she needs a total exterior paint job as well as a repower, {see Florida UV damage}, you will be in the game well in excess of the $200k. If you've got stringers, fuel tanks, or house rot to deal with you will be in the game probably way too much based on what you'll have when done. On the other hand, if the boat is as tired looking as the poor quality exterior photo suggests, you could make a relatively modest investment, just boat around cheap and dirty for a while, cross your fingers and hope the machinery doesn't come akimbo. If something major conks out, you could always take a $40-50k bath and just walk away- but I would never really personally recommend taking the minimalist approach or trusting engines in less than top condition.

Arthur DeFever rather likely supervised the layup and construction of this vessel, but it is still a Taiwan trawler with all of the associated "isms". :-)

Call Brent Whiteman at Oviatt if you're seriously interested and you can use my name if you'd care to. Brent and I worked together at another brokerage in the past. He'll give you a no BS account of the boat. I wouldn't worry too much about the broker in FLA with the lower listing price. He may not actually have a legitimate listing on the boat (could be just fishing for leads with another broker's listing- maybe not- I don't know) but if the sellers will really accept $99k presented by a broker in FLA they would certainly take the same price presented by a broker in Seattle. There's a chance that the boat was for sale for a while in FLA at $99k, didn't sell, and has been trucked to the Pacific NW where trawlers are a much hotter commodity than they are in FLA. The seller may be trying to recover some of the transport costs as well as start a bit higher due to the market differential in the PNW. Since you're in Seattle, talk to Oviatt.

According to him, 6000 hours on these engines has just about broken them in. Most problems are associated with the bolt-ons.

RCE