In The Beginning

With the survey completed and the boat hanging in the slings it did not take a marine engineer to see that the bottom had not been painted in a few years and although not as bad as we expected was indeed in need. We have received good feedback and recommendations for the yard here, Marsh Harbor Marina, so we decided to have them block the boat and paint the bottom and save us some money doing another haul out later. Since we had thrown this at them outside their already busy schedule and even brought another boat over with us for them to work on (another story), we were surprised when they said “no problem”. After a thorough power wash and blasting the prop, shaft and rudder of old paint and lots of marine growth, she was blocked and ready to be sanded, faired and painted.

The Survey.

The survey was just completed on the new trawler today and all went well. We found a surveyor Named Bob Dolce from Hilton Head that is both experienced and very knowledgeable and has intimate knowledge of the Marine Trader line and has been familiar with the boats since they were first imported and sold. We were very fortunate to find him. He was able to immediately go to the usual potential problem areas and recognize the correct repairs and upgrades that have been done on the boat. He will also be able to best establish the correct value of the boat instead of just using the WAG method ( wild ass guess) that many surveyors use for older boats.

A New Boat?

We have been looking for the next boat almost since the closing of Sea Trek. As a former Broker for many years and 35 years in the marine industry I should not be surprised by what we have seen but I still am. Boat owners trying to sell their boats yet they have pretty much abandoned them and they are for the most part in deplorable condition. The outsides are filthy and the interiors are dirty, moldy and smelly. And they really think someone is going to come along and pay tens of thousands of dollars for these disasters. Sometimes the photos on the listings look pretty good but the reality in person is quite the opposite. Over and over we ask ourselves "what are they thinking?" maybe the answer is, they are not.