I have no financial interest in this, so it does not go in Marketplace, I think.
This is an ad for a 64’ yacht. Sixty feet is my own cutoff for “Mega yacht,” so it got my attention. In any case it is supposedly going for just $90K. I know cars that cost more.
Rather than being in very poor condition (which might justify any low price) the seller claims he lost his house and must sell at once. Roughly, he is asking less than a third of what I suspect the thing is.
What do you think, scam? Maybe $90 is his equity in the boat, so you assume payments?
I am having a slow weekend here and these things catch my eye.
Sounds like a money pit. It’s recently had A LOT of mechanical work and the interior is still basically gutted, from the sound of it. Beware of buying somebody else’s problems.
Damn, that’s about the ugliest boat I’ve ever seen. Looks like a houseboat made to look like a real boat. And it’s powered by two outboard motors? I wouldn’t take it if it were free.
Where do you get outboard motors? I didn’t see that in the advertisement (I’m not saying you are wrong- I’m curious). It would surprise me if a vessel that size didn’t have inboards.
I wonder how a guy could buy such a stupid extravagance but get into enough financial trouble as to lose his house. But then I Googled the phone number in the ad, and found another ad for a handyman in Florida. Is handyman work that lucrative in the Sunshine State?
Edited to add, perhaps the guy bought the boat figuring that he could use his skills to remodel it and then flip it for a big payoff?
I looked up Bluewater Yachts. Their current 65’ model is equipped with Cummins engines, which I assume to be Diesel. I think the seller used ‘motors’ because he didn’t know any better, and I’ll bet that the boat uses inboard engines. One thing I caught is that he says it uses ‘gas’. I think gasoline engines would be unusual on a boat of this size, but I could be wrong. Or, he doesn’t know the difference between Diesel fuel and gasoline. Or, he fuelled the Diesel engines with gasoline. :smack:
Sometimes good deals do come along. I just got a $500 kayak paddle for the price of three draft beers. I ran into a guy I’ve seen paddling and we started talking. He asked me to buy him a beer, as he had no cash on him.
Over beers he told me he was liquidating to screw his ex-wife out of support payments. He said she cheated/lied and no way was he paying her support.
So, he got fired form his job and was selling everything of value, then donating the proceeds in cash to various charities (anonymously). Sounds like he will kill himself once his liquidation is final. But yes, a $500 paddle for $18 ($25 with tip).
4 Seconds into the video you can clearly see they are twin Suzuki Outboards (gasoline). I can’t make out a number and normally the bigger ones brag about their size. These don’t even look that big.
Also, the picture is obviously very old… in the video, the radar bridge and the top roof are all missing. I almost wonder if this guy somehow got hold of an old totalled boat and converted it to outboards. The photo doesn’t appear to have them, but the video clearly does.
ut they can be replaced with larger ones reasonably easily [if you have the money]
Probably got it as a payment, or bought it to flip.
If we had the money and were already living in the keys, I could see letting mrAru pick it up as a project boat. You don’t have to put in marble and expensive crap.
Though in the video I would have liked to see a walk through on the inside demonstrating that it could be refinished or how bad the refinish job would be. If I were in Florida I would consider going to look at it just to report back on how bad or good the deal would be. Though I do know a ship surveyor who lives in the south …
My parents owned houseboats for many years.
People don’t realize the work involved and remodeling it can be a challenge for newbies. You can’t just use anything - you have to know which products are suitable for wet/salt water etc. and not everything you find in Home Depot is useful.
My guess is it would be a great deal, assuming you had an additional $90,000 to put in finishing the interior and getting the engines in order, navigation systems etc. plus licensing and docking fees and price of fueling it. Those are great fun things to own, but man can you spend money on upkeep and repairs!
My parents knew a couple who bought a brand new boat, similar to what is pictured, and within two days the guy drove it into rocks and sunk it. Nobody had showed him exactly how and where to drive his little boat.
I’m leaning more and more to a salvage boat converted from Inboard to Outboard. Notice all of the “new” items in the description… new steering, new electrical to drives, new mechanical to drives, new gas tank, new engines. These would all be things needed to run the drive to the back. If this really is the case, I’d be most worried about structural integrity… “pushing” the boat from the center (as with an Inboard) is different structurally than pushing it from the back most point. Unless it has been re-engineered I’d be very concerned.
The only hits I could find for Bluewaters with twin outboards were for fishing boats. I specifically found one with twin Suzuki 150’s… on a 25’ boat.
No mention of the hull designer nor builder
No mention of the engine makers, except they are gas not diesel
No mention of last bottom treatment nor hull condition
Fiberglass/composition (e.g. plywood) not steel
No mention of last survey results nor last survey date
No mention of any of the electronics nor brands of electronics
One long distance picture with no date
Go ahead, its only $90 K
Oh, yeah: your slip fees are going to be $15+/ft, or 1.5X for a single or 2X for an end tie.
Boat
def’n: hole in the water you throw money into.