Before I was searching for a boat in the 30's for around 30K. Now we have decided to go a little more.
We are looking for a boat that is designed for a cruising couple, large **** pit,
walk through transom is very important (But then again the chessie is getting too gross to swim in), bright and airey cabin, shoal draft, R/F, minimal if any external teak, solid glass hull (I know cored has it's advantages but I just can't convince myself). Air conditioning would also be nice.
The Catalina 310 really seemed to fit the bill but compared to other 310's around the country the 2 we would consider here in MD are extremely high at just under 80K for a 2004 and a 2006. Average asking price from dated material I've aquired is around 70K with a sell price of 62K...I could do that.
There is one that matches the information I have that we would consider making an offer on. In Norfolk there's a 310 with an asking price of 71K but with a 6' fin keel it's too much draft for where we like to go in the Chessie.
There is a 2000 or 01 in Annapolis that the owner countered 57,500 but the
exhaust hose skin is delaminated which could be from overheating due to the riser, and it has 2 broken port
lights in which the broker says the owner is aware of but not concerned, if the owner feels this way about his boat I doubt it was ever really cared for so we nixed it.
If we can't find a 310 then maybe we should consider other options, I'm real comfortable and would prefer to stay below 50K but as stated above I can also go higher for the right boat. We'd like to stay on the newer side of things like '93 and up BUT if an older boat was in prestine condition we might bite (Again the coring thing, I'm afraid of getting an wet decked boat if I go too old). We'd like a boat we could resell in 10 years and not loose our butts. Of course we're probably going to end up with one of the big 3 Cat-Hunter-Bene which is fine if it isn't going to turn into a basket case in 10 or 15 years, but we're open to suggestions.