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Free Boat

19K views 18 replies 10 participants last post by  hellosailor 
#1 ·
A friend is trying to give away a 1965 24' columbia Please save her
 
#2 ·
Free boats usually aren't worth the cost of a match to burn them. Compared to a well-maintained boat at market value (which isn't much for a 40+ year old daysailor) a free boat usually has no working engine, extensive hull or deck or keel or rudder damage (often all of that) rigging damage, and no sails or sails so old they should have been used as funeral shrouds.
Often putting a "free boat" into market condition will cost as much as buying two of them ready to go. And if it can't be marketed...your friend may be giving it away because the alternative, and the biggest problem for the next owner, is that you have to pay for "toxic waste" disposal rates if you want to get rid of four tons of dead old boat.

On the other hand...if you expect anyone to look further, you might want to post information including all the known and suspected problems with the boat.
 
#3 ·
Excellent Value

Actually Jared,
There are several important reasons to save old boats. 1. It is environmentally smart to "recycle" the materials salvaged boats are made from.
It damages the environment every time a tree is cut down, or a gallon of fiberglass resin is made in a factory in China. 2. It is fun to restore an old boat. 3.You learn from repairing old boats, a lot more than just cruising in one. 4. If you do find an old boat that is really a goner. there is a big market for the sails, the motors, the winches, ballast lead (.20 cents a ton as of October 16th, 2006) all the little pieces of hardware like bronze cabinet hinges, and all the other cool stuff.

Just have a look on E-bay to see what people are getting for salvaged gear! But back to the basics. It is FUN to find and save for whatever reason an old boat. There are a lot of POSITIVE things to think about.
 
#5 ·
Columbia offshore

I'm not sure about the 28 but I know of at least one 29 that made a West coast to Hawaii passage, and a couple of Columbia 8.7's have done Atlantic crossings. As with all boats, if you do some basic improvements to the hull strength, and rigging, just about any boat can go coastal.
 
#6 ·
I have a columbia 29 and the previous owner used to blue water a lot from boston to Bermuda and beyond and up to Maine. However the only problem, rather horror story is the time high swells kept flooding the cock pit, ran the battery down using the bilge pump constantly. Couldn't get the motor started from inside the boat... but actually I think they were to busy holding on to think.

Once I take the inboard motor out and get rid of the gas tank I plan on putting about 2 to 3, 3" thru hulls going from the back of the cock pit straight out the back horizontally. This will increase drainage. Their main problem was the cock pit filled with water and the little 1/2 drains couldn't get rid of the water fast enough, and the water kept splashing up against the hatch boards letting water flood in.

But people coastal and blue water in smaller boats all the time, and columbia's are pretty sturdy.

matthew
 
#7 ·
Pupperino, you can't "recycle" an old boat. You can send it to the breakers, you can scrap it, you can restore it, but there's no way to "recycle" an old FRP hull. Economically or not.

Throwing good money after bad is simply foolish, FRP resins and glass will always be available and if the market cost of new is cheaper than salvaging old, that's what you do.

You may have had good luck stripping some old bones or scrapping them. There's certainly *some* money to be made that way *some* times. But as a practical matter?

By the time a boat is being given away, it usually will cost twice as much to repair and refit, as it would to simply buy a functional boat. The folks who fall for a "free boat" usually are newbies with little or no idea how expensive all those repairs will be, and many get badly burned. If the boat was worth the price of the match and pint of kerosene needed to burn it...the PO would have put it up for sale instead of giving it away. (With the really rare exception of "Oh, my uncle can't get out of bed anymore so he's giving me his boat" and such.)
 
#9 ·
Trying to get rid of a boat for free?

Hello, I am interested in finding anyone who's got an old boat that they don't want anymore or doesn't have the time or the space for it anymore. I am looking for (preferably) a sailboat or houseboat type vessel. If you're getting rid of it for free... DON'T ABANDON IT YET!!! I would love to discuss your vessel with you. Write me if you have one or know of anyone who has one.
 
#10 ·
Nightmare, call all the marinas and storage yards in your phone book, then get some other phone books in popular boating locales.

Every boatyard has "yard queens" that have been abandoned in the yard, that are behind on storage payments. And in pretty much every state, the yard eventually files a "warehouseman's lien" and takes possession of the boat, after which they sell 'em off as cheap as they can, or pay to have them hauled off and trashed.

The ones that are worthless and have to be hauled away? They'll probably be glad to sell to you for a hundred bucks. Work the phones, your boat is out there.
 
#18 ·
One word of caution, not all marinas and boat yards negotiate in good faith. I was recently burned by putting money on a "foreclosed" boat, that after I paid for it, I was told that the title "paperwork" wasn't finished. Later I found out they had sold the boat to me without even starting the procedure to inform the owner, wait 30 days for payment, file a lien an the county, ...

While waiting over 6 months for them already holding my money and refusing to refund, (they held the "sale" as leverage against the owner to convince him to pay up).

The boat was stripped, by (disgruntled workers that didn't get paid yet?, the boatyard? the owner that knew he was going to lose the boat?...), after everything, and I mean everything was removed from "MY" boat it was destroyed by a hurricane , (the boatyard made no effort to secure it, but wouldn't let me move it to a secure location), that left it in the middle of the road smashed beyond all repair.

That was when the title was express mailed to me along with a bill for crane service to remove it from the road, and a bill for damages that it supposedly did to their facilities and other boats. (I tore it and the contract up and sent it back).

I could have sued for breach of contract, but the cost would have exceeded what I paid for the boat.

Lesson learned - insure title is clear and ready before putting down a penny. Insure the boat is ready for imediate delivery before paying, as soon as sale is complete, take title, and boat to another location, (possesion is 9/10's of the law).
 
#11 ·
Yup, got my C22 on a marina repo for, well, next to nothing anyway. And, unlike some of the free boats out there when this thread was originally written, mine was in good enough shape to take out on the lake same day. I've been slowly making it a new 40 year old boat over months and months- but most of that is sweat equity and a learning experience. You don't say where you are, but with the downturn there are a ton of "marina queens" around our lakes and the ICW here in the central and south west. "work the phones" is well said.
 
#12 ·
Free boat

Can any one help me out Im looking for a boat preferably free that I'll be able to take out on the lake doesn't have to be nice just do the job. I'm 17 and would appreciate the help. If anyone has a boat they r trying to get rid of I'm your guy, you can message me at my number is 916 505 3303 Thank you so much
 
#13 ·
To the OP:
Thanks for the post. A lot of abandoned boats out there that could be homes to sailors that have no money, but a need for a place and some food.

Too bad this thread had to be hijacked by people that have no interest in the subject, but enjoy propagating their own garbage.
 
#14 ·
Tom, many of us have found abandoned boats to be worth substantially less than the cost of the match to set them ablaze. No doubt there are some perfectly good ones that have been abandoned for insurnace fraud and other reasons, but the vast majority? Are holes in the water and no one wants to get stuck with the disposal bill, or the wreck on their property.

If you think there really are good prospects out there, I suggest you start a 501(c)3 organization to locate, move, and match abandoned boats with people in need of them. Everyone will thank you, for removing the hulks and creating the housing, and you should be able to make a buck on it at the same time.

That's assuming the boats you think exist, really do exist in any quantity. One out of a hundred doesn't quite count, you still need to deal with the other 99. (And personally, I'd expect it is more like 1:1000).
 
#16 ·
They are out there. Look around at your local marinas for boats that they consider derelict. You may have to pay off a storage fee, but sometimes not.
 
#17 ·
..and with storage an issue for some people, by taking Tom's advice you'll often find a marina owner who is both helpful and happy for you to keep the boat right where it is so long as you're paying the rent.

It's a win-win: You gain a boat; he gains a paying customer.
 
#19 ·
"Later I found out they had sold the boat to me without even starting the procedure"
The devil lies in the details and in exactly what writings or witnesses you have. In many places that could easily be a criminal fraud matter, where all you have to do is call the local DS and file charges, free to you. If, of course, you can document a sale of goods to which they didn't have any title.
 
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