This is the boat I'm looking at buying

Do you understand that this isn't a boat for general cruising. The "Yikes" at the fuel burn took me in this direction. This is a wood classic, seems to have been treated as such and will expect to be. It's a lot of work and a lot of expense to maintain. Then there's the expense of bringing her to the left coast, and the assumption that you'll be bringing her to salt water (bad). Is this what you're looking for? If so she looks nice.

Yeah, great idea: A wooden boat with gas engines for $145k...
Not
Buyer's market and if I was the buyer, $25k.

Serious TLC $$$ will be a daily chore with any wood boat. Keep in mind also that you will probably be almost any wood boat's last owner. That means paying to dispose of it. So unless you're planning to keep it as a museum piece forever (and can afford to do that) , 25k is a top price.

Any old wooden boat is going to have far more than a few minor things to deal with. Whatever issues you don't have to deal with today, you will have to. It's your dream, pursue it. But you keep coming here asking questions, the answers to which you're going to dispute or ignore. As to a fair price for that boat, there is no such thing. I personally would not pay the $25k mentioned. I wouldn't take it for free if it meant I had to bring it up to good condition and then maintain it. I don't like headaches. I want a boat to go boating. The market for such a boat is so small it's difficult to set a price. Other comparable boats are asking anywhere from half what they're asking up to what they're asking. However, asking and getting are very different. A broker would be able to tell you what similar sold for, but there will be so few sales that the numbers won't be meaningful.

Let me just toss one of the dozens of problems you'd face if you ever got it to LA. Any marina will require you to have insurance. Do you have any idea how difficult it will be to get? Among many things you'll have to do is get an insurance survey and correct any issues they find. This is even true without hull coverage as an insurer faces the risk of it breaking at sea, sinking, causing environment problems. It was once a very special boat.

Now, I'm going to suggest you review one part of the ad again. The owner has listed the major maintenance done between 1995 and 2010. Keep in mind it's been 5 years so time for more. But just add up the costs of all the maintenance listed there and the time required. All that will have to be repeated. Bottom last painted and hull work done in 2010. Last sanded to bare wood in 1999. Well, you'll do it more frequently in salt water and it's probably time now. Mahogany last varnished 10 years ago. Hull last painted 12 years ago. Aft deck enclosure now 17 years old. Sea water impellers 7 years ago and hoses 9 years. All due. Generator 18 years ago. The electronics are 9 years and 20 years old. A/C 16 years. Hot water heater 18 years. The engines are 19 years old.

I will say this. That boat should never be transported to a salt water location. That's just going to speed up all the deterioration. The transporting will be rough and the preparation for salt water and then exposure even tougher on it. If you were talking about paying $50k and keeping it right where it is and you'd ridden on it last week for several hours, then I wouldn't discourage you. I'm sorry, but the dream of owning it is so far removed from the likely reality you would face. I would say just getting it transported and then ready to use in LA would cost you over $100,000 total.

You're told the upkeep between fiberglass hulls and wood are similar? And, no, I don't own a wood boat. Never have and never will unless I own a museum and display them there. You say it looks like it's been kept up. Did you see how long since the various major jobs were last done?

The people who do own wooden boats have a lot of knowledge that you don't and you can't have soon enough to help you. Had you worked with restoring wooden boats the last 20 years then you'd be prepared. When you say something like "the upkeep is similar" you show clearly what a mistake it would be and coming to a forum and gathering information won't change that in days or months. The people I know who own wooden boats seem to like the work on them as much or more than boating. For many of them the pleasure is in restoring and maintaining. I've yet to figure out why you're even looking at wooden boats. What is it you intend to use it for that makes wood preferable? Or is it the appearance? Then I'd ask do you want something to look at or something to boat in?

We're telling you every way possible it would be a huge mistake and yet you don't seem to hear it.

My last comment. Only invest in that boat the amount that you can afford to lose completely and not impact your life in any way. It's a gamble with worse odds than any you can get in Vegas as winning is it costs you only what you pay and losing is it costs you double or triple that. You've got to treat it like you'd treat a collectible in your mind, except it's not even like a collectible. Spend $145,000 on art and you don't have to keep spending each year. Also you could likely recover 50% of that if you decided to sell the art.

That must have been told to you by a guy trying to sell a wood boat. More like sanding and painting the entire boat every couple of years after you replace the boards and stringers that rotted, warped or got worms, caulking seams, replacing fasteners as they rust out. Even just launching in spring requires the extra step of dropping a couple of bags of sawdust to fill the gaps until the wood swells. Then there's the water and dampness that's always inside the boat doing its damage. Wood boats are either bought as something cheap to cruise into the boneyard or kept as a museum piece, a labor of love with stress on the labor part. When that boat was built the labor rate was about $1.25 an hour.

I have owned a wooden boat in the past and also cared for another wooden boat while the owner was absent. (3 years each boat)
They do require far more maintenance than fiberglass boats.
Rot is a quiet and almost invisible problem. So is toredo worms.
I will never own another wooden boat in my live regardless of how beautiful and "classic" they are. Life is too short.

http://bayportyacht.com/core/listin...&url=&hosturl=bayportyacht&&ywo=bayportyacht&

This one sold in July 2015. She has an aluminum hull (not wood) and modern Cummins 450C diesel engines. She was always a fresh water boat, all up to date on service and surveyed very well. Selling price was $140,000. Big difference from the woodie with the gas power.

There are so few available in pampered shape that I don't think comparables really apply. If you're prepared for the work and expense involved in maintaining her in this condition I'd have to say she's worth whatever you're willing to pay for her. If you're not then you could be owning an unsellable boat and a major money pit in a very short period of time.

I also strongly recommend that you check into the cost of getting the boat to L.A. before you make an offer. If it goes by water I'd expect upwards of 30K, not counting crew, (if it even has the needed range. Don't think you want hundreds of gallons of gasoline in drums on deck, although we've seen it here before). DK if it can go by land or how much that would be, but there would sure be a bunch of dismanteling, and on that boat you won't want it to be done by an amateur. Honestly, if I lived on on the west coast I'd confine my looking to the west coast unless money is no object.

By water from Michigan to California? First, it will take years with all the repairs along the way. That's 10,000 miles I'd guess.

Back to your fair price thing. Ok, I'll prove to you that the $25,000 isn't as far off as you think.

If you transport by land between the transport and the money at both ends, let's say $50,000. That adds nothing to the value of the boat. That all has to be deducted to what the fair price in Michigan is. I'd say in Michigan it's fair price is between $75,000 and $100,000 tops. Now you want it to be creme of the crop, top boat. You keep acting like it is now, but it isn't. Getting it current and in that condition would cost you at least another $20,000-$30,000. That makes it a $100,000 boat. It's nowhere close to it's asking price. However, take what you were thinking and subtract $50,000 for transport and then you have the high number. So I see the absolute top of the range to be $100,000-50,000=$50,000. Do you have any idea what it would cost just to update all the electronics to current?

Oh and if you want a broker to answer, then I'd suggest you hire a buyer's broker and they'll do all the research for you.

You have made the worst mistake a boat buyer could make. You've fallen in love with a boat. In fact, with one you've never seen.