Advice on 1970 Burger 74 Flush Deck Motoryacht

Yes, the old shrimp docks/fish house. It's the next address west if walking towards dinner... Fish house is standing, but dock on the west side of it is caput.

It has changed so much since I lived there. Further south, Isle of Hope marina had fixed covered slips.
Here I kept my Pearson, twin gas, cabin cruiser.
Another unique antique back then. Pearson made power boats.
https://pearsonyachts.org/powerboats/pearson-express-cruiser.html

Here is a picture of that exact Pearson Power cruiser.
My work associate knew I had a boat.
He also had his Father's boat in his back yard.... sort of derelict, but not to him.
He was moving to Fla.
He asks me if I want a free boat.
I do not but know a guy that might.

I go to my marina owners and close friend, do you want a Pearson power boat.
He says no.
I say it's free.
He says SOLD.

My first friend thinks my close friend is going to bring her back to her former glory even tho her engines are apart and rusted hulks, etc etc.

My close friend brings her to MD from PA and she is not still for 10 minutes when the chainsaws come.

End result was a new tow boat with a 671 Detroit.
Ran it for prolly 20 years .

Never told my first friend what happened to his Dad's vessel.

Didn't mean to derail the thread, but that brochure picture of the Pearson brought it all back

Another crazy thick/solid hull. Must have been a great work boat.

It was a great work boat & I have many stories.
It had heat too.
A luxury, I thought.

Heat is easy,
My pop installed a "Hang-On" auto A C system in his SeaRay.
All cool till you turned the engine off.

I have tried to bring this up before on some work boats, Folk just look at me like I was from Mars.

The stuff we built in da swamps.

Hey cooper,

My partner and I flew from Florida to go look at this boat in August. We were also looking for a fixer upper and didn’t mind a few projects, given our experience fully refitting a 50 ft sailboat to Bristol condition. The photos of this boat aren’t truthful, there is so much more damage and decay than they let on. The boat also was never owned by Greta Garbo, per a broker familiar with the vessel here in Florida. We spent an entire day, almost 7 hours pouring through every detail and crawling around this boat. There isn’t a single screw on it that could be saved. The generators were decaying on themselves, god knows if the engines start, and there was standing water on the fuel tanks. Every piece of machinery needs gone over and replaced. Not a single piece of wood on the entire vessel wasn’t water damaged. The decks were literal plywood that are water damaged and need pryed up. Whoever purchased this boat last (the ones it was repossessed from) decided they could do a Home Depot special on it and failed at the end of the day. Full of mold, upon taking possession, every single finishing piece, flooring, ceiling need to be removed to clear the mold issue. The stickers on the side of the boat are from the repossession, not drugs. The entire port side of the vessel is damaged, including the railing, not showing in the photos, with large sections of the faring falling in various parts of the vessel. At the end of the day, this boat is a total salvage and will take hundreds of thousands to be trust worthy, in just machinery alone, let alone be pretty. I watched the price on this boat fall from 260 K to 65 K, we went to visit when she was priced at 90k. The only thing you’d be getting is a hull, probably valued at 25-35. The owners didn’t seem to care if the boat sat there and continued to rot and didn’t want to entertain a reasonable offer. I hope to god you did not buy this hulk of trash.

Burger should go grab her on spec. Easy for me to say as I'm not on the board.

Sadly, They can build a new one in less time to re-build this one. And then warranty it.
A new boat just takes slapping new materials together. Already CNC'd ready to weld/nail/glue together.
Taking this old one apart, surveying the damage, fixing that, then fitting the jigsaw puzzle together with frames, bulkheads, decks & superstructure in the way, can double the labor.

Even if it is historical, still not worth it. History on other boats have proved that.
It is going to take a guy/group with piles of cash and no sense to save this one.

Heck, going to take a pile of labor to clean it up for an artificial reef.
A pile of labor to clean it up for scrap.

I have to stop typing before I start crying. I do hate to see ole boats go.

Now, Talk the board to building a new boat with these classic lines.

In boats and cars, those sweet classic lines are gone.

Remember the FRP kit cars?
Years ago I was talking to a kid in Atlanta who was going to build FRP kit cars.
Old land barges was his target.
Can you imagine a new Lincoln convertible with those counter (suicide) doors?
Fraction of the weight. Bolt it down to an old truck frame and engine.

I luv old cars too.

Well, while my Burger was in better shape than this reportedly is presently, I effectively stripped her, significantly rewired and plumbed, new chillers, new, well, everything. Decks and paint, too. I'm now chasing replacement of some of the original teak where rot set in through neglect. It's easy to spot once you see the paint blister pop up. Yes, I've paid significantly for that deferred maintenance we mentioned in the charter-thread, but in the end I have the best of her class at a fraction of new cost. Still a healthy investment, and still with the original iron, but the gensets are new now, as is much of the belly plating mid ship.

Could I sell her for what I have in her? Likely no, but rarely can anyone gain such an outcome with a boat unless you're a writer for CNBC.

There is more to a classic car than the shape… it s about the sound, the handling and even the smells.

Most importantly, the style and sound of the music...my preferred combination is a car from teh 50's or 60's playing music from the 60's or 70's...

I'm not a fancy guy like yourself, But I would luv another 429 Torino, 390 AMX or 289 Stang f/b.
If I knew then how rare they would be now, I would have hid them in a barn somewhere instead of moving them off for something else.
Yes, I was young and stupid.
Now old and slow.

I have this luv for abuse also. Keeping up our 45 year old Bertram 58.
Just found some bad wood. It never ends.
I probably can't give this tank away. In a year or two, may have to try.