Big Roamer for sale on Craig's List

Another link

Here's a link to the same boat only $70,000 less.
http://www.**************/core/list...1974&currencyid=100&fromPrice=&toPrice=&cint=

That thing is way overpriced, considering it needs at a minimum:

$20,000 New Plumbing
$55,000 Replacement of Main Engines
$25,000 Replacement of two diesel gensets
$1,000 New water heater
$2,000 New mufflers
----------------------------
$102,000.00 Total (and I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of things)

And that is assuming the boat has no other issues other than the freeze damage... And I'm sure it has plenty other issues, not the least of which is the interior designed by the Golden Girls.

I dunno...when you are buying a "fixer" boat, you have to make sure that by the time you are done with everything, you don't exceed the boat's market value in good condition...and ideally, you want to be well under market value to compensate for the headaches involved in managing the restoration.

Otherwise, you might as well just buy a nice one and spare yourself the hassle. I don't see any way you could renovate that thing and avoid going WAY over market on it.

What he said,...

Awfully true I'm afraid.
Point is, hire a surveyor to "document" all of your concerns (and put a price tag on them) - then make an offer accordingly, eh?
Cheers,
Eric

I went to see this Roamer over the weekend. The history on it is that the owner who killed it bought it for $140,000 in 2005. Three months later he brought it to the yard for hull paint. The owner kept telling the yard that he'd winterize it, but he didn't do it. A cold snap came through and weeks later he called to ask if they could winterize the boat. The yard guy went on board and found all kinds of broken plumbing, exploded strainers, cracked engine blocks and exhaust manifolds on the mains and seriously blown out genset blocks, etc., and recommended to his boss that they not do ANYTHING to the boat because it was already DOA.

Keeping in mind the inflated boat market in 2005, if your intuition is telling you that a 60' Roamer for $140k in that hot market MUST have been a dog you're heading in the right direction. The upper salon paneling looks like it was picked up on sale at Walmart. The waterbased paint that some fool put on so many surfaces ought to last another season or two before needing complete and total stripping. There are numerous aluminum hull frames that would give Swiss cheese a run for its money--there's seriously degraded aluminum in the bilge areas forward and aft of the engine room, including pitting of the hull plate. All of the aluminum porthole frames aft are completely wasted away--you can see daylight through them. The tracks are full of white powder, and we all know what that means. Kinda makes me wonder what's growing under the brand-new All Grip on the hull just millimeters away...

Fortunately, it rained while I was there. That's a good thing because now I know that the window frames in the upper salon aren't just rotten through, they also leak water, which has softened up the upper salon floors/aft stateroom ceilings. Who knows what the aluminum structural supports for the floor look like in that area? There are large cracks and delaminated areas on the salon roof/house superstructure that allow for massive water intrusion. Where somebody removed the mast there is a large area of delaminated fiberglass that has been subject to many freeze cycles. It looks like a pile of hairy pancakes in the middle of the salon roof from where water freezing and expanding has blown the laminations apart. Who knows what the plywood is like in there?

During the rain storm, there was a stream of water coming into the lower salon over the electrical panels and the AC unit on the opposite corner. The floors are soft there. Rainwater was streaming into the engine room from the salon floor, right into a few of the electrical panels. The plywood floors under both battery banks is wet and rotten.

As far as the "new paint job," I couldn't believe my eyes, since I'd heard that the surveyor and diesel mechanics who had been on board had raved about the hull paint. Then again, I used to own a collision repair shop so I've got eyes to see problems that maybe others miss. First, there's serious pitting 15' abaft of the port bow that the yard manager claims they sandblasted then primed and painted. It should have been cut out and replated there. There's a 8"x6" chunk of bondo and paint missing from the stern transom at the port bootstripe, and a smaller chunk missing from the starboard side. But the real news is that there are several dozen blisters scattered all around the hull. They range in size from 1" to 6" in diameter and are a few millimeters high. If you tried to spot repair them, there are so many spread out over the whole hull that you'd end up completely repainting the hull if you fixed them. Of course, you could always not fix them because it's nice and shiny right now. But the pox will just keep on spreading and getting deeper. When I talked about this with the guy selling the boat for BoatUS, he said that the yard manager had made it clear that they sanded and painted over the old paint. This is NOT an All Grip paintjob that will last for 10-15 years. Oh, and the entire top edge of the aft deck where it turns to the transom is made of bondo. I know that because it is cracked along pretty much the entire width of the deck. When you push on it after a rain storm, water gooshes out. But it sure is shiny!!!

The flybridge is a wreck and has leaks that have wetted the lower helm station. The Furuno radar set...I'm pretty sure it isn't rated to work while submerged. The electrical and electronic systems are completely unknown because it hasn't had power connected since the winter of 2005. Everything might come on with power or...not. Because of water in the lower salon electrical panel, many of the circuit breakers (32vdc, 110vac, and 220vac) are showing corrosion, so I wouldn't be too optimistic.

On the upside, the boat *does* look good from ground level 30+ feet away. The aft section of the bottom shows no serious pitting. And the headliner is in good shape.

Did I mention all of the stuck seacocks, rotten hoses, or (GASP!!) gate valves that no insurance company will accept?

By my thumbnail reckoning, it will take at least $102,000 to get this boat running and *fairly* functional. That's with the new captain doing enough work that he or she BETTER be a bachelor. If you want it fully functional but without even looking at modern electronics, add another $50k or so. If you want it pretty and dry inside, think $15-25k for fiberglass and mahogany work alone. A buddy has a 56' Hatteras that he just had repainted top to bottom. The bill came to $110,000 in professionally done, very nice All Grip.

This boat, shiny as it is, is a basket case. Given that you can buy any one of several sister ships on yachtworld that have already been redone for asking prices of $250k or so, I plan to keep shopping.

SOLD! At auction, for $45,750!

Roamer Sold

If somebody paid forty five thousand dollars for that boat, I wish they would have taken a minute to look at mine. I have a 46 aluminum hull for sale. She is in excellent overall condition, although she does need exterior paint above the waterline - we soda blasted the bottom below the waterline and had new bottom paint applied when we bought her a couple years ago. If anyone is looking for a bargain on an aluminum hull Roamer, she's waiting in Mobile.

14 extra feet longer and 2.3 feet wider...hate to say it, but it's a whole nother class of vessel. Whoever bought it has their hands full, but it was a very righteous price.

Roamer46inFL, I think I've seen your rig on yachtworld. There's also a 55 for $99k or so and they've said they're seriously ready to deal, too. I saw a low hour, Cummins powered, freshwater 47 Commander that sold for $48k about a month ago. The market's just tanking now.

What's your vessel got for power, anyway? If I remember right, only the HP rating was listed on yachtworld.

871 naturals

You're correct on the specs. The pics of the interior of the sold boat just blew me away. No offense intended. Time will tell I guess if it was a good deal or a disaster. Either way, not for me to say.

Are you doing any of the work yourself?

The way I figure it, that's a $100k project just to get it functional and a $200k project if you want to have it be "right". Add that to the $47.5k you paid for it, and you could have easily just bought a fully functional one for less money and sail away immediately.

When I wrote, "Whoever bought it has their hands full..." I hoped to convey that somebody else bought it, godblessem. Better than having it cut up for salvage, eh.

Oops. Misunderstood somehow. Blonde moment.