3500 hours .... is that considered excessive for a 12 year old motorboat?

Less than 300 hours a year
Depends on how the they are done which is why so many cars now have variable service intervals
If it’s a a lot of short sprints then not so good as opposed to semi displacement longer trips
And how much HP is being used
Do you have maintenance records which are best guide to state of engines along with tidiness of engine compartment
 
150000 miles for a van, if your lucky another 100000 before major things start going wrong, 500 hours, unless its been used on long runs not too hard, then keep looking after them & the could go on for ever, nearly.
 
I suspect it's been a school/teaching boat so the engines are probably OK as it probably won't have done much fast stuff, but the gearboxes will be wanting a dose of looking at. D6 parts are expensive. Possible (likely) Seaplex issues too - very expensive parts.
Personally I wouldn't go near it, the difference in price for considerably less hours doesn't make it worth the risk.
 
On general terms the answer is yes.

Comes down to condition of engines and price of boat. You will get hammered when you sell

Whilst apples and pears aviation engines are overhauled every 2000 hours. Same thing? No. Gives a vague idea though.
 
Over 3 years ago I sold my Phantom 43 , at the time I wanted to move into a Targa 47 with D9 575 engines.
I found one in Holland which when the pound was good against the Euro the deal looked good, the boat was in very nice order but had done from memory just under 2000 hours and was 10 years old , it had done most of its work at low speed on the Dutch inland waterways .
I just couldn’t bring myself to go and look at it .

All I can say is that the boat is still for sale owned by the broker at Shipcar yachts , and of course as the pound has dropped it is no longer attractive to anyone with pounds in there pocket as it was 3 years ago.
This is a good example why boats with high hours just don’t sell .
I’ve not checked recently but it was listed a couple of weeks ago , it not cheap and the hours recorded are not in the advert.
 
I guess it would need to be half the asking price of otherwise equal boats with less than 1000 hours .... ..but it isn't.
 
I got a new Squadron 65 in 2015 which has C18 1150hp Cat engines. Five seasons later (though this one far from finished for me :) ) I've done 960 hours. The boat has fin stabilisers and we tend to potter along at c10 knots for much of the time though do at least 20 mins every 2 hours at 18 knots or so. The crucial thing is the amount of fuel the engines have burnt and my boat has a screen showing lifetime cumulative fuel use since new. If the D6's you're looking at do too then IMHO that's much more important than actual hours. Even if the seller has a spreadsheet showing fuel fills etc then that would be interesting. Notwithstanding the above, and as others have said, engine hours are still seen as one of the main gauges of an engine's wear so have a disproportionate effect on resale values. I'm hoping that with the technology starting to record cumulative fuel burn, that this will start to become an important factor - it's actually a much better indicator of the amount of work an engine's done!
 
Last edited:
MedMilo said:
I got a new Squadron 65 in 2015 which has C18 1150hp Cat engines. Five seasons later (though this one far from finished for me :) ) I've done 960 hours. The boat has fin stabilisers and we tend to potter along at c10 knots for much of the time though do at least 20 mins every 2 hours at 18 knots or so. The crucial thing is the amount of fuel the engines have burnt and my boat has a screen showing lifetime cumulative fuel use since new. If the D6's you're looking at do too then IMHO that's much more important than actual hours. Even if the seller has a spreadsheet showing fuel fills etc then that would be interesting. Notwithstanding the above, and as others have said, engine hours are still seen as one of the main gauges of an engine's wear so have a disproportionate effect on resale values. I'm hoping that with the technology starting to record cumulative fuel burn, that this will start to become an important factor - it's actually a much better indicator of the amount of work an engine's done!
Click to expand...

Have you backed up your higher than average ( comparable same boats in the market ) with a spread sheet of oil analysis?
Also the engine hrs show total boat usage on other systems, eg plotter screen time on , getting ready to pop as in the first week with a new owner .
Sure soft furnishings like carpets can be sorted by throwing cash @ before sale .
It’s the hard stuff on or running all the time , prop shaft seals , rudder stocks .
I,am thinking with a board of snakes and ladders a low hrs boat has disproportionately more ladders and a high hrs disproportionately more snakes to drop on after you shake the dice .

Or if running a boat costs in man maths way is £ X / hr , you have had far greater , taken out a far greater number of X ,s ......which shake out later as a price reduction at the end .

Each hr takes a chunk of resale out ........ irrespective of only looking @ engine health .
The market , agree takes a myopic view to hrs and engine health , buts it’s all they have for comparison and understand .

I,am not saying you are but you can’t burn the candle from both ends .

It’s only money after all :) and when it’s time to get rid @ least you have had your fun and memories.
 
MedMilo said:
I got a new Squadron 65 in 2015 which has C18 1150hp Cat engines. Five seasons later (though this one far from finished for me :) ) I've done 960 hours. The boat has fin stabilisers and we tend to potter along at c10 knots for much of the time though do at least 20 mins every 2 hours at 18 knots or so. The crucial thing is the amount of fuel the engines have burnt and my boat has a screen showing lifetime cumulative fuel use since new. If the D6's you're looking at do too then IMHO that's much more important than actual hours. Even if the seller has a spreadsheet showing fuel fills etc then that would be interesting. Notwithstanding the above, and as others have said, engine hours are still seen as one of the main gauges of an engine's wear so have a disproportionate effect on resale values. I'm hoping that with the technology starting to record cumulative fuel burn, that this will start to become an important factor - it's actually a much better indicator of the amount of work an engine's done!
Click to expand...


In a planning boat do you think someone ( buyers engineer ) might scrutinise the hrs and fuel burn together and realise it’s not spent as much time as it should of done at P speed .
The low fuel burn does not tally with the high hrs run ? .
Then start a conversation ( if the engineer s worth his salt ) with the buyer about low EGT ,s and agglomeration and the effect on engine health .
 
Not saying that 3500 hours makes these engines worn out but keep in mind that these engines don´t come with cylinder liners and can there for not be fully rebuilt
When the cylinders go bad you need to buy new engines
 
Alleged average hourly usage per season supposed to be 50 hours.
Would have no problem buying a boat with high hours but the price would have to reflect the inevitable just round the corner costs of having to replace a major component, which could render the boat simply not economic to repair.
You might have forked out a fortune for new engine but the rest of the boat could be worth less than you paid.
Plus the loss of the use of the boat and finding somebody prepared to fix it and then slot it into their workhop.Probably involving a lift out into the bargain.
......invariably something else will need doing while the job is in progress.
 
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