Powerboat refit cost

[Carsten64]

good morning, as i am moving from 44 ft sail to 50-60 ft power and looking for older boats i like to get some experiences from here.

Most boats i am looking at are 20-25 years old, ofcourse not projects and maintained but still old. When talking about steel a complete paint will often be necessary, but in general all boats need some work in bilge and engine room, pumps, cleaning tanks, old hoses, old toilets, electronic and electric , maybe deck recaulking etc so def. not a job i do myself. its difficult to calculate but i am already assuming 2-3000 man hrs can something at a 55 to 60 ft boat. What do you think ?
I dont want to repair constantly so better to do one refit once and after that still enough maintenance will be required. So the idea is spending 500 k for decent boat but be prepared to but 3-400 k in refit most probably in the Netherlands, manhour 100 eur incl vat.

i asked some italian yard but they told me with 3000 hrs they dont even start......

any experience?

 

[simonfraser]

why would you take that on if you dont have the time / skill to do this yourself ?

paying professionals to do this for you will cost a fortune, buy a boat in a decent condition ....

 

[Carsten64]

thats the problem looking some years already but boats after 2000 lacking a lot.... and trawler like a doggersbank a nordhavn selene or other dutch are very rare so the market is not easy. on my sailboat, two houses and three cars i did all myself but a big powerboat is different and mor complex

 

[Sticky Fingers]

3000 hours would be c. €400k for labour alone. You’ll spend maybe that again new parts and materials. For that money you could buy something much newer and spend a fraction of that on a cosmetic facelift and a big service.

 

[Carsten64]

Yes i am still looking.....only 1 mio to spent which was a lot when i was a kid but today.....

 

[Tranona]

In answer to your basic question, suspect it will cost as much as building a similar boat from scratch. Maybe a third of the labour will be in taking it apart rather than building and labour rates for a one maybe 2 or 3 rimes as high as in the Turkish or Chinese factories where new boats of this type are mostly built.

 

[roa312]

Sounds wild to me that a boatyard would not even touch a 3,000 hour job. Must be good days in Italy!

 

[Carsten64]

yes i was shocked too, i think they only want open checkbook customer and nobody who calculate hours.....

Ok refit is financially stupid but honestly every 20 year old boat need a refit to be technically as new. my boat is 40 years old and i repair when necessary, thats one way. and i always have sails, but a powerboat is different with all the hydraulic and electric etc . will be interesting.....

 

[rafiki_]

good morning, as i am moving from 44 ft sail to 50-60 ft power and looking for older boats i like to get some experiences from here.

Most boats i am looking at are 20-25 years old, ofcourse not projects and maintained but still old. When talking about steel a complete paint will often be necessary, but in general all boats need some work in bilge and engine room, pumps, cleaning tanks, old hoses, old toilets, electronic and electric , maybe deck recaulking etc so def. not a job i do myself. its difficult to calculate but i am already assuming 2-3000 man hrs can something at a 55 to 60 ft boat. What do you think ?
I dont want to repair constantly so better to do one refit once and after that still enough maintenance will be required. So the idea is spending 500 k for decent boat but be prepared to but 3-400 k in refit most probably in the Netherlands, manhour 100 eur incl vat.

i asked some italian yard but they told me with 3000 hrs they dont even start......

any experience?

Why does a 20 year old boat need so much work? I bought a 20 year old boat earlier this year. I’m having the hull Coppercoated, new carpets, new Bimini, and some small changes on the fly helm. Total cost will be £10-£12k. Engine service I’ve done, plus sanding the cockpit teak.

 

[MapisM]

Sounds wild to me that a boatyard would not even touch a 3,000 hour job. Must be good days in Italy!

It sounds wild because it is.
Off the top of my head, I could name several Italian boatyards who would be more than happy to tackle a 3k hours job.
Coming to think of it, that's true of ALL the boatyards I can think of.
The only logical reason why a yard might have dismissed the OP request is that he might have asked to pay 3k hours for something that the yard estimated to require 5k hours or whatever.

That aside, @Carsten64:
A 20/25yo powerboat in the 55/60 feet bracket should be bloody close to perfection, to be worth 1M.
Actually, with that budget, on top of a turnkey boat, I'd want also some hundreds thousands change to invest in something more solid than a boat, like booze and whores!

 

[Carsten64]

notdhavn fleming and selenes are asking approx 1,1 to 1.5 for 20 year, 3000 hr with no big refit. a plastic bost might need some electronics, new pumps and hoses, maybe lithion and solar power and easily 100 k are gone.
a steel bost a complete paint for 100 k, aircon heater might work but are old too. maybe shaft balancing, new engine mounts etc all normal maintenance many owner forget the last 5 years before selling....

i only was calculating the worst case .....

 

[MapisM]

I didn't realize that you're focused just on some of the most overrated (hence overpriced) powerboats available.
Are you sure to need a boat that takes forever to get nowhere?
If you check out planing vessels of similar vintage and size, you'll see that there's plenty around, of primary builders, at half that price if not less.
And depending on the type of cruising you have in mind, they could actually be even better than any trawler.
Saying this as someone who spent 17 years with a timber trawler, for the records...

 

[Carsten64]

thats a fair question. my idea after 13 yesrs in the Med after sailing down from the Baltic is to reverse my tour. spending a season each in France in Scotland and Norway and the Baltic again in a nice cosy salon. after that back to the Med. we like to anchor and spending weeks near an island . so we need good anchoring behaviour and storage for bigger dinghy etc.

 

[Alicatt]

We bought a 47 year old plastic boat, internally there are a few spots that need attention, the biggest thing will be resealing the windows which will be happening this winter once she is out the water with fixing up a few spots on the superstructure's fibreglass and a complete repaint has been costed out at about €22k, the previous owner spent over €40k on fixing up a lot on the boat, and we paid a lot less than that for her.

We were over taken by events a few weeks ago in that the boat suffered damage in a canal lock, not our fault, the small bits of repair needed has been estimated at €17k, just waiting for the insurance company to get it's finger out and approve the repairs, while at the same time we will add to that to get the rest of the work done at the same time.

 

[harvey38]

We bought a 40 year old MOBO, mechanically and structually ok but very dated internally, old instruments, head/cabins linings and upholstery well past its sell by date. Including new synthetic teak decking, full instrument upgrade, lift outs to accommodate planned and unexpected things we've shelled out around £60k.

 

[Momac]

I am sure there are 20 year old 50ft boats that have been well maintained and would only need a fraction of the suggested work.