should i pull the trigger on this fiberglass boat

so im looking for my 3rd boat. still waiting for guy to make up his mind if he wants to sell the 14ft feathercraft thats been stuck in the barn behind my house for the past 15years... but anyways just saw this project on craiglist.. they told me its more than likely 16ft... i thought it was like 12 from picture.. but they are going to go to the property its on tomorrow and measure and get more pictures of the inside...

its one of those deals.. buy the trailer, boat comes free.. somebody just trying to get rid of the lawn ornament. selling for $125.....



depending on whats left inside this hull.. is there money to be made on this floating turd?? not my style of boat but if itll get me on water for a temp time and make some money reselling it then ill jump on the deal tomorrow.. between myself and if i need him (dad) moddin/convertin this thing with decks/livewell or storage would be Easy with the woodworking experience i have.... its looking hard for me to pass up for just that low of a price.. the trailer is worth it... or could be after cleaned up and painted if its rough


so help me out guys.. it know its not tin... what would you do.. ive got some money i could put into it cleaned up/painted and maybe a trolling motor on back. and help me get closer to my dream TIN boat


EDIT: before anybody says anything. working with FiberGlass is not a problem at all, im moderate with the stuff.. dad is pretty dam good with it

For $125, I see a (probably) sturdy trailer, a bow light, railing and a console in the pic. Probably other parts in the boat that can be scavenged, even if you don't want to bring her up to fishing capability. Even if the fiberglass is all rotten, there's at least $125 worth of salvage you can utilize on another build. Its your money Go for it.

i wouldnt buy a tri hull to sink on purpose let alone to fish out of... hehe but there should be some useful stuff in there, hard call

offer a crisp new $100 bill (show it to him). Fix the trailer, sell the boat for $250. :LOL2:

Jim said:

offer a crsip new $100 bill (show it to him). Fix the trailer, sell the boat for $250. :LOL2:

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Sounds good to me, jus' sayin'

I would go for it , it's only 125 at the worst (maybe 100) and you will get a good trailer. could sell trailer for 200 prob and already made money. gotta be a few good parts to strip from boat and make even more money from it. doesn't look like a losing deal either way. When i do things like this i don't look at my time as an expense so if you put a quick "rattlecan overhaul" on the trailer , you could get more probably. where are you from? , I might buy the trailer from you.

Those tri-hulls seem to sit on craigslist forever around here unless they have a good running motor

im in Georgia so that would be a hell of a ride for a trailer haha.. im unemployed right now.. doing sidejobs/contractiing work as it comes.. so i have a lot of spare time i could put into it without spending much money. i figured the trailer itself would be worth the price.. if the hull is completely striped and trashed yall think it would be a wise choice to just pull the console out and just do a simple low decking job in bte bottom to make it look good and have it setup for a tiller steer trolling motor or small outboard??? ill post up some pictures as soon as they send me some more today

thanks for all the help so far guys.. hopefully ill have a tin boat mod/conversion coming soon. if not this trihull will be fun and help me wet my toes in the Conversion aspect of boating.. my past 2 boats were just restorations. a lil pond pontoon type that was cracked to hell. and a 14ft flatbottom that was just hideous.. didnt do much fancy stuff. just the basics to get them water ready

Derek said:

Those tri-hulls seem to sit on craigslist forever around here unless they have a good running motor

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Saw one on Craig's List that was posted for over a year! He raised and lowered the price but kept the same pictures, duh!

I am watching a tri=hull now , has good trailer that i want , gonna wait a week or 2 then give him a call , he wants 400 for it but it has no motor. I figure the steering console and trailer are worth a couple hundred. gotta measure his first to make sure its gonna fit in my boat.

Anybody know where to get rid of the boat ? do landfills take them ?

truckhuntfish said:

I am watching a tri=hull now , has good trailer that i want , gonna wait a week or 2 then give him a call , he wants 400 for it but it has no motor. I figure the steering console and trailer are worth a couple hundred. gotta measure his first to make sure its gonna fit in my boat.

Anybody know where to get rid of the boat ? do landfills take them ?

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Don't know about the boat, but I did cut up a holey trailer into small pieces that fit in the trash dumpster. :roll: My GF and I specialize in destruction!

in my country (philippines), many guys would scramble for those boats. send them over! :LOL2: would you believe if i told you that something like that will cost over a grand? honest.

i bet if you shiny up the boat and pair it with an old electric motor, you could sell it quick.
i do not have first hand expeerience wiht boat pricing in your neck of the woods, but 125 seems like a pretty sweet deal.

I KNOW THAT THOSE TRI HULLS DONT DO WELL AROUND HERE AT ALL, THEY DONT TAKE ROUGH WATER WELL AT ALL SEEN/HEARD ALOT OF THOSE GO UNDER IN LAKE ERIE, I HAVENT SEEN ONE ON THE WATER IN QUITE SOME TIME THOUGH. MOST OF THE LAKES AROUND HERE ARE RELATIVELY SHALLOW AND GET NASTY IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, THATS WHY I WANT TO GET SOMETHING A LIL MORE FORGIVING.

truckhuntfish said:

Anybody know where to get rid of the boat ? do landfills take them ?

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I was able to take this hunk of junk to the town landfill. I got it for free and kept the trailer. It was so wet inside that just the boat weighed 2600 Lbs. The guys at the landfill love crushing boats.

See now I am thinking just the opposite. If your dad has mad skills with fiberglass, I say strip er down to bare hull re gelcoat the exterior and build er back up with all composites on the interior and follow something like an express stick steer boat for a layout and find a nice used 75hp 2 smoker and have a ball fishin her.

im thinking it must be pretty bad inside the hull. ita taking them a while to get some more pictures/info about this boat. probably just gonna pass up on this deal. itd take $40-50 in gas just to go pick it up in my truck.. ill keep my eyes open for another project