Workin' on a Trade

Hey Everyone,
It's been a while since I've posted. It was fixin' to be a nice quiet winter and then it happened. I was on craigslist taking care of some items I want to get rid of and after I finished, I looked at the local boat classifieds. Saw one "Sell or Trade", and had to take a look for some reason so I clicked on it. I said, "I've seen this boat!!!" So I called the number, and sure enough, I knew this boat (I've been eyeballin' this thing for a couple years for sure). It was a half a mile from my house.
Long-story-short, I'm posting this because you all have been so helpful and supportive when my boys and I built our boat last year, that I'd like more advice. Do you think I should make this "Even-up" trade. Our boat is a 1981 14' Starcraft Seafarer; 60" beam, 1974 Mercury 9.8hp, recently re-done floor plan (check out my link).
The boat up for "sale or trade" is a 1972 Starcraft 16' Supersport; 75" beam, 1972 Mercury 80hp console drive, but open floor plan.
I've looked the boat over and everything looks great, just haven't heard the motor run at all. The other guy is retired and is looking to downsize (I have no reason to not trust his motive). I would really like to go up in size because I have four boys. (enough said about that!)
Let me know what you think.

I like the supersport, think I'd do it.

With four boys, the extra space is a necessity.

Just make sure you test out the motor REALLY well before making the swap. It would be terrible to trade away a good boat to find out the new motor needs $1,500 worth of work.

Thanks, any ideas how I go about making sure the motor runs good in the middle of an Indiana winter? Won't be able to get the boat on the water for a while. It's been real cold here for the last two weeks.
Just got off the phone with the mechanic who has done some of the work on the motor, and he says it's an older motor, but has been taken care of pretty well as far as he can recall (rebuilt carbs 2yrs. ago). He told me to check the oil in the lower unit for water.

Do a compression check is about all the motor checking you need to do besides hearing and seeing it run. If it was me and the compression was good I be all over it them old motor run forever if they have been taken care of.