Thank you braol for the knolwedge. I appreciate the warning but greatly appreciate all the good information. It's just what I need. For now I just want to make it livable and see if it even appeals to me. If it does I may do more work to it or I may just start saving for my own boat. I don't know yet. Sails looked okay but I'm no professional. The main sail cover was dryrot so we ripped it off and put a tarp around it. Didn't look at the jib yet. Will worry about all of that later on.
HMT2 you are awesome thank you for the book. Just bought it from Amazon and will get it Wednesday. I greatly appreciate someone who gets it. I'd do anything for my family even those by choice. But I'm not dumb and won't let someone screw me even family.
Thanks for the info Charliegrau. Trust me, there will be contracts and stuff before I spend a penny on this boat. I'm just trying to get a list of everything that needs done to make it livable. It will all go in an excel sheet and I will get prices of everything in addition to estimated labor. I'm OCD and rarely do anything half assed. I appreciate everyone's concern on the owner dicking me over but it really isn't something I'm asking you guys for help with. If you want to help me fix up the boat, then I want all the knowledge you're willing to put through your fingers. That's what I'm here for not whether or not I should fix it up.
Batteries - 1 is MAXX-24DC other is 31DCM. I'm pretty sure all 3 need to be replaced, do they have to be these part number batteries or are there others I should look at that are cheaper? These exact ones appear to be $100 each. It looks like he has some kind of timer rigged to a battery charger?
Battery Charger - How do I check if it's working alright? Can I rent a device from autozone or home depot to check? The engine isn't starting right now because of bad batteries I can try to put a charger on them and try to start. That's what they did when they wanted to sail it.
Air Conditioning - The switch is busted so I need to get a phillips screwdriver and look under the panel. He thinks the AC worked fine before the switch busted. I flipped everything on and it made no noise so guessing it broke in the off position or he rigged it to just stay off? If it don't come on, what's the first step in troubleshooting?
Head/Holding tank - Needs some love. Toilet was full of algae and water. I pumped it out and found the handle you use to pump has a bad seal as algae water splashed out of the handle all over my hand. How do I check the holding tank?
Water - The water pump works but is extremely noisy. It is apparently in the head under the floor and I couldn't figure out how to get the panel off to investigate (was running low on daylight). So couldn't check the thru hull and strainer. Does the pump put water into some kind of pressurized tank or is it a turn on when you want running water then turn it off when you don't? How do I go about emptying the water that's been stored for the past 3 years and fill it back up with fresh water? How do I drain the waste tanks? How do I check to make sure they are good?
Mold - Didnt notice any. No mildew smell. Cushions all seemed fine and smelled okay. I checked everywhere I could see boat (behind the cabinets and whatnot) and saw no mold or mildew. There was water in the bilge so I pumped it out. So it is leaking but doesn't seem to be terrible. Need to get under the table to check for water there. How do I trace the leaks? I need to get a dehumidifier is there any special kind I should look for?
Compression Post and Support Beam - I didn't know what to look for at the time but I found a PDF with instructions on how to repair and what to look for. Will check next time I'm on the boat.
Insects - There are spiders everywhere. What can I use to get rid of them? How do I prevent them? Any tricks? I definitely need a bug lamp or something there are so many mosquitos.
Toilet
A/C
Batteries
Panel under V Verth (why would there be catnip in there?)