I wouldn't be terribly concerned about the bilge water or it's color. When i picked up my '89 C34 the bilge water was black, so black i couldn't even see the bilge pump. i suspect mine was caused by oil mist from the diesel crankcase breather basically polluting the bilge area underneath between the interior liner and the hull. i cleaned all that out and now my bilge water runs pretty clear. and my understanding of keel bolt problems, is that the issues generally show up in the lower part of the stud near the keel where you can't see it any how. it certainly easy enough to drain down the bilge with the pump or a pump/bucket, i'd do it myself if i was truly interested in the boat.
Prepping a boat for sale / survey
- Thread starter Scott T-Bird
- Start date
We looked at every 320 for sale between San Diego and Ventura, all had asking prices of around $85,000. One belonged to a guy I knew whose wife had thrown him out and he'd been living on the boat, sure enough he hadn't even made the bed or washed the dishes in the sink.
I used a friend who is a broker and we found one in San Francisco that looked good and got additional photos and info sent. Planned to go the following weekend for a look, Wednesday after looking at half a dozen boats I got discouraged. I called the SF broker and said "I've looked at 20 boats the same vintage and have no reason to expect yours to be in better condition, I won't be coming to look this weekend" She replied "I assure you the boat shows as seen in the pictures and we'll lower to $75,000" "I'll be there Saturday morning"
The boat had 200 hours on engine, had been little used for the last 3 years and was mostly dusty, the broker had opened the boat to air out, dusted and cleaned the sinks which were a little dingy.
The original owner was named John Paul Jones (I'm not kidding) an ASA instructor, everything in the boat was logged and location depicted on diagrams. He was always teaching on OPB's so took a co-owner who got sick. There were no personal belongings left on the boat, everything on board went with the boat. The selling brokers name was Dinah Goodsell, once again no kidding.
I wanted a boat with a Yanmar, I found the build history to be very helpful in shopping.
https://c320.org/page.php/_Catalina320_Hull_History
I used a friend who is a broker and we found one in San Francisco that looked good and got additional photos and info sent. Planned to go the following weekend for a look, Wednesday after looking at half a dozen boats I got discouraged. I called the SF broker and said "I've looked at 20 boats the same vintage and have no reason to expect yours to be in better condition, I won't be coming to look this weekend" She replied "I assure you the boat shows as seen in the pictures and we'll lower to $75,000" "I'll be there Saturday morning"
The boat had 200 hours on engine, had been little used for the last 3 years and was mostly dusty, the broker had opened the boat to air out, dusted and cleaned the sinks which were a little dingy.
The original owner was named John Paul Jones (I'm not kidding) an ASA instructor, everything in the boat was logged and location depicted on diagrams. He was always teaching on OPB's so took a co-owner who got sick. There were no personal belongings left on the boat, everything on board went with the boat. The selling brokers name was Dinah Goodsell, once again no kidding.
I wanted a boat with a Yanmar, I found the build history to be very helpful in shopping.
https://c320.org/page.php/_Catalina320_Hull_History
I think you learned two things, this broker will say anything to sell the boat and nothing that he says can be taken at face value. Also it may have confirmed that you would need a survey done by a surveyor of your choosing.