Pinhole problems

We've lost a ton of snow in the last two days, but despite that it's hard to see how we will be back on the water before May with a foot or so of snow still on the ground and the lake likely still iced over pretty thick.

But even so, the mechanics are hard at work, making me even poorer getting the boat back into a known, good state of repair.  I had the drives pulled and other than the starboard trim sensor and some kind of pinhole in the same drive's bellows, the drives are in good shape but will have the bellows replaced.

The generator is getting a new exhaust hose, and everything else in the way of basic maintenance (water impellers) is being done.  So when we finally do hit the water, the boat will be in decent shape and not at risk of any breakdown, especially with all new injectors and the fuel system fixed.

It's still kind of after-the-fact frustrating that I didn't get some of this picked up in the mechanical inspection or have the knowledge to negotiate the likely costs.  Experience is a mean teacher.  I'm definitely going to negotiate this next time -- whatever the price offered is, cut 10% because they expect it/overpriced the boat, and then another 15% to make up for deferred maintenance unless the owner has proof that these items have been done.

I'm not sure my seller would have agreed to cut his price by $25k, but it would have been an interesting negotiation.  The challenge is if he refuses and you have to walk away, the supply of boats of this vintage/quality/hours isn't super high and it would have been tough to find another one.  My guess is he would have given me half of the next 15k.

So expensive

While it was great to finally connect with a mechanic who could fix my fuel consumption problem and address other issues to put us on a glide path to a manageable mechanical status, I'm not realizing how expensive it all is.

I got new fuel modules, fuel lines and fuel injectors out of my engine fuel consumption problem fix, and I'm kind of seeing the $2200 in cost as a bargain compared to some of the cost with a total engine failure or other major mechanical problem.

Where it's getting really expensive was choosing to store the boat off site to have other mechanical issues addressed.  I'm looking at something like $4500 in cost for storage and basic mechanical support (oil and lube changes, some cleaning, etc).  This is normally maybe $3300 at the marina for the same services.

And none of this includes the drive examination or other minor stuff I ticked off to Indoor Boat Storage.  I'm looking forward to being back to Greenwood next year, even though it is probably lesser service.

It all makes me wish I had been more aggressive in my bid for the boat -- even without better more detailed mechanical survey information, I should have looked at the $5,000 list of misc. mechanical items and turned around and asked for another $10k discount to cover what was found and what wasn't found.  I probably wouldn't have gotten it, but might have gotten half of it.

Of course the challenge was what if the guy said no?  Do I just go ahead as I already did or do I walk away and then spend forever finding another boat as nicely equipped and in as relatively good of a condition?

It's kind of the existential problem with buying a boat.