New member, owner hopefully soon...

[Great laker]

My wife and I are looking for an older 36 Mariner, model 3697. Great layout for entertaining and someone with bad knees. We've seen several with some pretty soft spots in the deck. No ser added hardware suggesting an entry point. Anyone have experience with this?
Great Laker. Kenosha

[Lyndon670]

When I was in the market for my first "big boat" some 15 years ago, I came across a lot of boats with soft spots on the deck. It's not a hard fix, nor is it expensive to have it repaired. I wouldn't tackle it myself unless I was handy. Basically, the top piece of gelcoat is cut out well beyond the softness and then the rotten wood is exposed and removed. A new piece is cut to template and dropped in. Then the old piece of gel coat is set back down and the cuts are re glassed. Now, that's simplifying the process for the purpose of a post, but that's it.

The long and short of it in my book is this - get a survey each time and walk if anything comes up. There are hundred of available boats on the market, and just as many without soft spots as there are with. If an owner is serious about selling, it would have been addressed before the listing went up. In my book, where there is one issue with a boat I'm looking at buying, then there are probably 2 issues. And what ever price you get to fix it - double it.

[waybomb]

You might want to look at one of my first threads here where I showed our 3697 Mariner project.
Took a decrepit wreck of a boat that sat uncovered on land for 10 years and fixed her up.

But ALWAYS get the vessel surveyed before buying one, unless you are prepared to do what we did. We knew what we were getting into. FWIW, we paid $3,500 for the boat and put about $22,000 more into it. But we essentially have a brand new boat, and it was paid for as we went along. It was surveyed at $45,000 for insurance purposes when done.

[Lyndon670]

Fred, what do you think your labour costs were, and how long did it take you?

[waybomb]

The only thing we paid for labor-wise was the granite and the carpet. Everything else my wife and I did ourselves.
1800 total for the granite including the granite
2400 total for the carpet, which includes the inside carpet and all the outside serged carpet, including the carpet.
We have about 1100 man-hours of our labor in it.

[Great laker]

Thanks for the advice. The only boat I ever bought without a survey was my first- it was new. I would not buy without a good survey. I'm not as fearless as Fred, but I'm not shy about tackling what needs to be done within my comfort and knowledge levels either. We decided to go ahead with the boat, soft spots on the deck notwithstanding. That's the only significant issue that came up, and a boat 28 years old isn't expected to be without flaws (ie work needing to be done). She hasn't been neglected and she runs well, both a plus.
First year will be adapting from years sailing, to the change to twin screws and lots more room.

appreciate the sound advice!

Great Laker