HELP!!! I am needing advise when purchasing 1st SN

I am looking at a 84 Ski Nautique and would like to talk to someone about what questions to ask and what to look for. you can reply to me, call me, text me. 702.521.1054 If there is someone near Medford OR that could help that would be great also. this is the link to the boat i am looking at. http://medford.craigslist.org/boa/3916521171.html

any help would be great. I am aware to be cautious of bad stringers.

thanks,

JD

thanks for the info. what does flog mean? as you can see i am a newbie.

thanks again,

JD

4000 seems low to me. How many hours on it? It does look clean. The owner doesn't say much in the ad. That allso seems a little strange but whatever. Drive it and look it over hard. Bones.

It does look clean. That interior is pretty good for 29 years. 1300 hours on the motor is fine, but if it hasn't been rebuilt, that is probably in your future. That's 11 4-hour (engine hour) trips per year for 29 years.

A few things I noticed though:

1) The fly-high pole is nice if you are going to wakeboard, but it either means that they removed, broke, or cut the ring and finger off the original pylon. Find out what.
2) The fly-high seems to be connected to the front lifting ring, which is a no-no. There should be a strap; see if they have it and look at the front lifting ring. Look for stress cracks around it.
3) The swim platform is not original. It doesn't look horrible, but it may be a slightly different shape. Seems to be composite or fiberglass?
4) The transom tie downs are not original. They are nice to have but make sure it was a professional installation. If you can see inside the transom, see if they are through bolts (they better be!) and that they have some kind of backing plate.
5) The gas cap is not original (from what I can tell from that pic). Not necessarily a big deal, but when I removed mine, I could see why... it was soooo corroded and flaking inside. I'd just ask about it to find out why it was changed.

Take a test ride like the others said and check for temps and performance. You can see in picture 2 and 4 that it appears to be running (2 I see exhaust and 4 the hose is in the water strainer, which is something you'd do to run it). Also try to check compression on each cylinder.

Also ask them to remove the back seat, rear floor panel, and gas tank panel. This will allow you to check out the stringers for delamination or anything obvious, and will allow you to see the transom tie downs.

If everything is in working order, $4000 seems reasonable but you should be able to get it down a bit. However, realize that you still may have a stringer/floor job and engine rebuild in your future.

Keel guard. A lot of guys use them... either because they want to beach their boat or they have before and are covering up the damage. I'm not a big fan of beaching and I'd ask the PO about it, but it wouldn't prevent me from wanting to buy the boat.

Did you go over the questions in my previous post?

The trailer, while not a Correct Craft looks pretty nice, and it has a winch.

How did the water test go ?

Well here is an update. I got an email from the owner today at 4 and he sold it last night. Pretty bummed. If anyone knows of a boat down around my area, let me know. The search is on again. Man I liked that boat. Last time I comment on it.

Congrats on your purchase. The fun begins.