so you asked, he bought the trailer 9 years ago after the trailer he originally had fell apart, he bought the boat 11 years ago as a complete basket case. The guy who runs the shop behind his is a trailer repair shop, he got the trailer at cost(he does a lot of free welding for the shop), I think it was around $2200 at the time(I've got a used trailer just like it that needs fenders that i gave $750 for)He gave $350 for the bracket, got it blasted for $25. I don't know what he paid for the fiberglass repairs on the hull, but I know he built two T-Tops for the guy who did it. The 2.5' 200's came off of a 23 seacraft that the guy was going to re-power, one of the engines had a worn out pivot shaft and need $2500(retail) worth of work, he got both motors for $4000. The 20" mids came from a buddy of his that traded them for a prop he had(exhaust housings only, we reused the pivots and trim). I found the twin stick shifter for him in a discount box for $100. The console was a scratch and dent one from the guy who ones the mold, they traded out some aluminum welding. He got the leaning post from pioneer(they build them near here), he knows the owner and got one that had some surface defects that wouldn't pass QC at the factory(everything was repainted anyway with awl grip). I gave him the GPS, the gauges were some we found out of other boats. Wire harnesses came with the motors. Most of the deck hardware was stuff I gave him or we cleaned up the original stuff. When you guess at what the fiberglass work was worth, and all the misc new stuff an materials, I guess he probably has $20,000 in the boat, plus an a$$ load of time and work. Not much more than some of the V's on here. And not too bad over a 10-12 year project. He decided to get this one done while work has been slow the past year. A new boat of similar condition would run you well over $100,000.
I tell you what he doesn't have, he doesn't have paid vacations, he doesn't have employer provided health care, he doesn't have a pension or any retirement. He's self employed and probably on the fourth worst year of his career. He pays an obscene amount of money for highly overrated Mt. Pleasant commercial property( a tin barn with no heat or in door plumbing) that eats up most of what he earns. His wife works nights to get the extra pay and his two boys hang out at his shop after school do he can get work done without having to worry about a sitter. He works his *** off, uses his brain and always find a way to do something nice with out paying full price. So to all that thinks its only money, get off your *** and put your mind and back to it, leave the wallet and check book at the house till you run out of options. Leave the check book builders to the TV shows.
