Is it cost effective to rebuild an old boat?
No, usually not. Even if you do 95% of the work yourself, it’s cheaper and saves you much time and hassle to pay top dollar for a Triton or similar older boat in well-maintained condition and fully fitted out than to get a cheap fixer-upper and do an extensive refit. For example, you could possibly buy a broken-down Triton for say $3,000 and then spend six months full time working on it and spending easily $15,000 in materials and equipment, like rebuilding the engine, replacing the mast maybe, installing a windvane, replacing a rotten wood rudder, replacing rotten balsa deck core, adding electronics, etc. Or you could try to buy one fully fitted out and repaired for $15K-20K and save yourself the work with the same cost in the end. Or you could get something in between these two extremes. For many people it makes sense to pay the extra money to get a boat that is as close to perfect as you can find in order to save money and time. On the other hand, you might never find a boat already
No, usually not. Even if you do 95% of the work yourself, it’s cheaper and saves you much time and hassle to pay top dollar for a Triton or similar older boat in well-maintained condition and fully fitted out than to get a cheap fixer-upper and do an extensive refit. For example, you could possibly buy a broken-down Triton for say $3,000 and then spend six months full time working on it and spending easily $15,000 in materials and equipment, like rebuilding the engine, replacing the mast maybe, installing a windvane, replacing a rotten wood rudder, replacing rotten balsa deck core, adding electronics, etc. Or you could try to buy one fully fitted out and repaired for $15K-20K and save yourself the work with the same or less cost in the end. Or you could get something in between these two extremes. For many people it makes sense to pay the extra money to get a boat that is as close to perfect as you can find in order to save money and time. On the other hand, you might never find a boat
