0:00
You know there's often a smell equated with brand new things, like how people say that
0:05
they love that brand new car smell. I've never had a brand new car though, so I can't confirm that smell, or like the smell
0:11
of a brand new pair of shoes, or even the smell of a brand new boat
0:17
Which is where we will be starting this journey on the life cycles that a boat can go through
0:22
Except a brand new boat usually smells like fiberglass though, which equals itching, so it's
0:26
not really the best way to start off a relationship, but in you know, it's not really the best way to start off a relationship, but anywho, a brand new boat usually starts off its life in that first love
0:34
phase of a relationship. This is the time in a boat's life where it is generally treated the best
0:39
The owner is still proud to call the vessel their very own, and this is when the boat's engine
0:43
is getting broken in. It's usually getting cleaned on a regular basis, the covers are still being
0:49
put on at night, and even getting that occasional detail where the gel coat gets a nice coat of
0:54
wax put on it a couple times a year. Yes, the new boat phase is one of the best times in a
0:59
boat's life, because this is the determining phase of the next phase which is going to be how
1:04
quickly a boat will meet its demise. The fork in the road on where the boat is going to end up
1:10
This section of a boat's life is going to be that used portion, the childhood years, if you will
1:16
whether it goes down the used and abused road or the loved and cared for road
1:24
with that boat. This is when its first services are being performed
1:27
and the beginning of the maintenance and care of the boat is being established and how the boat will be taken care of
1:33
for the next couple years of its life. It's a defining moment which will establish which path the boat will go down
1:39
Usually additions are being put on the boat, like electronics and fish finders
1:44
stereos and other accessories that are really going to customize the boat to how the owner wants it to be So if it doesn go down the lightly used loved and cared for road but instead had to endure some abuse right out of the factory
1:57
then for the phases that we talk about here today, this will just happen at a much faster rate
2:02
which is one of the reasons that boats use hours over distance like in a car
2:06
We judge a car based on its mileage, where we judge a boat by its hours
2:11
Some boats will acquire 2,000 hours in a year compared to 2,000 hours over a 20-year period, or they may never even see 2,000 hours
2:20
So we can just shrink these phases into a 10-year period compared to, say, a 40- or 50-year lifespan for a boat
2:26
If it ends up going down that used and abused road, that is. But usually if a boat is getting 2,000 hours put on it in a year, that is some serious use
2:35
And that'll fall in the abuse category, simply because of the wear and tear that that amount of use will put on the boat
2:41
The engines probably aren't getting flushed. The amount of stress on the welds of the metal on the boat, the fiberglass stress, the transom stress, it's just a lot of time and use for a boat
2:53
Defining the category of use throughout these years of the boat brings up the next phase, being the time that the boat gets sold to the next potentially proud owner
3:03
I say potentially because the phase after that will bring us into the project boat phase
3:07
based on how it's been treated over the first say five to ten years section of its life
3:12
If it's the lightly used boat, then these are a gray by, it will last for many years to come
3:17
These are the boats that get that love and care given to them since they were brand new
3:21
The ones that got the wax put on, regularly serviced, and maintained on a scheduled basis
3:26
as well as being covered up and kept protected against the weather. So they don't have that spotty or faded gel coat
3:32
and the cushions aren't burned out from the sun beating down on them. Lightly used boats are the ones that will go on for many years to come through the midlife section of their existence Usually you find these kinds of boats with only one or two owners over a period of 20 to 30 years
3:48
which helped keep them from being beat up, used and abused. Low hours and usually really clean, these kinds of boats will take a long time before they enter into that project boat phase
3:59
But the other type, being your high hours or just used and abused boats
4:03
these will look pretty rough after their first five to ten years. They've probably already been through a couple of sets of engines by this time or are actually in need of a new set of engines
4:13
You'll find the price to these boats really appealing though, but you'll have to keep in mind that it's only going to be a few years before the project boat phase will come upon these types of boats
4:23
This is when you'll get into major costs and damages because when we move into the project boat phase, this is when you'll need to be prepared for what you take on
4:32
We're talking about having to deal with transom repairs, fuel tank replacements
4:36
engine repowers, T-top repairs, stringer issues, soft decks, chipping gel coat, blisters
4:42
leaking through-haul fittings, and who knows what else. Most of the components on the boat could be at the end of their life
4:48
and are just around the corner of needing to be replaced. And we're talking about $1,000 repairs if not more
4:54
Something else that is going to be an honorable mention here when we are talking about project
4:58
boats is going to be the boats that had an unfortunate event happened to them
5:02
The ones that have sunk, caught fire, ran aground hard, or have other catastrophic damage to the boat that will need to be repaired
5:11
even though they weren't raised in the used and abuse section of a boat's life. A project boat can range from just needing to have a fuel tank put in it or have the transom replaced
5:21
but this is the type of an issue that is just big enough for many people to want to stray away from
5:26
seeing that they are reasonably a large job to take on Lightly used boats that just need a new set of engines wouldn really be really fit into this phase because that is a more normal thing to happen during the middle of a boat life So we need to add that note into the lightly used phase of a boat life before it hits the project
5:43
boat status. But this is where things can all fall apart, though. Depending on the size of the
5:48
project, some boats will enter into either another section of life where they get to extend their
5:53
time on the water or whoever is doing the project might get in over their head and the
5:58
boat could turn into a massive headache that doesn't ever get finished. But because the boat was all
6:03
taken apart, it could sit around in the weather and turn into a complete loss. Turning it into one of
6:09
the last phases being a restoration project, where the boat ended its normal midlife use with being
6:15
put away and forgotten about. The boats that sit in the yard on a trailer or at a marina for years
6:20
on end until they are just rotting away and have multiple issues that need to be addressed in order
6:25
to get them back out on the water. Restoration boats get into the ones where the decks need to be ripped out and new floors put in
6:32
The ones where the stringers need to be replaced when the tranceom and the deck gets done
6:36
but these actually only turn into a handful of boats because the type of boat here is where
6:41
the deciding factor usually comes in. Most production line boats that don't have a following won't ever enter into the realm
6:48
of someone taking the time and money to restore it. It's only a handful of holes that people will do this with, because unless you
6:55
can do the entire project yourself, the cost of restoring a boat will normally outweigh
7:01
the real value of the boat even when it's finished, meaning that you have got to really
7:05
love that boat hole to knowingly go in upside down on it. Otherwise, if someone doesn't
7:11
love the boat, then it reaches the end of its life where it makes its way to the junkyard
7:15
or it gets tucked away somewhere to never be seen again until someone pulls it out
7:20
to take it to the junkyard
