Advice
 

Opinions wanted: I sold a 1996 Cajun bay boat a few months ago when I upgrade to a new boat. The guy who bought the boat came to my house, looked over the boat, agreed on the price.. Sold (great).. Two days ago he calls me stating that the boat is infested with termites. Now if this is the case, I feel terrible!! If I would have known I would have junked the boat and sold the trailer for x amount of dollars. BTW I sold the rig for $2,000. He hasn't asked for money yet, but I'm pretty sure this is where this is going. He completely gutted the boat and sent me some pictures. Do you see termite damage?

I see nothing

I definitly don't see termites, I also have some closer pic's without a termite in the picture. Looks like normal wear on a 15 yr old wooden/fiberglass boat. (to me anyhow)

I dont see anything either.

Wood is rotten for sure...hard to tell from the pics if it is due to termites.

Looks like just a case of ye olde age. Wood don't last long in boats.

Hard to tell in the picture. I would go look at it and bring a professional

Unfortunantly for him, I don't think I will be refunding any money either way. I sold the boat for a measly $2000.00. I think he needs to decide where to go from here. He claims he received a quote for $5000.00 to repair it. I personnaly would junk the boat if is indeed in that bad of condition, sell the trailer for $1200.00 and cut my loss. When the boat was sold it was solid and floating. He decided to gut it. For $2000.00 he should have used and abused for a couple yrs and then got rid of it.

I agree, but $2k is not a small amount to some people, they got a boat in a area where there is water, so they had to know that it had plenty of use and the boat is older. its a 1 year boat!

that is what water does to wood, and that floatation foam helps that wood to stay wet once water does get in there. there isn't any air flow so the wood starts to decay because it never gets dried out and thats all I see is some of the wood decayed.

Was it worded in the buy/sell agreement "sold as is"? If so you are in the clear.

I'd call BS on termites, they'd have to make mud tunnel up the tire or front jack to the trailer frame, to the axle, to bunk boards onto the hull over the side or thru the drain plug without you ever noticing the mud tunnel

agreed 100% Guy should have left well enough alone and used it as is. He new he was buying and old boat. Its not like you intentionally tryied to rip the guy off. If he had plans to restore it he should have known to be ready for anything.

Besides , The boat was fishable when you sold it to him .now that he has torn it up
it is no longer usable. His problem now.

Nicely stated!

Yup

Boats w/ wood end up as junk if water seeps into wood. Looks like this happened to this particular boat. Guy should have done inspection before buying...Do the right thing....

Incorrect lil man....my whaler is 40 years old and is full of wood. Solid as a rock. It all comes down to how you take care of it.

That's right......my dad has a '72 Ranger that he bought brand new & not an issue with the wood, he still uses it. With original '72 model Johnson on it.

What possessed him to tear the floor out in the first place? Was it soft? He should have noticed that before the purchase.

I wouldn't refund a dime to him! You can't go buy something old and out of warranty and go home and tear it apart, renderring it completely inoperable and then ask for your money back. I hope it doesn't come to that but, if he's sending pics and such already, you can pretty well rest assured that's where he's going with this.

I agree 100%