Help me not get suckered!

[Saxist]

I'm zeroed in on a 1993 maxum 1700xr. $1500 and cosmeticly she's quite pretty. problem is, I am very boat ignorant (first boat) and can't bring a knowledgable person to check the boat with me....help.

To give you an understanding of my knowledge base/abilities, i can do just about any wrenching under or in a car, and I've done antique motorcycle restoration...

I'm concerned with structural problems and how I can spot them. As well as known issues with these models. Does this have wooden stringers? Like I said, at a loss to inspect it knowledgeably

It has already been disclosed that it has a few soft spots on floor. Engine runs as it should.

[mmwjr]

Use a dead blow hammer to listen for soft spots in the transom which can be done from outside the boat. If you have access to the stringers do the same. Being this old and knowing the deck is spongy in spots I would assume the stringers probably have some rot but if you are willing to redeck the boat then repairing stringers is just another step. This would be a good time to replace the fuel tank which near end of life. What engine is in the boat? Use an IR temp sensor to take reading of the block and exhaust. Also insist on a test ride.

[harryharls]

Speaking from experience Saxist, be very careful! I fell into this trap with my first boat (my current boat!), I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at. I looked at 3 boats, the first two being around 10k and then I finally settled on a 1992 Maxum 1800 XR which was 'only' 3.5k. To be honest, it wasn't the money, I just really liked the look of the Maxum over the others.
Anyway, I thought everything was great until I had to spend well over a grand sorting out the trailer, which was completely knackered. I then spent a load of time and money sorting all the little problems on the boat, which was pretty much everything...all the electrics needed attention: lights, horn, speakers, stereo, depth gauge, fuel sender etc. etc. Luckily, the engine seems really good with great compression across all 3 cylinders but...it's a Force, which is probably what yours will be and parts are virtually unobtainable (at least here in the UK anyway). At some point the motor will fail in some way and then I’ve pretty much had it…replacement outboard time; not cheap!
I also spent a lot of time and effort sanding/filling/polishing the gelcoat and it does look spectacular now to be honest, but it was a lot of work.
After all this, just when I thought it was spot on, I noticed a soft spot in the floor, just where you get in from the boarding ladder point. I decided to pull up the carpet to take a look, thinking I’d just find a little patch of rot and that I’d be able to cut it out and sort it. To be honest, I hated the ridiculous amount of red in the boat anyway, there was red carpet and vinyl everywhere! The soft spot turned out to be rot, obviously, but the more I dug it out, the further it went! To cut a very long story short, I ended up cutting out the entire floor and both main stringers. The rot, presumably caused by a leaking boat cover (the canvas cover that it came with had blatant rips and tears all over it!), had spread all over, all the flotation boxes, the bow seating framework, and about a fifth of the two main stringers.
I’ve had to strip it down virtually entirely, I’m on the road to recovery now; new stringers glassed in, transom repaired, and I’m more or less ready to fit the new floor. Stripping it out has not been easy though and it won’t be with your potential buy. The back to back seats sit on an integral, fibreglassed-in plywood frame which has to be cut out (yes, these were rotten in places too!), the flotation boxes running along the hull sides are partly built on the floor and partly not. It’s going to take some serious re-designing (and re-trimming) of the upholstery to get it all sorted once the new floor is in.
Basically, almost every piece of original wood has been removed, it’s a huge undertaking! So if anyone suggests that you could just replace the floor, it’s just not that easy, believe me. Luckily, I have the ability to do upholstery (thanks to Google and a decent sewing machine) so the overall cost to me isn’t going to be that great but still probably at least a couple of thousand all told.
After all the work I’ve done, and doing, we’ve decided that this is going to be our ‘forever’ boat, because I’ll never get any of this time and money back on a re-sale. It will be stunning once it’s all done but it’ll probably need a new outboard in a few years ☹
If I could go back in time, would I still buy this boat? Er…no!!! I should have bought one of the others at around the 10K mark, or, to be honest, I probably should have spent much more and got something that A) I wouldn’t have to do SO much work on, and B) something I could actually re-sell.