Some of the things that previous owners come up with.

[Hoplite808]

I get it, boat maintenance can be difficult or expensive sometimes but it’s one of those things where when not done right people can get hurt and/or it will have to be done again at a greater expense. But on all my used boats over the years this has got to be the biggest WTF previous owner moment I’ve ever had. The PO broke the outdrive and “fixed” it by applying liberal amounts of caulk to the lower unit until it stopped hemorrhaging oil.

I’m curious what are everyone else’s biggest WTF PO moments with their boats?

Please share so that others can learn from the mistakes of others.

 

[boatman37]

When we bought our current boat I was cleaning the bilge and noticed the integrated elbow on my AC pump had been broken off and re-attached with possibly 5200. Whatever it was was a white silicone type material. That was the first thing I replaced.

 

[jmcdboater]

When the Admiral and I were considering the purchase of our 88 Sundancer, we noticed immediately the bilge pump running regularly. Naturally questioned the PO, who said the port bellows was leaking, and he already had an app for the vessel to be yanked and that boot replaced. When we decided to purchase her, we had our mechanic show up at the boatyard to replace the other boot, since anyone who can spell ‘logical’ would have done that. A few weeks later, when vessel is on hard, our mechanic calls us to tell us we might want to consider (great sense of humor) replacing the bell housing, since this is the one on our new vessel. PO obviously did not believe in replacing sacrificial anodes!! WTF??

 

[Soulshine]

My PO plugged the waste tank vent hose with a bolt when the through hull broke off on the inside.

 

[Carpediem44DB]

I actually have more Factory 'what were they thinking?" moments. After thinking about all of the boats I have owned, all of our higher value cruisers were bought from first owners and most were relatively new. I have seen some pretty egregious 'repairs' on many other boats though.

 

[zool]

The previous owner of mine had just replaced the starboard long block, has only a few hrs on it. There was black gorilla tape over the breather holes and oil fill opening......no cap, no breather valves or hoses to flame arrester..weird thing is, the port side had a new arrester, and all the hoses and valves.

 

[Soulshine]

My PO also cut the wire to the main bilge pump float switch. The switch was bad and would run continuously.

Good solution, no?

I also had no breather tubing to the arrestors...just holes in the valve covers and a smelly cockpit.