Fish-Hawk.Net

Okay guys I don't know where else to ask this question so I will put it to the members here.

I'm looking at aquiring an only 1980's Leavin's??? 14' fiberglass and with a Yamaha 1988 50hp 2stroke. Its a good friends fathers old boat (he recently passed away)

The engine has about 200hrs on it, and we got it clean up, fluids changed and running without issue last weekend. This weekend we plan on taking it out for a run so I can water test it.

Now I don't know how to post pictures, but here is the link to them in my yahoo pictures page (please let me know if this does not work).
http://photos.yahoo.com/icodeit

Now I know this is not the ideal fishing boat, but cost prevents me from getting the ideal solution.

The boat will be used mainly for fishing and running around at the cottage on Whitefish Lake. Would this boat work well for running around the Whitefish/Cranberry/Dog lake's?

I have been told by my friend that the boat handles large water very well for it size because of the hull design?

The main question is what is a setup like this worth. Someone offered them $2500 in the spring and they did not want to sell at that time. Is $2500 reasonable?

I really just don't know what the value of an old baot and motor like this is.

Any help is really appreciated, as if possible I would like to get something figured out this weekend so I can drop it off in Kingston over the X-Mass season and let my brother clean it up for me.

I would say $2500 is fair value if the boat is solid, the motor runs well, and the trailer is in good shape.

Now keeping in mind I prefer more of a bass style boat, and likely would not give up that much money for a boat that I would radically alter for my style of fishing. However, on the trolling side, looks very roomy, and with the right face lift could be a real doozy of a boat.

Not sure how much big water a 14'er could handle, but the it looks like it is a pretty deep boat, so you may be onto something.

M.T. Livewell

In my opinion your estimate is slightly high. I would drop it by at least eight hundred dollars.

I used to run a boat very similar to this and yours looks cleaner than mine did exterior wise. My question is ... Is the floor soft? It looks black and that could be a bad case of floor rot. I don't see a cover either so that tells me that it was in the weather a lot. This would cause the floor rot. I had to replace the floor in mine and it was a fairly big job.

The motor looks like a seventies model. I see there is a tow rod on the boat and this motor doesn't look big enough to be used for towing so the motor might have some hidden issues.

Basically though this boat will handle rough water so there is no worry there. Mind you bear in mind that never should you have more than three people abord in big water. Install a bilge pump if there isn't one ... an automatic one if you are leaving the boat at a dock. You will probably want a basic fish finder / depth finder to keep you off the rocks also. I had a bench seat across the back of mine that doubled as a casting plaform and I also ran an electric motor on the transom and this allowed me to go bassin in the shallows and I found that nice.

Good luck with the boat... and fishing.

Thanks for the input so far.

The floor is in good shape, its all solid only about 4 years old. There is no real cover, there is a tarp but it got removed last year to cover a leaky garage roof until repair and never got put back on.

The boat has been used for towing skier's yes. That was about all it was used for for about 3 seasons and the reason the original motor was replaced. What does that mean? Is that a potential for excess wear on the motor?

I have a fish finder and 36lb minkotta transom mount troller on my 12' aluminum row boat that this is to replace so I should be good there.

I was planning on adding a extra seat mount at the back so I could just move the seat to fish from, however I might ask for more advice next year if I decide to add a bench.