rslifkin
Guru
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2019
- Messages
- 7,961
- Location
- Rochester, NY
- Vessel Name
- Hour Glass
- Vessel Make
- Chris Craft 381 Catalina
I agree. A boat with serviceable systems including tanks with manhole inspection ports and surface mount wiring and plumbing runs would be unsellable in today's market. Look at what is extolled as an offshore passagemaker in places like this forum and you'd be hard pressed to even locate the tanks let alone service them. Few buyers associate quality with serviceability. They are swayed by nice interiors and hidden systems with lots of bells and whistles.
It amazes me on some boats how close they come to good serviceability, but then just skip the last bit. I've got a whole bunch of deck hardware where the back side of it is totally inaccessible. A few carefully placed (and somewhat hidden) access hatches in parts of the cabin or the back sides of cabinets, etc. would have fixed that issue. But instead, they built not-easily-removable structures over those areas with no way through that doesn't involve cutting, etc.
Realistically though, the only things that would be a true nightmare on my boat are the fuel and water tanks (all aluminum). Getting the fuel tanks out of their space is not too hard. But I'm not sure there's an opening big enough to get them out of the boat without cutting the aft deck. And the water tank is partially under the fuel tanks, so getting that out requires pulling the fuel tanks first.
As far as the original problem, the big thing is that it seems like there's plenty of time available and no rush to get things done quickly. That's always helpful, as it means more time to pull things apart slowly, more time to find budget-friendly help for parts that may require it, etc.