1977 23' Glasply Value?

[Jpennell38]

I have a 1977 23' Glasply with dual mercruiser 470's with trim taps, heated sleeping cabin, Hard Top, Sink, Porto potty, Radar, CB, GPS, Fish Finder, and Trailer. it has been very well maintained and has never seen salt water. what do you think that estimated value i could get for it?

[Helmar]

Boy, that might be a hard one to come up with.
About all one might do on that is look in the Craig list, paper ads and maybe some other boat ads to see what they are trying to sell them for.

The asking prices and what people are paying are two different things. Right now, a not so trailer-able boat with gas guzzling engines, not very much value right now as some people are dumping boats for those reasons alone.

Not so trailer-able meaning, it takes a Very Large truck to move them around.
Older Glasply's are known to have rotten stringers which is not going to help.

[Jpennell38]

Thank you,

[Skagitman]

Joe brings up some great points about the expense of running twin engines, even if they are four cylinders. 23 foot deep V is a big boat to operate.

I currently own a 1982 22' Glasply which is actually fairly comprable. I have owned a couple of pre-1979 GPs and a couple of post-1978 GPs. 1979 was a significant year, because that is the year that Glasply switched all their models to composite stringers. If your boat were 1979-1983 I would have completely different opinion than the one I'm going to share.

Two summers ago I spent a lot of money replacing the transom on a 1978 24 foot GP, only to subsequently find out the stringers were soft. While it is quite a big job to replace a transom, it is nothing compared to replacing one or more stringers.

Any Glasply built prior to 1979 is absolutely a risk for any purchaser. Knowledgeable buyers know this. In rare cases the boats have been well taken care and always kept covered when not being used, but to find a 35 year boat like that is a very long shot. If yours is one of these and you can prove it you might do OK. Otherwise...

Last summer I looked at a 1976 23 footer that a gentleman had for sale up the road for $3,500. It initially seemed like a good price. It had a nice galvanized tandem axel trailer and a reportedly rebuilt 351 Mercruiser. He swore it had always been covered, and indeed it was under a canopy when I went to see it.

He started the engine and it ran beautifully. Walking every inch of the floor there were no soft spots (if there were I would have walked away) and I was encouraged, but having been down this road before, and having been burned by well hidden soft stringers before, I told him my conditions.

If he were willing to cut six inspection ports in the floor (2 on the forward side of the bulkhead and 4 in the cockpit) to allow me to inspect the stringers, and if they turned out to be solid, I would buy the boat for his asking price.

I assured him it was no big deal to do this, as I had a 6" hole saw that would make a perfect cut. He could put inspection covers in place (which the new owner would appreciate as they could monitor the bilge). He said "No thanks, I am not willing to cut up my boat like that". So, I walked away.

He called me back at the end of the summer and said he was ready to cut the holes. I said "OK let's do it". Upon inspection, sure enough the fir stringers were quite wet and in some places soft. I suggested he circulate some warm dry air throughout the bilges and then reinspect and make repairs as needed. I found out later that he parted out the engine, O/D, and trailer, and took the boat to the dump.

Were the soft stringers bad enough to compromise the integrity of the boat? Who knows? Glasplys are one tough boat, but their fir stringers are the achilles heal.

I would suggest you cut those same ports and make the inspection. If it turns out the stringers are ok, then you will have the confidence to market it honestly and ask what you think you can get. If not, you will have the opportunity to make repairs.

I suspect there are others who have much more knowledge on Glasplys than me. But for what it's worth... I think that if the stringers (and transom) can be demonstrated to be solid, and if the engines are freshwater cooled, have even compression, newer exhaust manifolds, and they both run great, and if the Mercruiser outdrives have flawless operation, you could probably get $5K for the boat, if it has a nice galvanized tandem axel trailer you might get $6K? If it were different economic times I might say $6-7K, but times being what they are, unfortunately I think that's the best your going to do.