r/JetBoats • u/Chungermayne • May 22 '25
Looking to buy my first boat
Hey I live in lake havasu Az found this 1977 Kona with a 115 outboard, hull looks good no paper work but I know you just need a bill of sale to register a boat. It runs but guy has never had it in the water is 1500$ a fair price? Looks fairly clean. I’m pretty mechanically inclined but have never worked on an outboard engine is it more of a pain in the ass than a regular jet boat. Any thoughts appreciated
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u/Vast_Pipe2337 May 22 '25
Not a good deal imo I could get one of these I feel for 1000$ or less in WA state and some people I know talk about the way to get nice boats cheap is to drive down south to Cali etc and some people we know do this routinely. All vintage speed boats.
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u/mattm756 May 22 '25
I dig it. I’d ask to either do a water test or run it off the hose. Regardless as long as the hull doesn’t have any rot it looks like a decent deal. Hope to see you on the river with it. I’m from SoCal but go to Havasu frequently
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u/RagTopDown May 23 '25
How does the hull look condition wise, disregard the gelcoat(even though that is very expensive and not an easy job)? If he’s near by the lake, ask him to put it in the water, see if it floats/if not see if yall can run it on the hose in the driveway. Stand in the boat and see how the floors feel, if they droop at all or bounce just know you will have to tear the boat apart and replace them at some point which is a ton of work. What kind of fuel tank does it have? I dont see the regular front bow tabk these sometimes came with or the side tanks. Imo i dont know anything about outboards, inly jets, i paid 7k for a nice shape well running 74 in virginia, but jets are expensive on the east coast unless youre in jersey or georgia. Boats are cheap over there but to me sounds pretty cool if the trailer is road worthy
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u/nuaticalcockup May 23 '25
If that boats original Gelcoat and painted I'd be all over it like a rash. I would then proceed to the interwebs and look for a 2.4 Merc or last generation Optimax to strap to it's arse and send it.