What's an old (vintage) boat worth?

So, What’s it Worth?

We see this question popping up so often, that it got me to thinking what would my ‘64 MFG Westfield be worth? Knowing that ‘Fair Market Value’ is determined when the seller doesn’t have to sell and the buyer doesn’t have to buy, what’s it worth?
I sniped this boat on eBay for $370.02 in usable but rough condition. “Hey Honey! I just won a boat on eBay! Uh, it’s in Elgin Illinois”
So, we make plans for a Memorial Day trip to go rescue ‘my boat’.
Installed a light weight receiver (over protest) on the wife’s prized old Maxima. Loaded up two tires and rims, brought my own trailer wiring harness to clamp onto the trailer, tools, grease and a new set of buddy bearings.
Had a great trip straight up through the heart of the country, dodging parades and celebrations along the way. Five nights of Comfort Inns/Clarion’s and dinner along the way. Phyllis said she didn’t mind the trip, but I wasn’t getting off ‘cheap’. An uneventful trip home, stopped for diner with old friends in Alabama and rolled back into Gainesville, Florida on the 6th day.
I started stripping her down. The weathered, ugly seats were the first to go, along with 500 pounds of Astro-turf. I cleaned up the ‘59 Golden Anniversary 35 horse ‘Rude and sold it for $275.00. Stored the whole thing for a year in my garage, just tinkering with things, as we were in the process of selling the house, building and moving.
Finally got back to working on her one winter after a year of so of shopping for parts and needed items and building up an inventory of things I would need. Removed all deck hardware and accessories and buffed her out. Purchased a new polisher, bowl bonnets, white and red compound, cleaner wax, paste wax, 4 cans of comet, and wore myself out of elbow grease. Dismantled all the lights and horns, cleaned, steel wooled, polished, painted cleats and rope guides. Polished out the windshield and did many other little things during the winter.
The hull had some yellowing and dock rot, which I scrubbed, bleached, sanded and applied Poli-Glow to.
I spent hours on eBay looking for a new power source and finally found my ‘68 85 hp Evinrude at a Dealer in New Jersey. $424.00 including shipping. Spent many more hours searching for the three starters ($160.00) I purchased to build one. Countless hours looking for the after market CD pack ($99.00) and many more hours building my own wiring harness out of an old Merc cable. Several bags of stainless screws and fasteners. It was along about this time that I discovered that the transom needed replacing before I hung the bigger motor. Another winter went by while I dug out the old transom from the top, preserving the skins and thru-hull fittings. New canvas cover to wrap it up until I figured out how to replace the transom. I finally discovered Nida-Core. $260.00 for materials.
I Scraped and wire brushed the TeeNee, and spent about $150.00 on paint, supplies and another bag of bolts to replace the rollers and trailer parts I had removed for painting. Installed a new tongue jack, and wired the trailer with an old Merc tilt/trim cable. I had TeeNee decals made for the trailer. Forty one bucks for a socket to fit my impact wrench so that I could get the flywheel off the motor, and do a tune-up. About a $150.00 for an engine hoist to mount the motor on the boat. Several more days of wiring fun to build my boat harness and get everything situated the way I wanted it.
Along the way, repaired and painted the steering wheel, cleaned and painted the Evinrude Simplex controls and countless other little projects. I have probably went through 6 bottles of spray wax, to help preserve all the work I did in buffing her out.
Now I still need carpet, seats, steering cable and probably several other incidentals. Maybe another $700.00.
I will also want to paint the motor if it runs out well.
Thanks to Peter (in Denver) I have my NOS baby moons, and huge thanks to Scott (Chinewalker), Bruce Hammet and others for coming up with needed parts for me. Thanks to everyone on the Fiberglassics forum and the old MFG site for the info and motivation.
So, that brings us back to “What’s she Worth” after 5 years of tinkering, rainy day work and countless delays for one reason or another?
The fact is, no one would pay what the boat is worth to me, or what I have invested in it.
So, does that make it priceless or worthless?
Inquiring minds would like to know.
Bill

“What is a ‘59 Chevy El Camino worth?”
“Would that me this car or that car?”