Don't consider it a "smoking deal" until it passes a survey. I almost went for a $23K Carver 30 when I was looking for my current boat. Somebody got it before i did, had it surveyed & discovered it needed $18K of stringer replacement. Went on a test ride on a 34 Tolly that overheated before we got less than 1 mile. There are a lot of "buyer beware" boats out there.
If a boat is so GD good, why is it for sale? With new EFI engines, perhaps the owner discovered they "last straw" with this boat. FYI I ended up with a 33ft 1978 Chis Craft Catalina. The stringers are all hollow core FG with a solid non-cored FG hull. It comes from a modified version of the mold used on that Uniflte which FYI is the same mold the PBR's used in Viet Nam came from. The guy that surveyed my boat is an ex PBR skipper; has some interesting stories on the 1965 Gulf of Tonkin incident............
dmurph; the advice about nothing larger than a 26ft is good - unless you don't mind going slow. With my Chris & twin diesels I can run at 5 MPG at a 8MPH hull speed. A 25MPH cruise speed knocks me down to 1.25MPG or so. A 26 footer will cost about half my boat. Looking at new diesels now for $25 - 30K US each times 2, so the 26 footer would be half that.