Thanks for the response Christopher.
I email everyone on Kijiji. Have watched kijiji for years. for the last year I have looked most everyday. If i dont get a response I send a new message each day that follows. Some sellers still do not respond. Some say they will send photos and never do. Most, with good deals, respond with "sorry just sold her." I saw and missed numerous deals this year.
I am learning Kijiji blocks any message of decent length and blocks any message with personal contact info or links to dropbox (for photos). I am learning most sellers dont know to use the proper email address provided cryptically in the email content. Thus, I fear this might be why some of the sellers i contacted on kijiji never sent photos, kijiji blocked the repeated correspondence..? maybe? There were some overpriced ones on kijiji that could have been good but the sellers never sent photos. And there were 5 amazing deals that moved too fast for my response from the southern rocky mountains. It feels good to vent about this.
-Honest the logistics of a trailer is the primary feature i need. By the time i think i found a trailer the boats I consider are gone. Most are on the north shore of the great lakes. That means a slow response for me coming from Colorado.
-I am tall (6'2"), so the post 1980 JJs with higher headroom are a plus, but not needed. I like taylors more than rogers but both have desirable qualities.
-I can sew sails so old beatup sails are ok. But good sails saves me the work and i am willing to pay for them. I would rather a boat with no upholstery for similar reasons... I am likely to redo it all anyways.
-If no longer an inboard engine, it needs to have a serntube glassed over from the outside ONLY so i can redrill it. An outboard kicker does nothing for me. That said no engine is a blank slate... and expensive blank slate but i dont see it as a bad thing.
-Although i was a luthier for many years and I love nice wood, i dont love wood on boats. Above and below deck. I would rather no woodwork and no fancy interior. Bare bones and simple is preferred. I am not a fan of what most people feel is aesthetically desirable or fine amenities. Luckily co26s dont overdo the fine woodwork. (Norsea27s on the other hand...why?) So perhaps this is a moot point.
-I am just as happy with a portahead or a head on the transom as below deck. So I dont care about the head, plumbing etc. But if it is all new and working and safe, GREAT.
-It will be used offshore. I can renew rigging but would happily pay more for recently overhauled standing rigging especialy if done by someone better than myself.
-bad through hulls are ok because i will likely glass over them or replace them anyways unless already set up with bronze with shutoff valves.
-There are some things I can not repair and that is really the ONLY thing that I am not willing to deal with. I am pretty handy with GRP boats. This includes structural stuff. That said, I am getting too old to grind pox or major hydrolysis issues. I often see recoring decks here and there as an opportunity to innovate deck space use... but too much becomes a chore.
I honestly would rather pay big bucks for a perfect boat than for a fixer-upper. But i could swing either way.
I detail this wide range of acceptable conditions to point out i would consider most any boat.
Pay depends on condition of the motor and sails and hull. The goal is to have something we can store in mexico or alaska for 6 to 16 months at a time and not cry if she gets hit by a hurricane or vandalized.
I have not seen a co26 that is out of my price range, per se. I see many that are not worth the asking price or have owners who invested in features that I do not need. Just the refit and restoration to fit my needs will be 8 to 10k. It is possible that a boat has everything i want, GREAT, I will pay more. I realize it is more likely that I will have to find a bare bones fixer upper for 4k and invest in fitting her to my needs. So I hate to skirt your question, but it all depends and I am looking at everything.