This is why I love this site...you guys are awesome!  Thanks for all the feedback it's much appreciated!

9 minutes ago, justgary said:

And the fuel and exhaust hoses, too!

Good time to clean the bilge good too!

1 hour ago, martinarcher said:

Pulling it would let you change both the timing cover and oil pan gasket

And the fuel and exhaust hoses, too!

4 hours ago, Woodski said:

You could probably lift the back of the boat and not bend the shaft.

Good intuition, Woodski.  I just calculated the deflection of a 1.25" stainless shaft held 9" away from a 3,000 pound load.  The deflection would be about 0.22 inches or so, which is no doubt way under the amount needed to induce plastic deformation (i.e. create a permanent bend in the rod after the load is released).

Typically, in a bank owned sale like this, the dealer (or some other entity if repossession was to occur) would retain possession of the items (under close scrutiny of the bank) and someone would be available to show the product to potential buyers with the understanding the bank will reimburse the selling agent if that isn’t a bank employee.  The financial discussions will happen with the bank instead of through F&I at the dealership.  Realistically, you would very likely be able to take financing out on your own for this boat too.  I doubt you could do a trade in on it because the bank isn’t in the boat business and they are offloading assets, they don’t want another.  The dealer is definitely not going to take it on trade, they would have a harder time selling it.  
 

Jeff, you bring some interesting points up.  I had no idea dealers had to get preapproval for warranty work.  I’d have hoped they would be empowered to make that call for most things and just document it in the warranty claim.  Seems less efficient to have to adjudicate a blame before it’s completed. 
 

Full disclosure, I work for an automotive OEM as a service engineer and deal with warranty spend as part of my daily activities.