Well, I too am a former Captain and Engineer who bought the boat I worked on. I bought a working, in service dive boat that carried 34 passengers and had an established clientele. I paid $650,000 for the boat which included 1/2 of a piece of dirt in Texas. The dirt did not include dock space. Here is what I know:
It takes a lot of money that just lays around to run a dive boat. Make sure you have plenty of "laying around" money. You will need it eventually.
Most years we just service the loan and expenses. Upgrades are done in "good" years. We've only had 2 of 8 good years.
Fuel is the most expensive part of any trip. A trip from Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas adds 60 miles to the trip.
It's the crew that makes or breaks you. Highly paid, professional crew make the difference between an OK trip and a great one. Unlicensed crew on the Spree make $100/day, licensed make $200/day. Every day. I try to give them 1 day off per week. They get paid for that one too. Relying on tips to pay the crew is bull****. Tips are sure nice when you get them, but it's only a way of keeping score. Paying the crew a living wage makes the score go up.
Maintaining US flag status costs $600 per year payable to the USCG. If you're not doing the things that are required to maintain the vessel to US flag standards, your customers will notice, and will stop diving with you. Giving up the flag cuts the value of the boat in half immediately.
You can't make money moving the boat from location to location throughout the year without someone else paying for it. You just can't do it. Taking the boat off charter for a week to re-position makes no sense unless someone is paying for it (besides the owner/operator) You can, however, sell the re-positioning trip, at least enough to pay for the re-positioning.
Those boats were built specifically for the Bahamas trade. Use them for what they are good at. I hear over and over again that customers want a boat to run from Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas. Don't think I'm not listening.
You can't afford to dock at Port Everglades. You can't afford the Customs and Immigration fees, delays, and bad blood there. Find another marina.
No matter how much money your backer has, make them understand that it will take twice as much as you think it will. If you don't believe me, ask EVFleet here. Make sure you carry an Amex with you everywhere that you can put a generator on. Or a main engine. Have 5 or 6 $20,000 limit cards so when you need to buy your customers a hotel for the week, you can do it. I'm not kidding.
You are starting with one or two broken boats that may have lapsed COI's. I know for a fact that the scantlings in the pontoons will need replacement. Some of that work has been done on the Pilot, it's time to start on the Rorqual. Steel boats are much harder to maintain than aluminum ones. Harder means more expensive. Ask any boatyard, steel boats are built with a 20 year lifespan. Get a reputable company to come gauge the hull. I'll bet you will be surprised at how thin it is. Thin means expensive.
The air and nitrox systems are junk. New HPAC's, $20,000 each. Membrane system actually capable of servicing 40 divers (crew+guests), $50,000 unless you build it yourself. $25,000 if you build it yourself. I can help you.
If you replace the engines, you will have to either upgrade to Tier 2 emissions, fake out the Coast Guard, or put the rebuilt version of the same junk you already have. Junk for junk. It's what I do, but it is terribly inefficient.
You're going to need more money.
Divers will tell you what you want to hear. You will spend lots of money to do the upgrades that they are asking for. THEY STILL WON'T BOOK UNLESS THEY CAN AFFORD IT. Only 1% of your customers are on this board. Their opinions are important, but you need to buy/steal the Nekton's customer list. You need to do a real market survey. You need to send out 10,000 postcards. If you get back 1,000 responses, that's great. You're more likely to get back 50.
If those boats were a good deal, a liveaboard boat company would have bought them already. Say, one with deep pockets that doesn't have a US flagged vessel. Folks with way more liveaboard experience than you have have already passed.
Before I did anything else, I'd:
Get a full market value and replacement value survey on the boat. Include a hull condition survey. Remember, the surveyor works for you. Nekton's surveyor works for the liquidator. The liquidator wants the most he can get for the assets. Spend 10 grand on a real survey before you buy the boat. Sit down with the surveyor before he performs the surveyand discuss exactly what you need to know from the survey. Share with him the budget you have allocated for repairs. He will let you know if you can afford it. He works for you for a set fee. He gets paid to give you his honest opinion. Make sure he has errors and omissions insurance.
Perform a market survey of your prospective clientele. Your backer should insist on it. I pulled the wool over the banks eyes, and sometimes I wish I hadn't. You need to really start this thing with your eyes open. Do a real market survey. Ask RJP for an estimate of how much it will cost. You will be blown away at how expensive a market survey is. You can't afford not to do it.
Double your estimate of time you think it will take to get the boat back in the water.
If we've got a TV in our cabin on a liveaboard it might occasionally get used to look at pictures but not even to watch a DVD. The Aggressor and PH seem to be going the way of installing flat panels in all the cabins during upgrades and it seems like a waste to me. Now if I were crew, I could see the appeal of satellite TV. 
