What a Difference a Day Makes

Survey reveals it is a project boat

Yesterday, we received the marine survey of the old 33-foot sailboat we were looking at. While we were aware of some problems, several others surfaced that we had not been aware of. The net result: the boat was more of a project that I wanted to take on, so we talked with the sellers and agreed to cancel the purchase.

Galvanic corrosion

At some point, the boat must have exhausted the zincs because the bronze shaft strut was badly corroded. Similar corrosion was evident on the propellor (which featured a bent blade as well). The bronze throughhull fittings were also corroded to the point that the surveyor recommended prioritizing their replacement.

Wet core in the deck

We’ve had a boat with a deck constructed of balsa-cored fiberglass and, because that builder failed to seal the through-deck fittings, the core got very wet. It took me months of work to repair that damage. As you might imagine, I’m on guard about a wet core!

When I walked the deck with the sellers, I was on the port side and one seller was on the starboard side. The port side felt fine and had few stress cracks. The surveyor confirmed that the port side was in pretty good shape but his investigation found a substantial area of the starboard decking was soft underfoot and exhibited stress cracks, likely the result of water in the core.

Because of our negative experience with a wet core, as soon as I learned of this I was immediately turned off. Having a few small areas that were damp I could deal with. But to have a large part of the starboard deck with damage meant I would need to devote quite a bit of time on repairs. That’s time I’d rather use to make memories with my spouse.