Considering buying an Island Packet. Would love advice

[Capt_Stormy]

Hello, I am considering buying an Island Packet 27. Year 1992. Any advice on buying from private owner or advice if you have owned this type of boat would be appreciated. This is the actual boat: Eeow! 30' Island Packet 27 ..

[Badsanta]

Check out. iphomeport.com
If you get it regester it with the site. Factory service and info avalable. Great group.

[a64pilot]

Get a real good look at it yourself first to decide if a survey is even warrantied, but by no means buy it without a survey.
Is it in Jacksonville? If so I may be ale to give you the name of a good Island Packet surveyor. I think he may travel that far north, can't hurt to ask.
Try to get some comps price wise, it seems to be very well priced, but I'm not sure what the smaller IP's go for.
People seem to either love IP's, or not, there is sort of a strong following for them, sort of like for Airstreams or similar, and for the same reasons. It seems they hold their value pretty well, if well cared for of course.
I am biased, I admit it.

[Paul L]

You didn't reallly mention what use you planned for the boat. Its on the small side for long term cruising. Its on the slow side for fun day sailing. Is it a good fit for your use????

[roverhi]

Some of the boats were built with encapsulated chain plates. Supposedly they are difficult/expensive to retrofit. If your prospective boat is one of these, would want one that had had the chainplates replaced or want the seller to replace the chainplates. Encapsulated chain plates are a disaster waiting to happen from undetectable crevice corrosion.

[fjwiley1]

Peter O. is correct....My best friend has removed his from his 37' Erwin and mounting them externally. Water intrusion problems....

[a64pilot]

I think all IP's have the encapsulated chain plates, you can either replace them, ignore them until one fails, or install exterior chain plates.
The other weak link on an IP is the aluminum tanks, at least on my 38, removing the tanks requires major surgery to the inside of the boat.
I've never seen the perfect boat, seems all have weak links in one form or another.
IP's hulls are solid glass, and the decks are not cored either, so you can't have a wet / rotted deck core or hull

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I think all IP's have the encapsulated chain plates, you can either replace them, ignore them until one fails, or install exterior chain plates.
The other weak link on an IP is the aluminum tanks, at least on my 38, removing the tanks requires major surgery to the inside of the boat.
I've never seen the perfect boat, seems all have weak links in one form or another.
IP's hulls are solid glass, and the decks are not cored either, so you can't have a wet / rotted deck core or hull

If it makes you feel any better, lots of good boats have alu tanks. They're not so bad IF:

1. They are good and thick, several mm.

2. They are not in any electrical loop or touching any unlike metal;

AND

3. They are not sitting in bilge water.

My Moody has a large (680 liters) alu fuel tank. I would prefer plastic. But the alu is 3mm thick - I don't worry about it too much.

[a64pilot]

It's accessing the tanks on an IP that makes it difficult.
From what little i can tell, there is no perfect tank material, I would have thought plastic would be, but apparently they fail at the welds?

[Badsanta]

You can get rotomolded (seamless) plastic tanks. That are great.

[Hud3]

Has anyone heard of chainplates failing on an IP? In all my years on the IP owners forum I never did. There were some who had problems with the aluminum water and waste holding tanks developing pinhole leaks, but I never came across a chainplate failure.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Hud3

Has anyone heard of chainplates failing on an IP? In all my years on the IP owners forum I never did. There were some who had problems with the aluminum water and waste holding tanks developing pinhole leaks, but I never came across a chainplate failure.

I have heard of it, but admit it may be either blown way out of proportion, or be one of those my friend had a cousin who knew someone kind of things,
but the factory does chainplate replacements, plus I believe there is a company that travels out of Tx that does specializes in it as well. It's not nearly as expensive as you might think at first, hardest part from my understanding is getting the furnishings out. New chainplates are larger and made i think from 316SS, which is I think weaker, hence the larger size, but more corrosion resistant than the original. This is hear say, so verify yourself, I may be wrong.
From my understanding they last much longer if re-sealed every couple of years. Mine are 27 yrs old, and I plan on replacing them before I go cruising full time. I'll be almost 60 by then, and if they last 30 yrs, most likely I'll never have to do that job again.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Badsanta

You can get rotomolded (seamless) plastic tanks. That are great.

I think the fittings are welded in?