Grand Banks East Bay 38

[dfw]

Having been sailors, we like the lines of these downeast style boats and plan a trip from NB to NYC, then up the Hudson and the canals to Oswego and Kingston ON. Hence we are looking at GB Eastbay 38's.

What we have found on the three boats we have looked at is significant wear of the teak cockpit sole. The teak is screwed into the fibreglass/core and once worn can allow moisture to penetrate. Two of the boats had "soft" hatch covers as a result although the remainder of the sole was sound.

Does anyone have experience with removal and replacement of the teak in the cockpit sole? What kind of cost is involved (per sq. ft.) and would it be wiser to remove the teak and replace with some non-skid surface coating?

[bwo]

I am not a surveyor, but I will share my frustrating experiences from having surveyed 2 different Eastbay 38's (both newer than 2000 model year) in the past few months. Neither deal closed following survey.

Gorgeous, classic, very well made, gas guzzling boats but proceed with caution in buying one. My engine and hull surveyors discovered tons of deferred maintenance. Pre 2000 model year ones are even longer in the tooth in key areas.

You have mentioned one key area (soft cockpit teak decks). I found the same thing via survey. Upon researching the issuse, I came to learn it is a BIG, time-consuming, expensive project to remove teak decks that are screwed/bunged and wet. Beware. My two cents.

Good luck.

[John Graham]

I am not a surveyor either but I am a boatbuilder! Having read your posts it seems to me that a better understanding of the teak deck on the EB 38 would be of help. This teak deck is very well installed and not difficult to service. The steps are very important to follow perfectly: to remove the excess rubber caulk or "ridges" with a chisel working slowly and carefully. Next,using the appropriate sander reduce the teak decking slightly until relatively smooth using only the skills of a finish carpenter. No heavy hand on the soft pad here! Next mask off the seams which are not perfectly bonded at the edges, remove the Black caulk with a reefing tool and prepare the edges of the planks to receive an appropriate teak decking caulk. As there is no primer for this material the only way to prepare for this bond is to carefully "rough up" the edges of the planks so the Black caulk will make a thorough bond.

The next step is to apply the caulk and there are techniques and different grades of caulk to utilize in this regard. Remove the tape and gently sand with 220 grit paper by hand,carefully to trim slightly and remove the gloss from certain types of caulk.

On a typical Eastbay you will then encounter about 100 screw plug particles which will have come loose. These are serviced by removing the screws,changing screw types after deepening the screw holes slightly and installing new plugs with west Epogy on the plugs. Wait overnight and carefully cut off the plugs with the chisel and touch up sand with the light paper.

The cost for all of this work? A skilled craftsman can do this entire job in one week,40 hours. Heck we spend two times this many hours getting the fiberglass re compounded and polished perfectly. Don't forget this is the only teak maintenance to this non skid deck in a five year period so if you look at the way I do the teak deck takes about 8-10 hours per year to maintain. even if you think the non skid approach would be cheaper think again!

[dfw]

John:

Many thanks for the detailed response; especially for an idea of how long it would take to refurbish the cockpit sole. At the moment we are in a "hold" with purchase of an EB 38. We have not been successful in two attempts. Not sure what to do next! We have decided to wait a while and then possibly look at the Sabreline 36 instead of an EB.

[bwo]

Sorry to hear you are 0 for 2 with EB 38's, as are we. Have to laugh. We started out looking at the Sabreline 36 too.

As for the Sabreline 36, they build a great boat but the first generation SL 36 was not so great. Folks in the know say to look at the MK II edition SL 36 (2000 model year +). Narrower beam, less bow flare, less storage, less displacement compared to an EB 38 but still a very good boat. Good hard tops are hard to find. Better yet, look for an SL 38.

Good luck.

[John Graham]

This is a follow up on the Eastbay deck issue and subsequent consideration of the Sabreline 36,mki II introduced in model year 2000. My experience with these boats is that they have significant issues with fiberglass fracturing on the deck and superstructure. I have also repaired these issues on several boats and the repairs are easily five to eight times as costly as the maintenance of an Eastbay 38 teak deck. We have never found any of the Eastbays we maintain to suffer from any fiberglass hair line crack or gelcoat fracturing issues.