Urgent need for information Boat purchase on the horizon

[Nani Kai]

I fly to St. Augustine in two days to look at what is very possibly THE BOAT my wife and I have been seeking for the last 2 years. Very exciting. I was just informed by the seller that one of the saildrives is showing water in the oil. He told me a month ago that he had replaced one of the saildrives last year and knew that the second one would need to be replaced sooner or later. Evidently sooner was yesterday or at least in the near future. As this was disclosed when we first started talking it's no worries. I do however need to get real world information on the cost to replace the sail drive. The engine is a Yanmar 3ym30AE (2015) which will require a SD 25 sail drive. I plan on calling a number of yards and dealers tomorrow to get prices but am concerned I might not get real world numbers, especially on the install. The boat is a 2003 Lagoon 380 currently in St. Augustine. The work could be done in the area or further North as the boat will need to be moved above 30 degrees no later than July 15th due to hurricane insurance requirements. Does anyone have estimates on cost of the SD 25 and labor to install it? Does the engine have to be hauled to do the install? Obviously the boat would have to be. Lastly, can anyone recommend a boat yard in St. Augustine to do the work? St. Augustine Marine Center seems to have the only haul out machinery to handle this size catamaran. Anyone have experience with them? Thanks in advance for any and all input.

[gmakhs]

Usually when a saildrive leaks you change the seals .... If he had to change the whole saildrive for how long both of them where running with water inside ??? If he didn't take care of that issue on time how many other things bhenhas neglect ?
I don't know the price , but it seems to me really weird that he had to replace the whole saildrive.

[Rapanui]

I tend to agree with the last poster. Water in SD20 saildrives is a known and well documented 'feature', but not a killer as long as its managed. There are a number of threads in CF.

Usually, there is small amount of water ingestion which turns the oil milky. For that you can do a partial oil change in the water and use high quality marine gear oil like Quicksilver High Peformance as an interim measure.
Obviously, if the drive is full of water, then you are talking new bearings etc, but that is unusual.

The key is to change the seals every 2 years at the longest, if the shaft is worn, have it re-metalled or fit a sleeve and do not overfill the oil, just to lower level.
I would have thought that only a major mechanical failure or more likely galvanic corrosion would trash the saildrive.
You need to dig a bit deeper.

[Nani Kai]

Thanks to both gmakhs and Rapanui for your responses. I do not know all the details but here's what I do know: The boat is a 2003 Lagoon that was in charter in its youth. It was purchased out of charter and lived in St. Augustine for a number of years. The current owner purchased her in 2014 then spent a year completely refitting: new standing and running rigging, complete new wiring stem to stern, new sun cover and stack pack, new A/C, new genny, etc, etc including 2 Brand new Yanmar 3ym30AE diesel engines. Both Saildrives were deemed okay but aging at the time of refit, but in 2017 the starboard one failed. (don't know details of failure just know it was necessary to replace it.) The port saildrive was fully serviced at that time and was deemed sea worthy but near the end of it's life. Again no details, but I have checked the saildrives on every sailboat we have chartered in the last 10 years and I will tell you the maintenance of these critical systems is very poor. It doesn't surprise me to learn that without proper maintenance the original sail drives were questionable. Remember these would have been 14 years old in 2017. Looking at pictures provided by the seller and in detailed conversations over the last 30 days I don't think lack of maintenance is the problem. I think rather it is the failure of a 15 year old system that is simply worn out. When the seller told me yesterday there was water in the oil I asked him what condition the sd was in and he thought it was probably 2/3rds of the way through its life cycle. I don't want to begin our cruising adventure with a critical component so close to the end of its service life so I thought now would be a good time to replace it. Because another prospective buyer has made an offer on the boat I want to make the best offer I can. That offer would be predicated on the cost of replacing the SD. Hence my original question. Your responses have been valuable in that they help me to understand the options and procedures for maintaining the life of SD's which will come in handy as we move forward. Thanks again for taking the time to respond. Now, off to Florida to see the boat and meet the owner in person.

[gmakhs]

Don't get me wrong but my grandfather's boat Sweden yachts comfort 34 was build in 1979, it still has the original engine and saildrive , and it's been sailing full time the last 40 years with only oil change once per year and the seal once .
We have a college boat back to my home town the saildrive is 45 years old now , it's been with the same oil and in the water the last 10 years as I remember and it still runs , with no issues .
I have work in multiple other old boats , and the parts are most of the time serviceable.
I really don't get how 2 engines would need to be replaced in 17 years and the saildrivess completely destroyed as well , plus the rewiring looks nonesence to me, the cables should be fine by that time .


You will need to find out the reasons the engines had to be replaced and why not overhauled , plus the reason behind the drives , if it's from galvanic corrosion you are gonna face the same problems again .


P.S I wouldn't believe a seller about what refit he claims that has done except if he had receipts for the job done or insurance certificate for the rigging .

[Cadence]

I am probably as dumb as a rock. I would hazard a guess that a seal has gone, probably no big deal. You might bargain that the unit needs replacement so worst case is covered. I can't help but wonder if the seller didn't get hoodwinked into the others replacement.

[Kita]

I was doing alot of research on the lagoon 380 when I was looking to buy my catamaran & something that came up was the galvanic corrosion on the sail drives of those units seem to put the lifespan of the Sail Drive at about 10 years. It seems as though they rarely rebuild those but just replace them due to the corrosion. I would ask some really experienced people that have the lagoons or have had them for a long time to confirm this. I shied away from the Lagoon with the Sail Drive because of this... to me this would seem to be normal maintenance on this particular boat if they got more than 10 or 12 years out of it... there was some talk of electrolysis problems but I really don't know anything about this for sure but if I was going to buy one I would definitely be seeking out someone that knows more about it

[PA22108]

One of your posts indicated that the owner has an offer on the boat. That would be a red flag for me. Be careful and don't go for the bait. Stick to your gut feelings and maybe let this one go. There are plenty of good boats on the market and it is a buyers market Good luck.

[captlloyd]

You sound like you know what you are doing to me. You asked a question about saildrives. I would advise you to to focus on answers on saildrives, not the advisability of buying this boat. Trust yourself.

[Nani Kai]

Originally Posted by captlloyd

You sound like you know what you are doing to me. You asked a question about saildrives. I would advise you to to focus on answers on saildrives, not the advisability of buying this boat. Trust yourself.

I agree. I looked at the boat yesterday. The couple who are selling it are Bristol in every regard. The boat is immaculate, well maintained, complete with 4 years of maintenance logs. Everything they told me has proven to be accurate. The issue over the saildrive was my error. In discussing it's condition the seller told me it had some hours on it and based on his estimates it was about 2/3' s through it's serviceable life. Then he added " but there is no water in the oil." Blame it on a bad cell connection, I didn't hear the "no". Which prompted my post. As for the other buyer he is real. Too real. His offer was accepted over mine. As disappointing as that is the sellers could not have been more truthful or transparent or the boat a more perfect fit. I can only hope that I am fortunate enough to find a similar situation again. Thanks for everyone's input.

[sailjumanji]

Why don't you start by asking him for the receipt for the sail drive replacement that was done a year ago? Rates dont change that quickly. Will at least get you in the ballpark.