Bowed hull Boomaroo/Catalina 22

[troppo]

What's your thoughts on this? I would appreciate your expert advice.

Looking under a Boomaroo 22 (Catalina 22) I was thinking of buying, and I noticed under the hull to the starboard side of the keel, an area that curved up slightly giving a large shallow indent beside the keel. At first, not having seen a Boomaroo before, I wondered if this was part of the design to give extra speed or something. I thought it should be flat but then I know little about boats and almost nothing about Catalina 22s.

[Checking on my post and clicking on photos I see unexpected links. Have not posted photos for years and so this new photo storage website I just now started using is a bit of a surprise. Are there better hosting sites? Does this hosting site with its links go against the policies of this website? If so, I'll change it. ]


The photo below shows the main trouble areas although I did not see the stress cracks until home and looking at photos:



With seeing the large shallow indent on the right side, I checked the port side. There was also an ident but it was smaller and shaped differently. Also, the indent seemed to be centred on a dark smudged area I guessed was from the boat's previous trailer.

Port side photo showing grunge but can't see the shallow depression properly:



The depressions on both sides finished on quite a sharp line running across the hull right behind the swing keel as if inside the hull there was a substantial rib or what ever they are called giving extra support. I didn't think the slight depressions were a good thing.

I took some photos of the strange indents but later looking at the pictures realised you can't see anything properly due to glare and what have you.

When I was under the boat, the weather was hot and humid, the dirt was wet, sweat was dripping off me. I was not as observant as I should have been, however, taking photos was useful as looking at them I have noticed more.

Looking at the under hull to the right of the starboard depression, I saw in the photos what looked like some stress cracks from flexing. And there was a rectangular patch of white paint covering some of that area which made me wonder if it was an old repair.

Photo of possible stress cracks and old repair on starboard side:



If the depression was a problem (not part of the design) and the bottom had been flexing then I would expect it to show stress cracks like in the photo. That would be along the far edge of the depression and running parallel to the keel.

Having found flex cracks in photos of the starboard side, I went back to photos of the port side. This depression is not as large but I found some lines I am thinking are also cracks from flexing.

Port side photo showing possible small stress fractures along the edge of the slight depression:



My conclusion is that maybe the boat on the previous trailer was not having its weight spread evenly and some sections underneath have ended up out of shape and even had cracking to some extent of the fibreglass.

My question to you is: Is it possible I am guessing right about there being a problem? How do you see it?

Oh, I have told the owner, who is a very nice chap, that I have decided not to buy.