We have owned, sailed and lived aboard our Nan Tai 37 for 30 years. We are about 2/3 of the way through a total
refit and will be leaving for the
Baja from
Maryland next October.
You need to watch out for the condition of the
wiring, hoses, black iron
diesel tanks etc. In addition you need to pull up the thin layer of
fiberglass overlaying the ballast and reef out the gravel they have added to take up the excess space, then add filler and
fiberglass to provide a better solution. The ply backing for the
teak is suspect and often needs to be replaced. Further they are subject to
leaks in the main
hatch as well as both the forward
deck hatch and butterfly hatch. Further the
cheap formica overhead and
cabin sides goes bad quickly and the fix is long hours to remove it and replace with a better solution (we used a naugasoft from Sailright).
The
electric panel should be replaced as it contains about 100amp
commercial breakers and #8
wiring.
They are great sailing boats unlike other
Taiwan boats that are real slugs in light air. Ours has done very well in a variety of conditoins.
Hull is well built, no problems with
blisters, but we started out by coating the
hull with three coats of
epoxy. This time we ground the bottom and used 2 coats of west, then 4 coats of 2000E. The gel will craze in strong UV in 30 years but the hull laminate is excellent.
Replace the
cheap bronze thru hulls, poor quality taiwan hose and look over the old MD17C. Ours still runs strong, but
parts are getting a bit harder to find.
We lived aboard with two small
kids and two cats and survived quite well. Our oldest so lived aboard for two years.
Love the large and shallow
cockpit, great for entertaining in port and doesn't pose too much of a problem if a following sea flops aboard, the main hatch is at highest point thus not much of a flooding chance.
Lots and lots of
teak, if you don't like teak don't buy this boat!
We put about 6 months of hard
work into ours and it is now better than new and far more enjoyable. Better reefer, insulated hull
interior and refinished, new
plywood backing, new bulkheads aft. Overhead, refininshed teak, new
plumbing (pex), new hose to heads and waste tank, new A1
diesel hose etc.
Need more info we'd be more than happy to help.
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