Most of the 'knock off" boats of this genre have potential problems: inferior
stainless steel, and other inferior metals - usually an inferior 304 stainless that is subject to chloride attack and the
bronze is usually red brass (inferior to true bronze). Most chainplates and chainplate attachment bolts should be THOROUGHLY examined by a
surveyor ... usually hidden behind
teak fascia boards; the fascia MUST be removed during
survey. Typical chainplate attachment bolts are NOT easily replacable and probably have varying degradation from crevice
corrosion and fatigue ... usually needing total
rebuild of the chainplate base if you are contemplating serious passagemaking, etc. The chainplate design has a stress anomaly ... in that it is usally bent after it passes through the
deck ... and that little bend is called a 'stress riser' which considerably weakens it and causes fatigue fractures AT the zone of the bend. Chainplates when replaced should be MUCH thicker than the originals and should be mirror polished to lessen future fatigue. Ditto the same problem with the cranse collars at the tip end of the bowsprits - very poor design with inferior metal and abominable welding technique by non certified welders.
Most of these Taiwanese 'rip-off' boats were rigged with "Grand Deer"
rigging components. Some of these components are
cheap 'short cuts' and are very dangerous. Typically the Grand Deer
rigging toggle bolts (T-bolts) are not forged but are a screw together assembly that catastrophically fail when crevice
corrosion develops in the 'screw-together' t-bolts. They will be 'oversized' in comparison to 'normal' t-bolts and you will notice that there will be exposed threads at the interface of the cross portion/section and the vertical of the Tee. Riggers know these T-bolts as very inferior. If you seriously consider one of these boats, also consider to include an added rigging
inspection as part of your
survey.
The chainplate attachment bolts when starting to fail will show a 'rust bloom' surrounding the nut .... beware if you see such a 'bloom' on the attachment bolts as this will indicate the 'tell-tales' of crevice corrosion of the bolts and a needed complete
removal of the non-removable bolt (rebuild of the chainhplate base).
The propshafts are typically 304 stainless which in the dexoygenated zone of the stuffing box will probably present as severe galling of the shaft where the packing runs .... approx. replacment cost is about US$600 as the tapers are non-standard .... and maybe also the threads that attach the prop locking nut. These thread profiles are usually "Imperial Variant of the British Whitworth System" (used exclusively in Imperial
India,
Hong Kong and Taiwan) which although a very good mechanical/machine system (much much better than 'metric' machine profiles) is now essentially obsolete.
Teak deck on these boats will be
teak strakes over laid on a thick caulk and then screwed into the
deck core .... about 3200 screws per deck. The
core is asian 'softwood', laid in blocks about 8" square with the ends of each block separated by a 'dam' of polyester. The thought was that little polyester dam would prevent
rot from propagating from core section to core section ... well it didnt
work and if the deck is soggy under the
teak deck it will be a friggin NIGHTMARE to restore the deck.
Most of the bulwarks in these decks are leakey, many will have bulwarks filled with
water. Tayana did the best job in sealing the bulwarks but still occasionally one finds a Tayana with
water filled bulwarks.
Most of these boats came with 'junk'
sails: Lam, Neil Pryde and other purveyors of
cheap crap made from inferior stretchy sail cloth. Usually a new suit of 'good'
sails is required.
One must understand that many of these designs were "ripped off" of Robert Perrys design for the CT & Tayana yards and were executed by yards that didnt understand 'boatwork' nor had the expertise to build a 'proper' yacht. They are known as "leakey teakeys"... a euphanism for 'fungus farms'. Some you will find are in very good condition (if scrupulously maintained), some will be 'heartaches'. Be very careful and select a
surveyor who really KNOWS these kinds of boats and will stake his reputation on this knowledge. Many surveyors dont have a
single clue when it comes to these Taiwanese boats.
I own a Tayana. Mine is a well kept one which sails very well including in light air .... but it took a LOT of
work and a LOT of
refit to get it into "good" condition.
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