Privilege 585 deck moisture

[28knots]

Hi Everyone,

I'm inspecting a 2006 Privilege 585 that is for sale. I have not had it professionally surveyed yet. I plan to get a survey done but in the meantime I'm trying to establish whether it is even worth hauling her out.

One issue I have found is - using a simple moisture meter I have found moisture in the salon roof in spots. Previous owners had some solar panel mounts screwed in there and I assume there was water ingress via the screw holes. It may also be old sikka on the sheet car tracks that needs replacing etc as they are original from 2006. The moisture meter reads about 15% to 25%. It also reads down the salon walls in parts, then at the base of the salon windows in that area and about halfway across some of the the side deck on both port and starboard side decks. So probably entered in the top of the roof and spread down and out.
Im sure that the ingress points can be fixed and made good.

My question is, what is the the salon roof deck made of in a Privilege 585 ? Is it balsa core or foam core? If balsa I can only assume it's rotten. If foam core, can I assume that I can dry it out and make it good? The deck or roof is not soft or "spongey" - in fact without the moisture meter I probably would never have found the moisture.

Thanks in advance! Id love to chat with any other P585 owners about stuff in general too.

[Jeannius]

Privilege core is Divinycell (https://www.diabgroup.com/products-s...ivinycell-pvc/ and in my vast experience (one boat, 12 years ownership) you don't need to worry about moisture in the core. More experienced people on here will, I'm sure, come along and also tell you moisture meters are pretty useless for assessing a boat and that a small hammer and good ears are far better.

I've never owned a P585 but have been onboard a few and really love them. Way too big for my needs but, in my opinion, much better boats than the more recent Privileges.