Advice Welcome: Purchasing 40ft Catamaran with wet core

[nomadsailing]

GDay all,

I am under contract on a 1996 Manta 40 and during our haulout survey yesterday, a saturated core of the entire underside (underside of bridge deck and inside of each hull) was identified.

This was identified by:
First clue: pulling 3 fasteners out of forward starboard cabin sole - water immediately weeped in from the holes
Moisture meter on the outside during haulout confirmed this

This Manta 40 has Nida Core PP honeycomb core, so rot/desintegration is not an issue?

Other notes
-This does not seem to be osmosis
-There is no delamination or blistering. Hull is in very nice shape
-Only minor section of deck top is wet (unrelated to hull saturation)
-We are not looking for a project boat so a major job like this is not something we want to do ourselves. If we accept the issue and factor in the purchase price, we will be off sailing and not repairing the issue (though monitoring closely)

I am chasing any advice and experience you have on the subject as unfortunately all the research deals with Balsa/Foam cores, osmosis/blistering etc. Not our situation of a solid hull with wet honeycomb core.

I understand all older boats will have some issues along this line, and to me it doesn't seem to be a run away issue, but more of a how much cost reduction to factor in difficulty in resale (this purchase is planned to be a 2-5 year adventure)


Cheers
Paul