Buying advice : Would you trust a 50yr old polyester boat?

[Nicholson58]

Here is an oldie with a pedigree about 100 feet from ROXY in Trinidad at Power Boat Marine.

https://www.passagemaker.com/technic...agemaker-refit

The wood hull needed zero replacement teak. The owners are amazing driven hard workers.

Photo from my bow.

[cjheath]

Short answer, NO. I have been down this path and it wasn’t good. Do yourself a huge favour and have a look at some of the earlier episodes on YouTube of Sail Life where Mads shows you what he had to do to deal with the osmosis in his boat. For me personally it meant 100s of man hours and lots of $. There were subtle signs of this at my pre purchase survey but I was definitely not aware of the extent of this problem. By all means buy this boat if it’s your dream but put aside plenty of time & $ for what may ( probably) be ahead of you. All that said, if one of the previous owners has done this work already and done it properly then you’re in a completely different position.
Good luck!

[Joe Okros]

My Morgan OI 36 was built in 1974 so she's coming up for 50. I've had her for 17 of those years and have ground and filled the odd blister in that time, I've installed new through-hulls and found the fiberglass plugs cut out to be solid and thick. I suspect she will outlive me. I would be more concerned if someone with no experience was buying a 57 ft boat, I suggest you start with something much smaller and cheaper like a Cav 32. With the housing market being what it is in NZ a lot of people are considering buying floating condos (57ft) as an alternative to living in a house, don't make that mistake, there is nothing cheap about living on a boat anymore.

[tronic72]

Originally Posted by tronic72

Scraping the bottom of the barrel by including Beneteau in the list.

Sigh. I don’t know why I’m bothering to correct the record but here goes…

I never said benetaue was a junk boat. The OP referred to them as “the best blue water boats”. When one thinks of Water boats">blue water boats this is not typically a brand people think of, HR yes, Benetaue, not so much.

[tronic72]

Originally Posted by cjheath

Short answer, NO. I have been down this path and it wasn’t good. Do yourself a huge favour and have a look at some of the earlier episodes on YouTube of Sail Life where Mads shows you what he had to do to deal with the osmosis in his boat. For me personally it meant 100s of man hours and lots of $. There were subtle signs of this at my pre purchase survey but I was definitely not aware of the extent of this problem. By all means buy this boat if it’s your dream but put aside plenty of time & $ for what may ( probably) be ahead of you. All that said, if one of the previous owners has done this work already and done it properly then you’re in a completely different position.
Good luck!

Yup! You’ve said it in a nutshell. His core was soaked and he’s invested thousands of hours repairing the core. The cost of this would have far exceeded the value of the boat but he wanted to learn the skills of a shipwright and he’s done an amazing job of restoring that boat.

To confirm, cored boats have their benefits. But they also have a greater potential for issues, IF the core is subjected to water ingress. This is not untrue and nor does it mean that cited boats should be avoided at all costs.

[dalemann]

If there is moisture in the hull and you winter in a zone where temperatures are below freezing the water inside the hull will freeze and expand and you may have a real problem. Nothing can withstand the force of expansion of freezing water.

[davenrino]

I bought my 1969 CAL 2-30 4 years ago and found a LOT of blisters but most were shallow and less than quarter size. We ground down to glass and repaired all the blisters. It is hand laid solid FG up to 1"+ thick. We used 3 barrier coats and 3 anti-foul. Hauled 2 years later with no new blisters. Added 2 more barrier coats and 3 anti-foul. I believe the boat has spent it's whole time in the Hawaiian waters. I am not worried about the hull.

[dalemann]

Do you live in a freezing zone ? I am from Canada and moisture in the hull is a cause of real fear

[Cyrus Safdari]

Originally Posted by jorxster

Hi all,

Here in New Zealand the second-hand market for yachts is pretty steep. I'm looking for a quality blue water cruiser and that naturally means $$$.
I was talking to my surveyor who said that polyester resin built hulls are not water tight and eventually saturate with water,

Congrats on learning the first lesson in the crusing world: there are all kinds of idiots in the marine industry which is inadequately regulated as well as too many inexperienced buyers who jump in both feet first likely to believe whatever nonsense they're told
The second lesson is that no one you pay will ever do the job as well as yourself and quite likey they'll cut as many corners as they can



In fact the olders fiberglass boats aka classic plastic pre 1973 in US were not only built more heavily making them more desirable as blue water sailors and they also did not suffer from pox

[coopec43]

Originally Posted by tronic72

Sigh. I don’t know why I’m bothering to correct the record but here goes…

I never said benetaue was a junk boat. The OP referred to them as “the best blue water boats”. When one thinks of blue water boats this is not typically a brand people think of, HR yes, Benetaue, not so much.

Well I suppose power boat skippers, armchair admirals and chat-room bores will always have their own opinion of a good Blue Water Yacht. The fact is there are plenty of Beneteaus out on international waters.

A study of the World Cruising Club archives revealed the following:

What’s Popular?
> Most popular brands in the ARC, 2008-2012 (in order):
Beneteau, Jeanneau, Swan, Oyster, Bavaria,
Hallberg-Rassy, Lagoon, Hanse, X-Yachts
> Most popular brands in the Caribbean 1500, 2008-2012:
Jeanneau, Hallberg-Rassy, Hylas, Tayana, Beneteau,
Island Packet, J/Boats, Amel, Lagoon, Catalina

https://www.sailmagazine.com/boats/t...cruising-boats

On another matter:
Can I ask again: will the core in my Airex cored yacht rot?

[GBonjour]

Hello, there was a time that the US Govt required the formula for Fiberglass
be changed to add a fire retardent. That was the time period that produced blisters in the layup. I had such a boat and had to address that issue.
After the initial blisters presented themselves, the problem was resolved.
Later, the formula was changed when they realized the problem. As a precaution, I put a barrier coat on my hulls just as an extra step i just incase
I would not be anxious about fiberglass especially if you take the time to administer the barrier coat ( Not that expensive )

[tronic72]

Originally Posted by coopec43

Well I suppose power boat skippers, armchair admirals and chat-room bores will always have their own opinion of a good Blue Water Yacht. The fact is there are plenty of Beneteaus out on international waters.

A study of the World Cruising Club archives revealed the following:

What’s Popular?
> Most popular brands in the ARC, 2008-2012 (in order):
Beneteau, Jeanneau, Swan, Oyster, Bavaria,
Hallberg-Rassy, Lagoon, Hanse, X-Yachts
> Most popular brands in the Caribbean 1500, 2008-2012:
Jeanneau, Hallberg-Rassy, Hylas, Tayana, Beneteau,
Island Packet, J/Boats, Amel, Lagoon, Catalina

https://www.sailmagazine.com/boats/t...cruising-boats

On another matter:
Can I ask again: will the core in my Airex cored yacht rot?

You do know you’ve just totally ignored the original post in your quest to appear in the right ?? Thank you for educating us with your wisdom while illustrating that cored boats are infallible and superior to all kinds of boats. Im humbled to be in the presence of your marine engineering greatness .

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by GBonjour

Hello, there was a time that the US Govt required the formula for Fiberglass
be changed to add a fire retardent. That was the time period that produced blisters in the layup. I had such a boat and had to address that issue.
After the initial blisters presented themselves, the problem was resolved.
Later, the formula was changed when they realized the problem. As a precaution, I put a barrier coat on my hulls just as an extra step i just incase
I would not be anxious about fiberglass especially if you take the time to administer the barrier coat ( Not that expensive )

It was my understanding that Uniflite did the fire retardant formula and no one else. Is there an article you can attach to back up the US Govt claim?

[GILow]

Originally Posted by GBonjour

Hello, there was a time that the US Govt required the formula for Fiberglass

be changed to add a fire retardent. That was the time period that produced blisters in the layup. I had such a boat and had to address that issue.

After the initial blisters presented themselves, the problem was resolved.

Later, the formula was changed when they realized the problem. As a precaution, I put a barrier coat on my hulls just as an extra step i just incase

I would not be anxious about fiberglass especially if you take the time to administer the barrier coat ( Not that expensive )

I think I’ve heard of that issue before. Can you tell us, was it just US built boats that were affected? (My Kelly Peterson is a US brand but built in Taiwan). Also, which years were affected?

[coopec43]

Originally Posted by GILow

I think I’ve heard of that issue before. Can you tell us, was it just US built boats that were affected? (My Kelly Peterson is a US brand but built in Taiwan). Also, which years were affected?

GILow

Has this got something to do with it?

https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/26/a...dant-rule.html


https://books.google.com.au/books?id...lation&f=false