Tayana 37 Projects

[Tailwheel]

Hi folks,

my wife and I have been looking at upgrading to a larger, stable cruiser for our growing family, and have fallen on what might be a "deal" on a project Tayana 37 in our neck of the woods. We've had it surveyed, and several things have been pointed out to us as needing attention. What we're looking for is a reality check on how much these will cost us, bearing in mind that we are willing to do most of the work ourselves.

Scope of repairs is to render the boat serviceable for very simple coastal cruising (stuff we used to do in our Pearson 30), but eventually, over the next ten years, to get her ready for extended cruising, domestically and eventually around the world.

So here goes:

1: the mast compression post has a corroded base, owing to the base having been underwater for at least one winter. Simple to have new base welded on, or crazy expensive?
2: the load-bearing portion of the bowsprit shows an area of delamination. My guess is it can be disassembled and re-glued together. There is no visible cracking. What do you folks think?
3: most chainplates show some rusty "weeping". How much to have new ones made?
4: both forward side-decks show delamination. Surveyor seemed pretty relaxed about it, but I'd like to repair it sooner than later.
5: Fuel tank is a cheapo 20 gallon plastic botch-job, dropped into the bilge and left unsecured. We'd like one that gives us some miles! How much to have a decent one built up? What would a decent one even be? I've read that SS is not recommended. What are the options?
6: the standing rigging is going to have to be replaced before we take her anywhere offshore, but I'm happy to have a rigger take a look at what we have and just do an IRAN (inspect and replace as necessary) check. HOw much does a re-rig cost? Note previous point regarding the probable crevice corrosion of the chainplates.

As always, but in case this wasn't obvious, I/we are really grateful for the opportunity of tapping into the huge resource that is the CF community, and look forward to your answers, however few or many they may be!

Cheers!

TW

[gjordan]

I delivered a Tayana 37 many years ago and it had fuel tanks under both Port and Stb bunks. I dont recall it having any tanks in the bilge, but that was a long time ago. Chain plates are not real pricy, but getting to them without cutting up your interior might be a problem. You may find some of them to be in good shape, and some to be ready to break. Bow sprit fix will be mostly your labor and maybe buying or borrowing a dozen or more big clamps. The first thing I would check is the clevis pin at the bottom of the bobstay, where it attaches to the hull near the waterline. They are in and out of the water all of the time and tend to go bad quickly. If the mast support can be remove without doing major wood work , it probably wont be a big bill for the welding. I would not be at all relaxed about deck delamination. That can be a big job. If you want a real thrill, take the survey to the yard office and ask for a repair quote. It will make DIY look real good. Didnt your surveyor give you any estimates?___Best of Luck._____Grant.

[Cheechako]

The list sounds pretty typical for an older boat. If the compression post was under water for long, then the plywood under the floor may be soft in many places. I've seen this , especially below the head... in Tayana 37's before without sitting in water. In terms of boat dollars, I cant imagine fabricating and welding a new post plate will be much. You need to find where the original fuel tank is... and what the issue is. SS tanks are pretty good, but less so if located in a wet bilge for sure. Better than aluminum though!
If it has teak decks like many older ones did, you might be in for a big job on the delamination.

[Greggegner]

We chartered one years ago, first big boat. It sailed well in the protected waters of Albemarle sound in 50 knots of wind.

[Lowcountry]

Those boats had black iron fuel tanks, which often resulted in rust problems. They are also prone to getting soft decks, so that would be a major point of concern for me. I would try to find one that had already had the teak decks removed. I love the way they look, but this one sounds like A LOT of work. Best of luck to you in whatever you do.

[barnakiel]

A T37 rudder had issues going from here to the West Indies. Check out yours and make sure it is sound.

b.

[AuroraGH]

There is a whole discussion group of T37 owners. I'd ask over there.

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fro...!forum/tognews

[Tailwheel]

Thanks folks.

About the delamination: the good news is this is not a leaky teaky deck, just a box standard molded nonskid fiberglass deck, so no need to remove the teak and plug the holes. 'course, the flipside is that now it's not all that obvious why the two forward side-decks have delaminated. How about taking a core sample?

About the plywood cabin sole: hadn't thought about that. There's one obvious spot below the entrance hatch. My guess is the hatch has leaked and formed some rot. No such rot that I could see last time, but going to see it again today, so I'll check for that.

Rudder and exterior were all checked by surveyor, and he found them to be sound. Just a little slop in the Cutlass bearing.

Shortly after starting this thread, I was granted membership of the Tayana Owners Group, so, yes, I did re-post this message there too. Collectively they all seem to have gone through all of what I mention, while some "lucky" fellows have individually coped with most of what I mention, then some...

TW

[sneuman]

I'm currently in the process of replacing the chainplates on a Tayana 37. The plates themselves may be OK or they may be on the verge of oblivion. For all but the aft intermediate "dogbone" plates, it's basically a strap of polished 304 stainless. You can get ss bar cheaply on a site like onlinemetals.com. You won't find the exact dimensions, so go a size bigger. The knees will most likely be wet and in need of replacement. This is a messy job, but not difficult. You'll need to cut away the old and place a new (hard wood such as white oak) knee in place and reglass it before attaching the new chainplate. It takes about one weekend per plate, including the dry time between fiberglass layers. An angle grinder, judiciously applied, plus a chisle and crowbar will make fairly fast work of the old ones.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by sneuman

I'm currently in the process of replacing the chainplates on a Tayana 37.(...)

Would it perhaps be possible for you to expand on two aspects:

- bronze vs. SS chainplates,

- the secondary bond of the knee to the hull.

If you have any good online source of relevant information I would love to plug into it too.

Our chainplates are SS but I sometimes think of making them in bronze (I am not sure which bronze and if it can be cut from plate or do I need a bar). Also, I was thinking about modifying our knees to allow for angled/athwart alignment of our lower chainplates.

THX!
barnakiel

[sneuman]

Silicon bronze is, from my understanding, a fine material and more corrosion resistent than stainless. I think stainless is fine, however - especially if you go a size larger.

The bond of the knee to the hull can be epoxy or fiberglass resin. If you through bolt (through the hull - which I think is the best way to do it), you have a mechanical bond as well - then about 1/4" or more of fiberglass over the knee to bond it in place. Remember, there's not much action horizontally on the chainplate knee - most of it is up and down.

I also tried angeling the knees on the lower chainplate knees. Oddly though it gets you less of an angle than you think it will. You're still going to have to give your chainplates (especially the forward intermediates) a fair amount of bend. One thing with the angled knee is that it complicates the entry angle for the chainplate bolts if they pass through the hull - either the head on the outside is going to be right or the one on the inside is.

[CharlieCobra]

Originally Posted by Tailwheel

Hi folks,

my wife and I have been looking at upgrading to a larger, stable cruiser for our growing family, and have fallen on what might be a "deal" on a project Tayana 37 in our neck of the woods. We've had it surveyed, and several things have been pointed out to us as needing attention. What we're looking for is a reality check on how much these will cost us, bearing in mind that we are willing to do most of the work ourselves.

Scope of repairs is to render the boat serviceable for very simple coastal cruising (stuff we used to do in our Pearson 30), but eventually, over the next ten years, to get her ready for extended cruising, domestically and eventually around the world.

So here goes:

1: the mast compression post has a corroded base, owing to the base having been underwater for at least one winter. Simple to have new base welded on, or crazy expensive?

We are building a brand new mast step from Black Locust for a T-37. We had to cut an inch off of the mast to cancel corrossion.

2: the load-bearing portion of the bowsprit shows an area of delamination. My guess is it can be disassembled and re-glued together. There is no visible cracking. What do you folks think?

Many of the sprits were laminated spruce and fir. We just built a new one from Sitka Spruce laminates.

3: most chainplates show some rusty "weeping". How much to have new ones made?

It varies.

4: both forward side-decks show delamination. Surveyor seemed pretty relaxed about it, but I'd like to repair it sooner than later.

This is a major issue. When we pulled the top glass off of what seemed to be a small bit of bad core, we found it ran all the way down both sides. All of the core had to be pulled.

5: Fuel tank is a cheapo 20 gallon plastic botch-job, dropped into the bilge and left unsecured. We'd like one that gives us some miles! How much to have a decent one built up? What would a decent one even be? I've read that SS is not recommended. What are the options?
6: the standing rigging is going to have to be replaced before we take her anywhere offshore, but I'm happy to have a rigger take a look at what we have and just do an IRAN (inspect and replace as necessary) check. HOw much does a re-rig cost? Note previous point regarding the probable crevice corrosion of the chainplates.

As always, but in case this wasn't obvious, I/we are really grateful for the opportunity of tapping into the huge resource that is the CF community, and look forward to your answers, however few or many they may be!

Cheers!

TW

See my answers to the specific questions I can help on in the quoted section above...

[Tailwheel]

thanks for the warning!

I'll take a few deck core samples here and there and see how bad the core is. Thankfully, this is not a teak decked boat, so there's really only a limited number of places the water could be entering.

Depending how the bowsprit looks once I've removed and inspected it, I may just need re-gluing, or possibly replacement. From what I can tell, it's a laminate of teak and some kind of fir tree. We'll see how well the fir tree held up.

[sneuman]

Originally Posted by Tailwheel

thanks for the warning!

I'll take a few deck core samples here and there and see how bad the core is. Thankfully, this is not a teak decked boat, so there's really only a limited number of places the water could be entering.

Depending how the bowsprit looks once I've removed and inspected it, I may just need re-gluing, or possibly replacement. From what I can tell, it's a laminate of teak and some kind of fir tree. We'll see how well the fir tree held up.

Would be interested to hear what you found out.

[Tailwheel]

Hi,

Over the Summer, I just did a bunch of little jobs to acquaint myself with the boat, so I haven't attacked the major issue: Rigging and deck core.

Just finished covering the boat (mast up) for the Winter two weeks ago (I have 1day/week to work on the boat), so the plan is to work on the deck while she's covered, then work on: chainplates, knees, bowsprit, standing rigging, in the spring. I'm hoping to leave the mast in situ

Still debating whether to go with external chainplates (appx $3000), or internal ones. I like the idea of external chainplates: 1: no hole in the deck to leak into the lockers and 2: no knees to worry about, just a g4 backing plate. However, issues relating to cost, recalculating bend angles, loss in pointing ability and making drawings for the metallurgist etc may push me to just cave-in and replace with standard internal chainplates.

Hey, thanks for checking up on me!

Matt