Posted by loren beach (sailaway10@…>)
(Long Sigh…)
Note that Mr. Pascoe is considering to be a self-inflated embarrassment
to the surveying industry by at least one experienced surveyor that I
know. His comments on poor coring in hulls do seem to be spot on, but
elsewhere in his site he used to doubt whether keels were a good idea
on sailboats. I suspect that 99.9% of his business is powerboats –
built poorly from the git-go.
As to moisture meters, treat it like a preliminary cancer diagnosis –
i.e. get a second opinion from another “doctor”/surveyor with his/her
own meter and also an experienced hammer to back up the findings.
Whether of not the boat was originally sold with track, someone could
have installed it… and water can get into coring anywhere the
surface is pierced for cleats, stanchions, pulpits, etc etc. Once in,
the moisture stays until removed.
Knowing that all original sealants and bedding compounds have a life
measured in XX years - maybe a decade or two,
Experiment: try asking around among your friends to see who has
re-bedded ALL their deck fittings on their boat (any boat over a decade
in age). My guess is that no hands will go up. We all have the human
failing of “out of sight out of mind” for this type of maintenance.
Then comes the survey to sell the family yacht for something like its
perceived (and assumed) value… and suddenly the much-ignored
“elephant in the room” becomes visible and shocking!
(Sound of hand smacking forehead: "what? water rots balsa wood??!!
Nooooooooooooo…!)
The boat might be just fine otherwise, and the owner will adjust the
price to reflect what was really his deferred maintenance that he saved
a buck on and now must give up 3 of those same bucks in the sale. …
Kind of like selling it with a sick engine and lowering the price by
the amount to install a new one.
Do you have a good yard with real experience in deck repair? What is
their quote for re-bedding all the hardware?
Best of luck,
…and back into lurk mode,
Loren
On Feb 9, 2006, at 8:36 AM, freedomyachts2003@yahoogroups.com wrote:
I agree with Dave’s observations of the differences in moisture
readings. Also, read this:
http://www.yachtsurvey.com/buyingaboat.htmThere is an other method of checking and repairing: from below. If
you drill a hole in the suspect area from below and check, you can
then drill a next hole, until you find dry balsa. Then you can
remove, patch by patch, the underside of the laminate, epoxy in
patches of foam and cover with the original laminate, or a new
layout. Of course, you will have to work upside down.