and the survey revealed...

[timmygobang]

I've just got a survey done on a boat, and would welcome opinions on what was reported. I shall speak to the surveyor tomorrow but thought I'd throw this open to the forum, to see if anyone else had similar findings on their surveys. The boat was lifted out for the inspection. The suggestion is to remove sample sections around the boat to inspect the gel coat as part of the condition of sale, or I just go ahead and slap some sealant and AF it and close my eys


It appears that various different layers of epoxy paint have been applied to the hull, which have varying degrees of adhesion. Several small sections of the outer layers were removed from the hull when it was pressure washed. When sample sections of the antifouling paint were removed, at least the outer layer came away with the paint, but this may be a primer.

Where the areas of paint were removed, the meter registered between 17 and 24. Where the section of epoxy paint was removed on the starboard quarter, a reading of 12 was registered on the gel coat. This suggests that the higher levels of moisture are trapped within the layers of epoxy paint, which is not unusual, but it would be necessary to remove further areas of the epoxy paint to confirm this.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

I've just got a survey done on a boat, and would welcome opinions on what was reported. I shall speak to the surveyor tomorrow but thought I'd throw this open to the forum, to see if anyone else had similar findings on their surveys. The boat was lifted out for the inspection. The suggestion is to remove sample sections around the boat to inspect the gel coat as part of the condition of sale, or I just go ahead and slap some sealant and AF it and close my eys


It appears that various different layers of epoxy paint have been applied to the hull, which have varying degrees of adhesion. Several small sections of the outer layers were removed from the hull when it was pressure washed. When sample sections of the antifouling paint were removed, at least the outer layer came away with the paint, but this may be a primer.

Where the areas of paint were removed, the meter registered between 17 and 24. Where the section of epoxy paint was removed on the starboard quarter, a reading of 12 was registered on the gel coat. This suggests that the higher levels of moisture are trapped within the layers of epoxy paint, which is not unusual, but it would be necessary to remove further areas of the epoxy paint to confirm this.

In your position I would want to take in consideration how much money I was spending.

If its a very cheap boat I might go for it.

If it is a reasonable expense, and I guess by the fact that is has been surveyed that it is, I would never, ever not explore something like that further.

Removing a bit more paint is nothing expense wise to what you may be letting yourself in for.

The annoying thing is that if the surveyor had just called you whilst he was doing the job you could have probably got him to do a bit more exploration, at a fraction of the cost, whilst he was here.

 

[savageseadog]

I don't think there's anything to worry about, strip the old layers and put new on and off you go. But best to ask the surveyor.

 

[GrahamM376]

Nothing worrying there if the price is right, sounds as if it needs blasting off and re-epoxying if the existing layers aren't bonded properly.

 

[Fr J Hackett]

The survey is covering his arse, it's nothing to worry about, if you are so minded when you haul out this winter strip everything back to gel coat wait till spring apply an epoxy and anti foul. It really depends on the value of the boat. Surveyors seem more interested in finding potential faults to either justify their fee, protect their PI or give the buyer their client a tool to argue a price reduction instead of giving a condition report and some sound advice.

 

[jimi]

I may be missing something , but surely the surveyor should have scraped all the areas he was testing back to the bare gelcoat before testing?

edit

missed the eopxy bit!

This would suggest to me that the epoxy coating has probably been applied by an amateur and the hull may need cleaning and re-epoxying at some point.

 

[jwilson]

I've just got a survey done on a boat, and would welcome opinions on what was reported. I shall speak to the surveyor tomorrow but thought I'd throw this open to the forum, to see if anyone else had similar findings on their surveys. The boat was lifted out for the inspection. The suggestion is to remove sample sections around the boat to inspect the gel coat as part of the condition of sale, or I just go ahead and slap some sealant and AF it and close my eys


It appears that various different layers of epoxy paint have been applied to the hull, which have varying degrees of adhesion. Several small sections of the outer layers were removed from the hull when it was pressure washed. When sample sections of the antifouling paint were removed, at least the outer layer came away with the paint, but this may be a primer.

Where the areas of paint were removed, the meter registered between 17 and 24. Where the section of epoxy paint was removed on the starboard quarter, a reading of 12 was registered on the gel coat. This suggests that the higher levels of moisture are trapped within the layers of epoxy paint, which is not unusual, but it would be necessary to remove further areas of the epoxy paint to confirm this.

What no-one has said yet is that a reading of 24 can be high moisture if on a Sovereign 0-25 meter, or pretty dry if a Tramex 0-100. Epoxies do hold moisture. Talk to your surveyor. If no blisters and an old heavily laid up boat (or even if some blisters) I would not worry that much, if the price and remainder of the condition was OK.

 

[oldsaltoz]

I would be concerned with what is on the hull now, though iy sounds very much like no propper cleaning prior to sanding between set coats, this is not a problem if applied wet on tacky and avoids all the cleaning and sanding.

However, I would really want to know exactly what the 'hull moisture' is before I proceeded any further.

All that epoxy will be preventing any moisture drying out. check the topsides and compare the readings to the hull below the water line, but only after the epoxy has been completely removed from the test areas.

Good luck and fair winds.

 

[Blueboatman]

IMO and IME to a limited extent I would say that good surveyors get a smell for a boat cos they've done it so many times and seen a lot.Some would say they've seen 'the lot'.

I think the OP should have a chat and listen to the surveyor 'off the record' next.

 

[l'escargot]

If it's a 10 grand boat, probably alright. If it's a 100 grand boat, you need to look further.

 

[BAtoo]

I would expect you could, at least, negotiate the cost of a lift out & blast-off for the hull on the basis of the report (and, maybe, a "contribution" towards some more epoxy to go on)

 

[Spyro]

It tells me that moisture readings on a hull that has just came out of the water are a waste of time.

 

[timmygobang]

Thanks for all your input, I spoke to the surveyor and decided that it shouldn't give me too much bother for now.

The delamination and water ingress in the coach roof is another matter, which I've said to the broker that this needs to be investigated to find out the extent of the issue. From what I read this can be a small or a big issue depending on how much balsa core is rotten, the fix being either resin injected from below into the voids or worst case scenerio a section of the coach roof removed which would be the most drastic course of action. Shall wait and see

 

[Talulah]

It tells me that moisture readings on a hull that has just came out of the water are a waste of time.

+1

 

[GrahamM376]

Thanks for all your input, I spoke to the surveyor and decided that it shouldn't give me too much bother for now.

The delamination and water ingress in the coach roof is another matter, which I've said to the broker that this needs to be investigated to find out the extent of the issue. From what I read this can be a small or a big issue depending on how much balsa core is rotten, the fix being either resin injected from below into the voids or worst case scenerio a section of the coach roof removed which would be the most drastic course of action. Shall wait and see

It sounds as if this boat needs a lot of work doing, is it worth it? You should be costing everything at professional rates and then haggling the price down.

 

[timmygobang]

It sounds as if this boat needs a lot of work doing, is it worth it? You should be costing everything at professional rates and then haggling the price down.

Yeh thats pretty much what I'm doing, I know the seller has put money into nice things so I may find he is reluctant to drop the price. We'll see though, the last thing I want is a boat where I have to spend my days worrying whether I need to reseal fittings to stop water ingress every year...

 

[BAtoo]

From what I read this can be a small or a big issue depending on how much balsa core is rotten, the fix being either resin injected from below into the voids or worst case scenerio a section of the coach roof removed which would be the most drastic course of action. Shall wait and see

Friend of mine removed the whole of the outer skin of his boat's HULL where it had come adrift form the core; made resin plugs in the core and re-laid a new outer skin on it.... so a little work on a coachroof should be no probs....

 

[oldsaltoz]

Thanks for all your input, I spoke to the surveyor and decided that it shouldn't give me too much bother for now.

The delamination and water ingress in the coach roof is another matter, which I've said to the broker that this needs to be investigated to find out the extent of the issue. From what I read this can be a small or a big issue depending on how much balsa core is rotten, the fix being either resin injected from below into the voids or worst case scenerio a section of the coach roof removed which would be the most drastic course of action. Shall wait and see

Replacing wet/rotted balsa is best done from below deck, a bit more mess but the top sides are retained in original condition.
Replacing balsa with a closed cell foam and epoxy mixed with Micro Balloons or Micro fibres depending on how much strength and bond you want.
A search with Google that starts with 'YBW deck repair' should bring up some of the articles I have posted in the past.

Good luck and fair winds.