Buying a motor yacht for the first time (Grand Banks 36 Europa) - any tips?

R

rolf.nielsen

Active Member
Joined
4 Mar 2014
Messages
60
Visit site
We are about to buy a 1990 Grand Banks 36 Europa. She's a real beauty and we are very excited. We have been through a very carefully considered purchase process, so at this stage what's remaining is a technical inspection of the boat to ensure that all installations - hidden and otherwise - are sound and well maintained. We'll have her taken out of the water and checked for osmosis.

I'm well experienced with yachting, but since I've always had a sailing yacht I'm not well versed with motor boats. Do you have any tips for what I should be on the look-out for as I inspect the boat together with our expert?
 
Hope it all goes well. The main reason Motor boats play up is either the fuel supply system or the raw water cooling system. Assuming all goes well on the survey, on a 1990 boat it would be well worth stripping and clean out the fuel lines, filters and fuel tank if you can get in it. If there are no access hatches on the tank rig a cheap pump and filter to flush it through as many orifices as possible to get any gunge out. Same for the heat exchangers/intercoolers on the engines. Some people use rydlime to get any scale out, but I prefer to have a proper look at the cores.
Might be worth doing a handling course to get up to speed quicker as they don't handle the same as a sailing yacht, usually easier but there are a few tricks worth knowing that could save your gelcoat.
 
Good advice from Kashurst. I believe the Grand Banks is a wooden hulled boat. At 24 years old, there may be some issues with wood rotting unless it has been very well looked after or refurbished. There are some real experts on here on the wood side. You should also look at all the domestic services, water system, heads, electrics. There can be some considerable costs involved.
 
rafiki_ said:
Good advice from Kashurst. I believe the Grand Banks is a wooden hulled boat. At 24 years old, there may be some issues with wood rotting unless it has been very well looked after or refurbished. There are some real experts on here on the wood side. You should also look at all the domestic services, water system, heads, electrics. There can be some considerable costs involved.
Click to expand...

I'd be very surprised if a 1990 GB was wooden hulled, from memory they switched to Grp around 1980 or even mid 70s.
 
rafiki_ said:
Good advice from Kashurst. I believe the Grand Banks is a wooden hulled boat. At 24 years old, there may be some issues with wood rotting unless it has been very well looked after or refurbished. There are some real experts on here on the wood side. You should also look at all the domestic services, water system, heads, electrics. There can be some considerable costs involved.
Click to expand...
that's what I initially thought, just checked, it's fiberglass, so no worries there (other than teak on decks et al, but that's not a serious issue anyway!)
hope all goes well for the OP and would like to see lots of pics ;)

cheers

V.
 
vas said:
that's what I initially thought, just checked, it's fiberglass, so no worries there (other than teak on decks et al, but that's not a serious issue anyway!)
hope all goes well for the OP and would like to see lots of pics ;)

cheers

V.
Click to expand...
Good spot Vas. Apologies for the red herring.
 
I don't know who your 'expert' is but he/she should be a qualified surveyor with proven experience of surveying this kind of boat. As well as a thorough survey of the hull and sterngear, he should check the operation of all equipment during the survey but he will very likely not be an expert on the mechanical equipment, particularly the engines. I strongly suggest that you engage a qualified engine technician with Ford Lehman experience to report on the condition of the engines and very likely he will need to accompany you on the seatrial in order to check the engines under load. In addition he should take a sample of engine oil from both engines to obtain a detailed chemical analysis but this can only be done if the oil has completed 30-40hrs of operation in the engines. There is no point in doing an analysis on the oil if it has recently been changed. The analysis will highlight any excessive levels of impurities in the oil which may point to engine wear.
A proper hull and equipment survey plus an engine survey will cost you a lot of money (maybe €2000-3000 in total) but it will be money well spent if you find any faults. This will allow you to negotiate the price of the boat downwards to cover the cost of repairing the faults or to insist that the seller repairs the faults at his cost. In the extreme, these surveys may find a major fault which cause you not to proceed with the purchase at all
 
We have the Lehman 135s in Eos, non turbo charged straight 6, very easy to work on with nothing much to go wrong. After 25 years ours start on the button with no smoke, all I do is regular oil/filter changes and putting rydlyme in the heat exchangers, although this year I've also rodded them just as a precaution, however it wasn't really necessary as the Rydlyme seems to be doing what it's supposed to.
Don't forget the heat exchanger anodes, the recommendation is to change them every 3 months, although I bet most will get done once a year at most.
 
Very very nice little ship. Photographed in Port Grimaud marina, near me in South of France

Here are some thoughts (wearing a "critical" hat, as you sort of requested):

1. Consider whether you can live with such little storage in the galley - it is incredibly short on cupboard space due to having no high cupboards
2. You might want to check if you can add a helm chair
3. The nav gear seems a bit home-made computerish. It might be great, or you might have to budget for a better installation. I doubt those screens will be sunlight viewable
4. The open shower sump is not nice. Should be in a sealed box. I guess it's no big deal and you can live with it
5. Check decks as advised above. Note the teak panels are screwed and plugged, which is a shame and creates possibility of leaks but hopefully all is ok and well sealed. I'd always specify that they should be glued only, not glued and screwed
6. The teak decking under the flybridge throttles will annoy you cleaning wise but I guess isn't the end of the world!
7. The Guidi water strainers in the engine room (in cast bronze, nickel plated, very nice) seem to be supported by the inlet pipe with just a thin metal tie strap to stop them falling over or wobbling. I would much prefer and would always specify that they are mounted properly so their weight is taken by the mounting lugs that are part of the cast body of the strainers. But maybe I'm being fussy and the way they are mounted is good enough, if a bit bodgy. Ask surveyor perhaps
8. In the last e/room pic, I'd like to know what the grey-orange hosepipe is for

Good luck with the next stage and enjoy your trip to SofF anyway
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top