Failed survey

volvopaul said:
Exactly.

This range of engine suffers badly especially in a stern drive boat .
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I am a yottie.

All my boats, from the simple narrowboat owned in the early seventies to my current motor sailer have had perfectly dry bilges, the last three having separate engine bilges.

I was unaware that motorboats could be operated with seawater under the engines. That would not do for me!

Sorry for sticking my two pennyworth in.................................
 
penberth3 said:
You've never had a Ford.
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Oh yes I have..................

I stick by what I said, my previous life was as an antique motorcycle restorer and dealer. I have also been involved with VERY old cars.

1898 De Dion was the oldest, followed by a 1906 Panhard. Plus loads of Model T Fords, Bullnose Morris's and other of similar vintage.

We pulled a mark I Escort out of a Welsh farmyard-my mate needed a shell for his rally car-the sump on that was rusted through. The bonnet was up and the oil filler cap off. The engine was very rusty inside as during the ten years it was there a broken gutter on the barn it was adjacent to shot rainwater under said bonnet where a large proportion went into the rocker cover.
 
rotrax said:
I am a yottie.

All my boats, from the simple narrowboat owned in the early seventies to my current motor sailer have had perfectly dry bilges, the last three having separate engine bilges.

I was unaware that motorboats could be operated with seawater under the engines. That would not do for me!

Sorry for sticking my two pennyworth in.................................
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can be operated with seawater running all over the alternator as well, from what i have seen in other boats :)
def a bad idea, the access is not always that easy, some peeps are lazy and dont check / look.
perfectly possible to keep it dry / rinse it off after a leak / spray with anti corrosion oil.
 
The strainer design is not clever with VP outdrives , it’s high up to prevent flooding because no accessibility to a seperate seacock .

It’s obviously attached to the unit not remote therefore there’s an inevitability that something’s gonna be doused and seawater run down the outside of the unit ,the bottom part being the sump .

The riser designs from the elbow again set to leak , drip from corrosion under the rubber collar often for a while out of sight dousing the rear out of sight area , not a lot but it’s seawater all the same before thst parts replaced .

Sports cruisers around this L usually have tight engine rooms , not a great deal of height over the engines or lateral access .

So when running it’s difficult to spot .They have or should have large side air vents that a yacht does not have .
Although baffled in a beam sea , big waves and perhaps a D speed rolling boat seawater can ingress through those .

They sometimes have a modular construction more so in the stern area over the ER .
So parts are bolted to together, gaps sealed by sealant . examples are the bathing platform and radar arch , bombing around slamming in relative big seas causes flexing and hey presto another source of seawater in the bilge more so as it ages .
Your canal boatboat are yacht monohulls are free from this risk .
Some have removable cockpit access panels , they all have a ER hatch in the cockpit, again in a big sea - spray gets in and if the drains are duff seawater inevitably drips on to the contents below , gravity ensures it runs down the sump .
You don’t have that in a Yacht design , sure spray but but runs out clean , keeps away from running down the engine .
Sports cruisers have busy ER bilge pumps , so at the dock you see a small amount and think it’s ok ( except Simon ^^^ :)) after a days out .The heats dried the engine .

I,ll stop now .

I could keep going to 101 reasons :) but I think folks get the idea

Anyhow it’s the solution not the cause of the rotten sump we need to find out , can it be done in situ?
 
Portofino said:
Russ , I vaguely remember thar you have had previous hassle with outdrives? So forgive me for looking back at your previous posts .
Perhaps not helpful at this stage and accidentally inflammatory, but have you ever thought of something like this ?

https://www.yachtworld.co.uk/boats/1999/pershing-37-3508383/?refSource=browse listing

Expectation being the truck ride home being a one off then that’s it ,

There’s some merit in the suggestion that maybe 20 y ago the Internet was not used as much as now , take E bay , navigation, net flix etc MPs tweeting / whinging etc and ministers for that matter .
So what iam saying is the counter argument of “ resale “ in the U.K. theses days will be blown away when the next generation of buyers google outdrive woes .Indeed like HenryF you can do your own add via the Internet and resell it based on mininal ongoing maintenance cost / hassle .
I,ve had an outdrive boat newish was 2 y old , but crucially i offloaded it before its was 10 , for a then 12 y shaft drive and in the past 4 going on 5 seasons spent Zero on repairs or had any breakdowns outside routine service/ consumables.
It’s been a bit boring really mech wise .
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You would think I would have learnt my lesson. Then again you only hear about the bad news when things go wrong and nobody would be constantly posting my outdrives are working well.
Originally I was after a shaft driven boat but this usually meant a larger boat and/or more expensive to buy.

I believe the owner was too reliant on his service mechanic to spot and resolve problems. The boat has practically a full service history from new, which is a rare thing on a 14 year old boat.

I would like to contact the owner just to see if he's aware of the full facts but wouldn't be sure if I would be breaking any contract by doing so? I'm more a practical practical person and therefore I don't have much academic knowledge in these matters.
 
No issues talking to the current owner but the Broker probably won’t like it and may not facilitate it so you may need to make contact by other means. The question is whether you think it would help or if it is better going through an intermediary (the Broker) assuming that he/she is doing their job properly i.e. seeking to make the deal work for both parties.

Your point on outdrives and boat size is well made. Reality is that drives can be problematic but it is not neccisarily going to be the case (despite what you may read on here) particularly if well maintained. We have had both drives and shafts and whilst I prefer the simplicity of shafts we wanted a smaller boat so outdrives it was. All a matter of personal taste but I wouldn’t swap our S34 for the Pershing in Itama’s link - not a particularly attractive boat to my eyes but fully accept that it will be a thing of beauty to others :)
 
rotrax said:
Oh yes I have..................

I stick by what I said, my previous life was as an antique motorcycle restorer and dealer. I have also been involved with VERY old cars...
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The point is that steel sumps can rust through from the outside - even if the inside is full of oil.
 
So, now just waiting for brokers mechanic to sort a costing for the work to be presented to the seller.

In the meantime I was reading over receipt of my deposit and noticed the broker has raised the agreed price by £500.
He says because I wanted the teak redressing. This was agreed it would be within the price if I pay what we agreed. I did offer to do the work myself if we settled on my first offer but as he said its only £300 of work it wasn't worth it.
The receipt still shows the correct agreed 10% deposit taking inline with the correct price.

I am getting a little worried on how reliable this guy is. He also has the wrong date of August 2018 on the contract and no HIN or SSR numbers filled out. And a completion date of March 15th.

Do I pull out of potentially good boat once finished or continue?
 
Couple of thoughts.....Do not complete the sale until all the remedial work has been completed to your satisfaction. For a few hundred quid, I’d have the work independently checked. The broker can say whatever date they want to complete however, issues have now been found and need resolving.

Why not change tack. Tell them all repairs need to be completed by 1st April or your off.

You are in the driving seat as the buyer. I would post the contract details on here. JFM’s offer to look at it should not be passed up!
 
russ said:
Do I pull out of potentially good boat once finished or continue?
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Will you be happy with the boat when all the repairs are completed to your satisfaction?
This is something only you can answer.
It sounds to me as if your surveyor did a good job in identifying a long list of issues that could have caused problems in the future - if fixed, and it's a boat that is otherwise sound and in good condition cosmetically, then I would go for it.
The fact that the seller is a bit flaky on the details is not relevant, so long as the documentation trail all hangs together.
 
russ said:
............

Do I pull out of potentially good boat once finished or continue?
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I wouldn't. The boat seemed good enough to you to start proceedings. No boat that age is without issues and wear. Once those have been addressed it will be the boat you thought it was. The only thing I'd do is address where this water is coming from so you dont have a repeat.
 
Kingfisher 5 said:
How was its condition described before you paid your deposit and had a survey done … ads etc?
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No description on condition. Although the ad said 1 owner when service invoices show 2 owners.

I am sure this boat has had a recent survey due to the anti foul being scraped off in many areas.
Brokers says no it hasn’t had any other surveys.
 
I had this once buying an aircraft. They said no other survey. I the. Called for a survey and the surveyor said I have just surveyed it. I pulled out as they were fundamentally dishonest.
 
russ said:
Main faults are;
Rusty sumps
Corroded lift rams
Leaking turbo
Leaking / corroded steering arms
Play in outdrive joints.

There were other minor points
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Not being from around here (I'm a sailing sort of person) please check with the vendor or an independent person about these issues.

I had problems selling a boat because the prospective purchaser had sent their surveyor in, all guns blazing. Issues he's identified included evidence of salt water dripping (under the brand new stern gland), rigging age unknown so needs replacing (I had 1 year old rigging with receipt he didn't ask for), malformation of hull under the bow forefoot (I'd had the log paddle wheel fitting removed and professionally glassed up). When I called their surveyor the night before the survey and asked him if he wanted the key to the boat he initially dismissed it as he'd planned to collect it from the boatyard office (who, of course, don't have the key). So much for respected south coast professional surveyor.

So please make sure these issues that are identified in the report exist in real life before you do anything rash like buy or reject the boat. As others have suggested, if the problems are real, discuss with the vendor (through the broker, if appropriate) how he can remedy the concerns himself or via a mechanic. There are very few boats afloat at the moment that don't have something small wrong with them...
 
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