High moisture Readings

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Helipilot100

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If a boat is surveyed and has high moisture readings but no evidence osmosis should I be majorly concerned? Secondly the boat was treated for osmosis over 10 years ago and given an epoxy coating. Would this cause any major problems in getting it treated again if it was felt that’s what should be dine, ie would it be more difficult to scrape of the epoxy coating as opposed to the gelcoat. The boat is 45 ft and almost 30 years old if that bears any relevance. The readings were taken with a Tramex Skipper moisture meter and I have attached the readings. Thanks in anticipation. D1AE0AA2-DEF5-47C6-A5DE-EE85554C1BF1.jpegD1AE0AA2-DEF5-47C6-A5DE-EE85554C1BF1.jpegD1AE0AA2-DEF5-47C6-A5DE-EE85554C1BF1.jpeg
 
When I had a body shop and would either hand paint or spray Transit Vans I would put an electric fan heater inside the van and it was surprising how it heated up the bodywork which made the paint dry quicker.
(The first hull I repaired/painted with 2 pack paint was in 1983 when I treated a Nauticat 33 for osmosis.
More recently I had a Colvic Watson which I had a few "bubbles" and I did the same.
I wonder now having bought an Infra Red heater if with your hull you could use one to dry out areas at a time before treating.
 
Way back we had friends with a Dufour 35 from 1973 that they removed a poor epoxy from using a heat gun, scrapers and lots of patience,, then recoated it with Awlgrip. They then sailed it to the Caribbean and still use it having worked as skipper and hostess team on big charter boats for years, It had another repaint after hurricane damage ashore and looks as good as new once more though no longer used as a regular liveaboard .
 
Need more context as well - if the boat is only recently out of the water after a few years afloat, e.g. it would be unsurprising to see moisture readings on the high side...
 
My old boss used to say if you pay a witch hunter, they'll find you a witch. Surveyors rarely say anything useful, for instance what did they have to say about the seacocks or the engine other than they were present on the boat?

Buy the boat, launch the boat, and the hull will be wet. It's designed to be wet, and the plastic hull will not likely suffer much due to being wet. A wooden boat might, but then I hear they leak if they're too dry.
 
lustyd said:
My old boss used to say if you pay a witch hunter, they'll find you a witch. Surveyors rarely say anything useful, for instance what did they have to say about the seacocks or the engine other than they were present on the boat?

Buy the boat, launch the boat, and the hull will be wet. It's designed to be wet, and the plastic hull will not likely suffer much due to being wet. A wooden boat might, but then I hear they leak if they're too dry.
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The emphasis will also vary depending on whether it's on behalf of an owner or potential purchaser who wants the price reducing.
 
lustyd said:
My old boss used to say if you pay a witch hunter, they'll find you a witch. Surveyors rarely say anything useful, for instance what did they have to say about the seacocks or the engine other than they were present on the boat?
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Not my experience with the surveyors I have used. Important to be there when the survey is carried out as you are paying them and quite reasonable to ask detailed questions and explanations as you go along. Don't get in the way but be vigilant.
 
Tranona said:
Not my experience with the surveyors I have used. Important to be there when the survey is carried out as you are paying them and quite reasonable to ask detailed questions and explanations as you go along. Don't get in the way but be vigilant.
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So they didn't say your rigging was too high for them to see then? I'm sure that they say some useful things sometimes, but it's so heavily diluted with arse covering it's hard to find, and yet when it comes to the condition of varnish they somehow turn into eagle eyed experts filling pages with every scratch and chip. Maybe I want something different to other boaters, but I saw the general condition before I agreed to buy the boat, what I need them to tell me is will it float, will it fold in half at the sight of waves, and will the engine let me down mid-channel? I found out none of those things from the survey report, but I did find out that the surveyor wasn't sure when the gas was last inspected...
 
lustyd said:
So they didn't say your rigging was too high for them to see then? I'm sure that they say some useful things sometimes, but it's so heavily diluted with arse covering it's hard to find, and yet when it comes to the condition of varnish they somehow turn into eagle eyed experts filling pages with every scratch and chip. Maybe I want something different to other boaters, but I saw the general condition before I agreed to buy the boat, what I need them to tell me is will it float, will it fold in half at the sight of waves, and will the engine let me down mid-channel? I found out none of those things from the survey report, but I did find out that the surveyor wasn't sure when the gas was last inspected...
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???
 
lustyd said:
So they didn't say your rigging was too high for them to see then? I'm sure that they say some useful things sometimes, but it's so heavily diluted with arse covering it's hard to find, and yet when it comes to the condition of varnish they somehow turn into eagle eyed experts filling pages with every scratch and chip. Maybe I want something different to other boaters, but I saw the general condition before I agreed to buy the boat, what I need them to tell me is will it float, will it fold in half at the sight of waves, and will the engine let me down mid-channel? I found out none of those things from the survey report, but I did find out that the surveyor wasn't sure when the gas was last inspected...
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A survey is (or should be) a 2 way process. Discuss with the surveyor what concerns you have and explain what he finds. No, none of them said the rigging was too high - just reported what they did see and that further inspection was needed as there was no documented evidence of when it was last inspected or replaced.. How do you expect anybody to say with any certainty that the engine won't break down mid channel just by looking at it and maybe starting it? If you want more about the engine then make a sea trial a condition of the contract and pay a surveyor/engineer to report on what happens on the trial.

You have to be realistic about what can be achieved in a day's static inspection so be clear with the surveyor what you want. That is what I did in both my recent surveys. While the boats were the same design and similar overall condition, my briefs to the surveyors were very different because I wanted them to tell me things I did not know and find any nasties I had missed. Their reports are equally rather different.
 
Haha that's the thing though, I don't need to pay someone hundreds of pounds to tell me I need a rigger to inspect the rigging, an engineer to inspect the engine, etc. If the insurance company didn't insist I paid the witchhunter I'd have used that money to pay a rigger to tell me something useful. My point was that the boat survey industry is not fit for purpose. If they can't tell me anything useful in the report then the report by definition holds no value. The OP has been told there's a moisture reading, and many, many readings have been taken. Are you suggesting that after such thorough use of an extremely specific tool with specific results that the surveyor is somehow not in a position to say anything useful beyond "the hull is damp"?
Sure, I get that OP could use that wishy washy report to try to negotiate, but if I were the vendor I wouldn't accept it without a concrete explanation of expected remedial action beyond letting it dry on the hard. Similarly I don't consider a surveyor telling me that the rigging is 11 years old but not inspected to be any more useful than the vendor saying it, and I certainly wouldn't change the boat price because it was included in a report unless it was somehow missed in the advert, but even then ask before making an offer.
 
Helipilot100 said:
Sorry the surveyor didn’t do above the waterline so I have no idea.
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Then those reading are of reduced usefulness and if the surveyor has not given his/her interpretation of the readings and, given that it already has an epoxy coating and no sign of osmosis, then I would not be concerned at all.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
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