Moody 41/419 info/experiences?

[ashtead]

@Halcyon lovely video, lovely boat, but that's not the one I'm talking about- I've got my eye on the much older 1980s centre cockpit 41. I don't want to even ask what the one in your video would cost :0

There are a couple for sale in the Med but probably at least 3 times the price . The last one on the uk market was in Plymouth I think . If you want to read more about sailing a 376 Moody to the med you might be interested in blog of Patience two clueless sailors who set off from Gosport BTW. I know they had to repair and replace a number of itemsbefore departure so might be of interest as part of your selection criteria.

 

[dk]

Any evidence?

I owned a 419 for a year with no problems. Then the new owners entered the ARC in her and the skeg parted company from the hull 500nm off Barbados (destination port in 1989), leaving them with little steering other than a jury rig with big following seas. Fortunately they made it safely and Moody sent someone out to repair it. There was also another 419 in the ARC that year, whose skeg was loose when lifted, but hadn’t come away from the hull.
The steelwork inside the rudder of my old (1986) boat had completely rusted due to water ingress. The design was changed for the subsequent 425, which as far as I know has never suffered the same fate.

 

[Halcyon Yachts]

@Halcyon lovely video, lovely boat, but that's not the one I'm talking about- I've got my eye on the much older 1980s centre cockpit 41. I don't want to even ask what the one in your video would cost :0

Well, if you win the lottery...

I've not sailed an older Moody 41, but some years ago I did a yacht delivery from Greece to the UK on a Moody 425 (no video unfortunately). I remember at the time thinking that it would be a fantastic liveaboard. It's interesting though regarding the pro's and cons of a centre cockpit. In a nutshell, you do get much better accomodation down below, but usually a smaller cockpit and a very difficult cockpit to do anything other than steer the boat when manouvering. If you are sailing short handed then life is much easier on a aft cockpit boat, especially if you are mooring stern-to mediterranean style.

How about a Moody 38?

Pete

 

[Kelpie]

I owned a 419 for a year with no problems. Then the new owners entered the ARC in her and the skeg parted company from the hull 500nm off Barbados (destination port in 1989), leaving them with little steering other than a jury rig with big following seas. Fortunately they made it safely and Moody sent someone out to repair it. There was also another 419 in the ARC that year, whose skeg was loose when lifted, but hadn’t come away from the hull.
The steelwork inside the rudder of my old (1986) boat had completely rusted due to water ingress. The design was changed for the subsequent 425, which as far as I know has never suffered the same fate.

That's useful, and very worrying, information! Are the rudder internals just mild steel? And is this common to other designs?
At least the loss of the skeg didn't breach the hull. Certainly tips me in favour of a Hydrovane (other emergency rudder systems are available)

 

[Norman_E]

I test sailed and nearly bought a 419, and was impressed by the way it sailed even though it had a smaller high cut yankee in place of the genoa. That boat was bought by a lady who sailed it from Scotland out to Turkey and berthed it for a time in the same marina as me and she was very pleased with it and lived on board. I suggest checking with the Moody Owners Club for any technical issues. One thing I found out is that the 419 is the boat used as the base boat for handicapping other Moody yachts in races. The later 422 and 425 are a slightly extended 419 with some design changes, and the only real difference between the two is that in the 422 the aft heads is only accessible from the aft cabin. If you want a centre cockpit yacht in the 41-42 foot range all three are good choices and condition will be more important now than exact model.

P.S. I have sailed an older Primrose designed 41, which I found to have very stiff steering with little or no feedback. I think it was cable steered. The 419 had no such problem, but was possibly also cable steered so its worth checking how the steering feels on a test sail.

 

[Tranona]

That's useful, and very worrying, information! Are the rudder internals just mild steel? And is this common to other designs?
At least the loss of the skeg didn't breach the hull. Certainly tips me in favour of a Hydrovane (other emergency rudder systems are available)

In the early days of skeg rudders there was a certain amount of "experimentation" (as is often the case with new ideas) so not surprising you get the odd problem. However, this was all a long time ago, and in general skegs are pretty robust and easy to check for any potential problems when looking at buying a boat. Many of these boats will have had a demanding life as serious cruisers so any weakness would have been exposed by now.

Rudders are a slightly different matter. Again there was some pretty seat of the pants design and construction in the 70s and 80s as builders got used to the new materials and designs. Mild steel internals were not uncommon as the thinking was that the GRP would seal the internals so no water could get in. Inevitably that proved not to be the case, although again any failure would almost certainly have happened by now. Signs of problems are again fairly obvious with (rusty) water leaking out of the holes/splits etc that caused it to get in. Your surveyor would pick this up and it is not difficult to fix. The subject comes up regularly here from people buying and renovating boats from the 1960s to 80s.

 

[Tranona]

P.S. I have sailed an older Primrose designed 41, which I found to have very stiff steering with little or no feedback. I think it was cable steered. The 419 had no such problem, but was possibly also cable steered so its worth checking how the steering feels on a test sail.

Think you will find the Primrose boats had rod steering using a steering box from a MK10 Jaguar. Well known for stiff steering as the joints tend to seize up.

 

[sailaboutvic]

One problem we found with our 42 was the rudder seal leaked , it seen when they made the 40 and the 42 maybe others too , the top of the rudder tube was just about above the water line , take no account of extra weight, this show up as soon as we lifted the bunk in the back with rust marks .
I manage to get over this by first putting in new seals in the rudder top bush, then rising the rudder tube by 3 CM by glassing in a SS bush on top of the tube and adding a lip seal ,
since then we not had any problem with water seeking in.

 

[robertj]

I sailed a Moody 41 from Barcelona to Nice last autumn:

I was very impressed. They are lovely looking yachts, they sail very well and they are extremely spacious and comfortable. A great choice for a liveaboard.

Pete

have you had any deliveries with the 44 pete?