would this worry you?

Nick_H

Nick_H

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www.ybw-boatsforsale.com
Survey has been completed on the new (used) boat, no problems, but he did identify that the boat has been grounded at some stage, there are gouges on the bottom of the outdrive skegs, and this on the hull

Drawing1.jpg


The scratches don't go through to the matting, and the surveyor has suggested stripping off the anti foul (which is flaking anyway), and treating with an epoxy primer, before re-antifouling. Sounds fair enough to me, but anyone think it's a bigger problem? The boat will be staying in the water, not trailered or dry stracked.

I've had the legs looked at seperately, and the grounding didn't cause any secondary damage there.
 
No, wouldn't worry me too much if there was no damage to the legs or other structural damage although I would want to know how it happened and I would be using it as a stick to the beat the price down a bit, at least by the cost of repairing the damage
 
Think the surveyor was spot on, infact a little tube of gelcoat filler and within half an hour you would never know the scratch was there!
Used to get similar probs when I used to own sub 20ft trailer fishers and was forever smacking the hull on one slip or another!
 
Hmmm. Yes, it would worry me a bit. Hard to tell from pic (have you seen it with your own eyes close up?) but if I hadn't seen it i'd be suspicious of the claim the scratches didn't even penetrate the gelcoat. I'd also want to form a view on the stresses applied, to think about whether any harline cracks in gel or even broken glass inside.

I'd want the owner to give me a candid account of what actually happened with a firm warning to him that if I even suspect his account lacks candour then I'll walk away (done that before to seller of the Sq58 that had been grounded. Owner was less than candid and didn't know I had a digi photo from helpful spy of the boat's plotter track showing it on rocks)

And I'd want to think about whether this mucks up my future reasale, even if the boat is ok engineeringwise (But that's something which can be fixed by a haircut; no need to walk away)

At least you got a good surveyor. bloke buying mine in France has a French traffic warden for a surveyor. He couldn't find anything to fail it on so has sucked his teeth at (i) the handles (not bodies) of a couple of seacocks having surface rust (ii) 2 batteries approaching end of their useful life and (iii) one anode worn a bit faster than its opposite number so "there must be an electrical problem" - I asked him what his ohm meter read when he connected it across the two anodes and he looked blank and didn't understnad the question...
 
I'm sure your surveyor has done this already but if you tap around it with a hammer and listen to the noise it makes you can usually tell if there is any major problems.....other than that it wouldn't worry me.
 
Yes, I'd be concerned.

Do you know how long ago it happened? Has there been much chance for moisture to get in through the thinner gel?

I take it the surveyor has looked very carefully for other signs of damage both indside and out?

I'd want to remove a much bigger patch of antifoul and look for hair line cracks in the gel.

why is the antifoul flaking so much? Smack of poor preparation, which leads me to think previous maintenance might have been amateurish?
 
Thanks to all, seems it would bother some and not others. I haven't seen it myself, just the photo from the surveyor. He did do the hammer test which showed no problems, and the internal inspection of stringers etc. also didn't show anything.

Good advice about finding out exactly how it happened, i'll do that. I think I may get a specialist GRP company like Osmotech to have a look at it as well, which i'll need to do anyway to know how much it will cost to put right.
 
The V of the hull will be extremely strong, so provided it hasn't gone through the gel coat, and there is no stress cracking or damage visible internally it'd not bother me. I'd get a quote to have a proper repair done and want that knocking off the price, but once it's done and anti-fouled it's unlikely to ever be spotted in the future.

I put a couple of foot long stress cracks into the hull of my old S24 /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif which came up at survey. Didn't bother the buyer in the slightest; I had them ground out and filled (£250 from memory) and you really couldn't see where the repair had been before the anti-foul went back on, let alone after.
 
IMHO,
You could do a similar job yourself by beaching it a little too fast on a beach with a lot of shells!
There seems to be no impact damage or point loading at all ?
I'd be amazed if this was in anyway serious!
But I'm happy to be put right.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I asked him what his ohm meter read when he connected it across the two anodes and he looked blank and didn't understnad the question...

[/ QUOTE ]LOL, what else would you expect when asking technical questions in English to a French traffic warden?
That aside, I also beg to disagree with those who don't seem to bother at all.
Judging by how straight the longitudinal marks are, the grounding happened at (some) speed.
I'd be curious to see also a pic of the outdrives.
 
No, it wouldnt bother me. The surveyor is saying touch up with a bit of epoxy as best practice.. If you had mangled skegs suggesting some real impact, I d be concerned.After all, the skegs would be way below the hull, so I dont see its likely that hit something on the hull, and miss the legs. And if the hull damage is some 1-2mm scratches, it was either bloody close disaster, or something very slow in very shallow water. I think scratches on a sportsboat bottom are rather more common than on a large Flybridge. After all, you take sportsboats right in close or up to the beach to drop people on/off.
But, you are paying the expert surveyor, so I guess go with his concerns (which seemed very minimal !).

"The scratches don't go through to the matting"
Then they are extremely shallow , and remember the skegs are aluminium..hardly the toughest of metals. Really sounds like nothing IMHO.
 
I reckon it would worry me enough to do what you're doing and, assuming the reports you get say it will be ok, to get the cost of the reports and the fix back from the seller.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Judging by how straight the longitudinal marks are, the grounding happened at (some) speed.
I'd be curious to see also a pic of the outdrives.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good point. I remain a bit concerned. My worry is the story doesn't hang together. Yes indeed Mapis, if the scratches are that long and dead straight, the boat was going fast. So why no more outdrive damage? Maybe the outdrives were completely busted and replaced with secondhand? Maybe they were replaced with new and the new ones have since been scuffed by the hapless owner? I dunno. Buty I'd want a believeable answer to the lack of consistency between long straight scratches on hull and only minor outdrive damage.

So yes I'd want a full disclosure candid explanation from seller. And critique hard whether story hangs together

When i nearly bought that 1 yr old Sq58 back in 2003 that looked mint condition, the grounding story came out in dribs and drabs. First clue was newish boat with +9hrs on one clock than t'other. I asked owner why. He said just occasional 1 engine running. Hmmm. Engine room differences between port/stbd parts made me still suspicious. So we asked local boat fixer if the boat had ever had big repair. Turned out it had. So confronted owner and he confessed to a minor problem. Then someone gave us a digi photo of the boat's track over rocks. Then owner confessed and we got full disclosure of rock smash, shaft ripped out, and copy receipt of the (very pukka) repair. Then we noted the new props were different from original, and that brought the disclosure that originals weren't availalbe in time so next best thing was fitted. Others told us the boat was 3 knots slow as a result. And so on - these stories often unfold in dribs/drabs. I decided the owner was untrustworthy so walked away
 
[ QUOTE ]
When i nearly bought that 1 yr old Sq58 back in 2003 that looked mint condition, the grounding story came out in dribs and drabs. First clue was newish boat with +9hrs on one clock than t'other. I asked owner why. He said just occasional 1 engine running. Hmmm. Engine room differences between port/stbd parts made me still suspicious. So we asked local boat fixer if the boat had ever had big repair. Turned out it had. So confronted owner and he confessed to a minor problem. Then someone gave us a digi photo of the boat's track over rocks. Then owner confessed and we got full disclosure of rock smash, shaft ripped out, and copy receipt of the (very pukka) repair. Then we noted the new props were different from original, and that brought the disclosure that originals weren't availalbe in time so next best thing was fitted. Others told us the boat was 3 knots slow as a result. And so on - these stories often unfold in dribs/drabs. I decided the owner was untrustworthy so walked away

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, quite a story, jfm and a lucky escape by all accounts. Was it priced under the market at the time or was the owner trying to sell it as a totally kosher boat? I wonder if the poor sod who's got the boat now knows the story
 
Looking more closely at the picture, the scratches stop a couple of metres in front of the transom, which I think means one of two things. Either the boat came to a fairly sudden stop, or more likely the arse end of the boat was lifted up when the outdrives came into contact with the seabed. That suggests a fairly serious impact load on the outdrives.

I had the OK on the outdrives before I received the surveyors report, so i've now asked the engineers to have another look at them, specifically looking for any damage that could occur on such an impact

The sea trial is tomorrow, so i'll see how that goes, then take it up with the seller and try to find out what happened.
 
Yep, that's aground alright /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

You can see the grass flattened in the foreground on the LHS of the picture, that must have been some ride!
 
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