| Author | Message | ||
     Jeff Roy (Jeffr) Rating: N/A |
I am in the process of buying a 1985 9.1. I am at the point of trying to renogitiate based on survey. The mast step is wet and is showing signs of rot setting in. The stringers are suspect, but in better condition than the step. I think if I dry them very well and reglass over and around them they will last a long time. However, when I was getting an estimate on the setp from the yard manager he was very concerned about the keel bolts. The surveyor seemed to downplay this, which has me concerned about my choice of surveyors. Anyway, here is what we have found. The nuts and wahsers are all rusted. The bilge is rust stained. The keel bolts themselves are shiny. A magnet is slightly attracted to the nuts, indicating they are probably an inferior grade of stainless or possibly worse they are mild steel. There are some drip marks on the keel indicating there is weeping between the keel hull joint. I spoke to a VERY well respected expert on this subject and he very strongly recommended dropping the keel and inspecting the bolts, rebedding the keel and replacing the washers and nuts. It looks to me that the forward keel nuts are virtually impossible to get at without taking apart the mast step first. The boat yard was pesimistic about backing off the nuts and predicted they would have to be cut off. I was really gung ho on buying this boat but no I am getting a little nervous. I am not very sure the seller is going to accept these as real problems and make a significant price reduction. Does anyone know any of the background information on what was used for the keel bolts & nuts? Has anyone dropped their keel and if so, what did they find? Does this sound normale to any of you? I am really anxious about this so I would really appreciate any/all of your inputs. Feel free to drop me an email |
