I posted what's below in reply to your other post, so in case you are looking at this thread and not that one....
The one thing I would add to what's below regarding liveaboards is that in my opinion, the GB42 is not the ideal boat for this. Despite the length, it has an "old fashioned" layout inside and is not as roomy as one might expect. However, if one does not need a lot of space for living on a boat it would do just fine.
GB pros--- Very well made boat (most of them), a lot of people like the aesthetics of them. Good visibility from the main cabin. Quality wood and hardware throughout. Great cabinet work. Solid boat. Very maneuverable in single or twin engine configurations. Nice flying bridge if one is into those. Fairly low freeboard which makes boarding and stepping ashore easy for almost anyone. Great coastal cruiser.
GB cons--- Very slow unless you get a newer one with big engines. Fairly high maintenance boat, particularly the exterior. Wet boat in sloppy water (not much flare to the bow). Has the semi-planing hull "snap back" roll in rough water or beam seas that a lot of people don't like. As the boat ages the teak deck tends to require more maintenance. If it has not been kept up it can take a major effort and/or dollars to resuscitate it. Taller people need to duck every time they enter or leave the main cabin unless one gets a Europa model. Windows, particularly the opening ones, need overhauling every so often. Not rocket science to do but it is a job to remove the frame, track, etc. and then put it back together. Not designed to be an open ocean cruiser. People have done it, of course, but there are far better designs for this kind of boating.
Here's the other post....
Well, the first thing you should do is sign up on the Grand Banks owners forum
Grand Banks Owner's Resources and ask your question there. There are a lot of active participants on that forum including former boatyard owners and shipwrights who collectively know more about GBs than God.
If it's a woody there are about a zillion things to make sure a surveyor checks, and you need a surveyor who thoroughly understands wood boats.
If it's a fiberglass boat, the condition is a lot easier to judge, but you still want a surveyor to judge it. With a glass GB,the important things are the condition of the decks and subdeck, the window frames, tracks, seals, sills and glass. Also the condition of the exterior teak and, even more important, its bedding. Same thing with the butt, scarf, and lap joints in the cap and hand rails.
Look for signs of leaks in the overheads of all the cabins and in the tops of the recesses below the main deck, like where the berths are. If the flying bridge deck is leaking or the teak landing pad on the aft cabin top, this can admit water through the overhead because of the seams and plugs and the twenty million holes drilled into the subdecks for the screws that hold the teak planks down.
Major things to check with the teak decks are the integrity of the seams-- they should not be pulling away from either side of the grooves (this can be hard to see at a glance sometimes). Wet the decks down and see where the wet spots are as the deck dries out. Wet spots on one or both side of a seam indicate a separation.
Check the presence and condition of the deck plugs if the boat has a screwed-down deck (all but the newer GBs do). Missing or broken plugs can admit moisture under the planks, although it's not nearly as bad a problem as separating deck seams.
The other stuff--- engines, generator, electrical, fuel, fresh water, sanitation, propane, anchor windlass, and so on are pretty much the same as any other boat as they all use the same kinds of components.
GBs are not low-maintenance boats. Even the glass ones have a rainforest of wood on them, from the exterior teak trim to the construction of the bulkheads, cabin soles, doors, etc. I tend to think of a fiberglass GB as a wood boat with a fiberglass shell.
Our PNW boat is a fiberglass GB36 and we've had it for over 17 years so far. It's a lotta, lotta work to keep up with it. Ours is kept outside because we use the boat year round and going up to stay on a boat that's in a boathouse is not particularly appealing. If we kept it in a boathouse our cosmetic maintenance would be greatly reduced.
So if you want a low-maintenance boat, one that you can use-and-forget, a GB is not what you want.
Finally, unless you get amazingly lucky, $75 grand is going to get you a pretty crappy GB42, particularly in fiberglass. Not saying they're not out there, but it most certainly would not be a boat I'd want to mess with. If your budget was $150,000 to $300,000 I'd say you were in ballpark for a decent one if you were willing to settle for a pretty old one at the bottom of that price range.
