Whew! Sometimes things to do with boats just don't go as planned...who woulda thought?
I know; I should have gotten back on here and updated the thread/listing for those interested in or just curious about the boat and as a courtesy to the Forum for use of a great advertising venue.
Here's whats transpired regarding prospective buyers and surveys in the last few weeks.
I had one serious looker that flew in from up north to look at the boat. He was very anxious to see it and seemed sincerely interested. He arrived a day early when I wasn't there and called me asking if he could board the boat before I got there. I'll be honest, I was not without reservations regarding letting him onboard because 1) he was a complete stranger who I'd never met and 2) the boat is in essence our home and we still had personal items, cash and other belongings of value onboard. Not that I am or was trying to hide anything. I'm trying to be as upfront and transparent about the condition of the boat as possible but I'll not make that mistake again of giving a stranger free reign of our boat unsupervised.
Anyway, he explained to me via a phone call that he liked the boat but found moisture that pegged his handy-dandy Amazon moisture meter in some of the vertical areas and that he was going to pass. He did say the horizontal decks all appeared fine to him. I didn't deny his findings at all but what I didn't tell him was that probably what he found was where Liz had opened the v-berth windows a few weeks earlier and didn't re-secure them tightly. I walked in after a huge rain event and the teak veneer walls were literally soaked. After a few expletives muttered to myself, I tightened the portlights , turned on the forward heat pump to help dry it and didn't give it any more thought.
The next serious guy was a nice guy from Vermont. We talked about the boat over the phone several times and he felt the boat had enough potential to merit him flying to SC to look at it. I met him and his surveyor one Saturday afternoon for a walkthrough and pre-survey where we ran the generator and main & went through the systems ,all at the dock. He even came back the next morning, in yet another deluge of rain ,to take another quick look at the boat (where I'm glad he noticed there were no leaks!) and make me an offer pending an official survey, which I accepted. Fast-forward to a few weeks later for the survey and sea-trial time. Wouldn't you know it. Another MAJOR rain event (gusts forecast to 70mph) and tons of rain! The survey was bumped to the next day and here's what was found. There was water damage in the v-berth bunks under the mattresses (I promise I never pulled the mattresses back since the bedding appeared dry and it's a pain to make the beds- I hate making the beds with the non-fitted sheets and comforters- Liz doesn't mind it). The starboard bunk was dry buy did have minor damage due to a previous leak (I did remove and rebed that portlight last summer because it was leaking).The port side was wet with a little more water damage to the bunk but, since we got 3" of rain just had just hours prior and there was no puddling at all, plus the wall & veneer around the portlight was dry, I surmise the wet wall liner and bunk was from the previous event weeks ago where the portlight was not tightened and leaked. I never pulled the mattress back (or even looked) to allow the undetected leak to dry.
The other issue was the surveyor determined the decks to have too high of a moisture content in them. This sincerely surprised me since I feel I know ,from our last boat and rebuilding all of the horizontal decks, what a bad deck looks ,feels and sounds like. I watched the surveyor walk around , bounce on and hit with his hammer all of the decks, satisfied with what I saw and heard; decks that were solid and rang like a bell when hit with a hammer. But when he put his moisture meter on them, it showed high moisture. He suggested the decks ,even though the teak was removed and glassed over by the PO, had some coring moisture from where some of the teak fasteners had leaked. Maybe so but I was still puzzled because they felt & sounded so solid to me plus I've never seen any evidence of water on the undersides and where I've drilled into and through for mounting bow and stern cleats, the wood coring was as dry as a bone. I have since done a bit of studying on the subject and I have to wonder if the moisture reading wasn't skewed by the several inches of rain we received the night before and was maybe absorbed by the paint/nonskid that is about due for a recoat. It's not recommended testing with a meter after a recent rain and only when the decks are completely dry.
On haulout , the bottom was good but there was one small spot above the waterline that showed higher moisture content due to a previous inadequate repair job.
The final big concern of the surveyor was the engine base pressure. During the seatrial, the engine ran great as it always does , up to (or close to) rated RPM's with no overheating but he said he felt there was too many fumes coming from the crankcase breather tube. He pulled the dipstick while running, which is something I've never done,where there was tiny oil partials visible coming out of the dipstick tube. I've on purpose left the absorbent diapers under the engine from last fall, showing all of what came out during the entire trip South from the Chesapeake. It amounted to simply some discoloration of the pads, not saturation. I remarked to the surveyor the engine has always performed the same ,with the same oil consumption and the same amount of crankcase fumes as always over the last several years and 3-400 hours of time we've put on it since buying the boat , never seeing any change.
I've offered to purchase the survey from the last prospective buyer but not gotten a $$ amount from him. I'd be interested in knowing what the survey found so as to be able to correct the deficiencies for a future buyer and for our piece of mind, since we're going to continue using the boat as we always have and if it sells, it sells and if not, we'll be happy with what we have, which is to us, a good, solid, comfortable & reliable boat.
Sorry for another one on my long-winded replies, but if nothing else, it makes for a good wintertime reading saga for those of us stuck inside!
Also, if any of the previous interested parties I've mentioned are on here, please don't hesitate to chime in and correct or counter me and any errors I've made recalling my version of events. Like I've always said, I'm trying to be as honest as possible when representing the boat.
