[I]"Would You Buy This Boat?"[/I]

I wouldn’t rule it out based on what I see here but there are other factors to consider. The main one is price. I wouldn’t pay “top dollar” for a boat in any condition in this market.

I’m no surveyor but as far as bulkhead damage goes, I’d probe the area with an ice pick or something similar. I wouldn’t want to see any appreciable penetration with, say, a flat bladed screwdriver. More penetration = more concern. I’d also pull out a few of those screws and look for obvious signs of rot. If you can take a dental pick and easily remove rotted wood out of the hole, I be suspicious. I recall others have posted photo & comments on bulkhead replacement. I believe the did the work themselves. Do a search for it.

Where the lamps are concerned, I bought near replacements to the originals here: [url]http://www.reddenmarine.com/marine-supplies.cfm/lights-cabin/sea-dog-cor...

Good luck.

I agree that some investigation is necessary to determine if the moisture damage is merely cosmetic or if surgery is required.

The C36IA has an article in the Technical - Maintenance library written by an owner who did a replacement of that bulkhead. The article is well written and photo documented, so it would be a good guide should you need to replace the bulkhead. The Technical Upgrade and Maintenance libraries are not open to the public; they require paid Membership (capital M) in the C36IA to access.

The rough interior you see may be an opportunity waiting to be leapt on. It may mean money in your pocket. A complete strip and re-stain of the interior seems in order. But man, it will be beautiful when it's all done.

I have the same overhead chromed light fixtures and they were showing pitting and overall corrosion, so I took them off and used a Dremel-powered buffing wheel and they shined up very nicely. I put a good coat of wax on to retard further corrosion and they are holding up reasonably well.

As for the bell-shaped cabin lights, I took the approach of a friend who used a wire wheel on a Dremel and then painted them with a faux brass paint. They have a different look than shiny new brass, but they don't look bad and it saved a lot of money replacing them.

Call me a heretic, but I don't want the constant hassle and expense keeping my boat looking showroom new; I just want her seaworthy and looking 'pretty darn good.'

[QUOTE=deising;10614]
Call me a heretic, but I don't want the constant hassle and expense keeping my boat looking showroom new; I just want her seaworthy and looking 'pretty darn good.'[/QUOTE]

Amen to that...!!!!:)

Steve, welcome to the clan.

Actually, rather than posting your project photos here in the Forums, it would help everyone if you'd write an article for us, then send it to us as a Word file, and with high resolution jpegs emailed separately. Then we'll package that all together for JibSheet, Mainsheet, the C36IA Technical Library, or some combination of these as we need. Mk II stuff can be sent to me; Mk I stuff to Steve Frost. Our email addresses are in the Officers folder off the C36IA Home Page.

There have been a number of posts about replacing the cabin sole so without going into details here, if the PO had water leakage, pull up the sole and see if the bottoms are damaged. They aren't cheap to replace. As we all know, our friends at Catalina didn't seem to think it was necessary to seal the undersides of the sole boards.

I agree with Pat and Steve. The likely source of the bulkhead damage is a chain plate leak. C36’s are very prone to this problem. Around 2002 Catalina modified the through deck chain plate, which I assume was to address this issue.

Look at the underside of the chain plates in side the cabin. There will be evidence of previous leakage between the shroud plate and the hull liner, a line of rust between the plate and fiberglass. Has any of the varnish lifted high up on the bulkhead ? This is another sign of moisture coming through the chain plates.

Get a moisture meter and check the moisture content around the chain plates. You can get a good meter for around $150 (Electrophysics, Model CT33). A lot cheaper than paying the surveryor $800 to tell you the same thing.

How to use [url]http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/moisture_meter[/url]

[/B]

Lignomat meter is a meter that checks the electrical resistance of wood to determine moisture content with two probes that contact the wood. The Electrophysics makes a non-contact measurement using capacitance. It can detect moisture in deck coring behind a layer of fiberglass, without drilling holes. Checking the entire bulkhead won’t tell you much about leaking chain plates. Water from the chain plates will work its way to the bottom edge of the bulkhead and floor via the hull liner and edge of the bulkhead.

The bigger issue for you is to make sure the deck core is not wet. Once it is wet it can not be dried out and will eventually rot. Especially if the boat has been in a warm climate for a length of time. Even if the chain plate leaks had been fixed, it could be too late for the core. Very expensive fix, compared to replacing the bulkhead.

Congratulations.

You may want to consider adding upgraded chainplate cover that Catalina had created to get a getter seal. Part number 24263. See attachment. They were $8.00 each a couple years ago. Contact Kent Nelson at Catalina, [email]kent@catalinayachts.com[/email]

Steve, what is/will be your home port?

[quote=VermontSailor;10676]Congratulations.

You may want to consider adding upgraded chainplate cover that Catalina had created to get a getter seal. Part number 24263. See attachment. They were $8.00 each a couple years ago. Contact Kent Nelson at Catalina, [EMAIL="kent@catalinayachts.com"]kent@catalinayachts.com[/EMAIL][/quote]

I emailed Kent this morning, the price has gone up to $9 bucks! The horror! ;)

I ordered 6 of them, looks like a big time improvement over what we've got now.