Buying a challenger

[Jim Greer]

All:
I am presently looking at 949K (196?) Halmatic/Molich yawl, CARILLON. Originally commissioned by T.B.Wright & R.F. Thompson, Burlington, VT. Lying in a state of disrepair in Gilford NH at Fays Yacht yard. I have been enamored by these boats for some time. In addition to the dry rot over the windows in the cabin trunk and the step of the main mast. What else should I be looking for and or expect to find when surveyed. It has the original grey engine. The hull was poorly awlgripped in the 90's and some blistering there as well. The boat has been out of the water for 4 years. Any help here would be appreciated. Thanks
Jim Greer

 

[TomY]

All:
I am presently looking at 949K (196?) Halmatic/Molich yawl, CARILLON. Originally commissioned by T.B.Wright & R.F. Thompson, Burlington, VT. Lying in a state of disrepair in Gilford NH at Fays Yacht yard. I have been enamored by these boats for some time. In addition to the dry rot over the windows in the cabin trunk and the step of the main mast. What else should I be looking for and or expect to find when surveyed. It has the original grey engine. The hull was poorly awlgripped in the 90's and some blistering there as well. The boat has been out of the water for 4 years. Any help here would be appreciated. Thanks
Jim Greer

Hi Jim! Most of what you've mentioned is typical of Challengers that have been neglected. But the photos I pulled up look like CARILLION is a good candidate to own. Hopefully the surveyor will have some experience and or knowledge about the boats. Challenger problems are pretty well known or easy for the surveyor to research. Typical: built in fuel tank problems, rusting backing plates for chain plates, to name a couple. I haven't heard of problems with the mast step. All boats of this vintage have well known problems and the fixes are usually well documented.

Not knowing much about the state of the boat right now, it's asking price, it would be hard to give much opinion or advice. For instance, the prior Awlgrip on my hull gave up and blistered. The one part paints are difficult to remove, but they do fail-eventually-and the next owner may be faced with that task.

The Gray marine engine is old but there are plenty around still giving good service. Dry rot around windows? We'd need photos of things like that to give our 2 cents but wood is nearly infinitely fixable.

Hope to hear more about the boat, thanks.