Hello, I have an interest in purchasing a 1985 thru 1990 J-33 for racing. My concern is that most of the boats I will be looking have been raced for 20 years. My question is: Should I be concerned about boat fatique as far as the standing rigging and running rigging, hull flexure, mast flexure, keel, rudder, etc?? Thanks for your help in this matter...Terry Johnson
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First off let me say that
I have no experience in racing. That said you can look for crack patterns in the gelcoat, water stains on the interior around the chainplates, The standing and running rigging on a boat of that age should be replaced anyway. The gelcoat is not forgiving of excess stress so it will be the tell tale for how the boat was used. There may be ways to conceal the effects of very hard use but I don't believe that it is possible to make them completely go away.
I have no experience in racing. That said you can look for crack patterns in the gelcoat, water stains on the interior around the chainplates, The standing and running rigging on a boat of that age should be replaced anyway. The gelcoat is not forgiving of excess stress so it will be the tell tale for how the boat was used. There may be ways to conceal the effects of very hard use but I don't believe that it is possible to make them completely go away.
yes worry
Yes you should be very worried. We owned a J36 for 18 years. Several years before selling it we found water in the hull. The Balsa core was not sealed where it was drilled into or where they put in the rudder post , raw balsaright up to the rudder bearing. We repaired over 1/3 of the hull by removing the inner skin and the balsa core and putting in new and sealing it. We thought we were out of the woods. Two years ago we decided to buy a new boat. Rcr put off doing the survey untill it was a done deal and when they got around to it, the boat was wet in the rest of the hull as well as the deck. RCR was very honorable about it and we still had a deal. They gave us a little less and we came up with a little more. I'm afraid it was a very bad deal for them. I would never buy another JBoat for any amount of money. A lot of them have this problem. I think they should have had a class action suit against them long ago I have been told the new ones are better I don't trust them. I build small boats as a hobby and even when I was a rank beginer I new better that to do what they did. The thing of it is you cann't see what they did. Everything seems find untill one spring you are doing the bottom and the hull pushes in when you touch it. Hope you find a better boat. Stephanie
Yes you should be very worried. We owned a J36 for 18 years. Several years before selling it we found water in the hull. The Balsa core was not sealed where it was drilled into or where they put in the rudder post , raw balsaright up to the rudder bearing. We repaired over 1/3 of the hull by removing the inner skin and the balsa core and putting in new and sealing it. We thought we were out of the woods. Two years ago we decided to buy a new boat. Rcr put off doing the survey untill it was a done deal and when they got around to it, the boat was wet in the rest of the hull as well as the deck. RCR was very honorable about it and we still had a deal. They gave us a little less and we came up with a little more. I'm afraid it was a very bad deal for them. I would never buy another JBoat for any amount of money. A lot of them have this problem. I think they should have had a class action suit against them long ago I have been told the new ones are better I don't trust them. I build small boats as a hobby and even when I was a rank beginer I new better that to do what they did. The thing of it is you cann't see what they did. Everything seems find untill one spring you are doing the bottom and the hull pushes in when you touch it. Hope you find a better boat. Stephanie
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