Need Help Evaluating a 1980 28' Oday

[jbrosser]

My wife and I are new to sailing and this will be our first buy. We are looking at vessels in the 26-28' range. I've come across a 1980 28' Oday. The vessel is in good repair in most respects. Has a Yanmar diesel, tiller steering, roller furler, etc. We are especially impressed with it's 10'3" beam. Very Roomy. However, I've attached a photo that I took this morning of the deck. I can't remember what you call this, but there are hairline cracks all over the deck, cockpit, walkways, etc. The post contains cracks on the non-skid surface by the forward hatch and just below the hatch at the screws. Are these types of cracks a quick fix or a costly affair? Are they something that needs to be attended to immediately or can they be put off for a season or so? I look forward to any comments that you might have.

Jbrosser

 

[Yard Dog]

spyder cracks

I am no expert, looks like spyder cracks.
Most older boats that I have seen have them.

My 1984 Hunter 25.5 has them. I don't think they need immediate attention.

All there is to those repairs is to dremmel them open slightly and add gelcoat.
Polish smooth and done. I think it is time consuming more than anything else.
It's caused by stress of flexing.

Some people have talked about paint, but not really sold on that idea.

That's my 2 cents. Probably the advice is not worth even that.

 

[tcbro]

Stress Cracks in the gelcoat

had to be caused by something (stress). Some cracks you need to worry about and some you don't. It's a matter of where they are. Around the screws of a cockpit locker hinge...don't worry about it. At the base of the mast... that requires further investigation.

There are a few products out there to deal with them. Which one you choose depends on how nice you want the finished result to look and how much of your time and energy you want to invest.

 

[jviss]

common

Often occur at stress points in the boat. Nothing to worry about. Time consuming and expensive to fix properly - the biggest headache being color-matching the old gelcoat.

 

[BobM]

O'day 28

I looked at an O'day 28 this year pretty thoroughly when I bought my boat. The biggest issue I saw with it was severe water intrusion in the core around where the mast passes through the deck. Take extra care to check the deck as significant wet areas can affect the value of a boat.

As others have said, spider cracks are common and cosmetic. I believe they are pretty common on O'days of this vintage.

Yanmar diesel is a plus. My 1981 2QM15 runs like a top. I was worried about its age, but we put 30 hours on it in three days.

Tiller steering on this boat is a negative to most buyers and will affect purchase price and resale significantly. Most are wheel steered and it is a feature of this boat to have a wheel and it has tee shaped cockpit to accommodate it. We were looking for a tee shaped cockpit and a wheel and they are few and far between, barring Hunter's and O'day's, in boats made in the early 80's.

It is a very nice boat, but we were moving up from a Lancer 25 and I decided to opt for at least 30 feet if I was going to get all the added complexity of an inboard and head anyway. Downsides to bigger? A little more acreage to maintain and everything is just big enough that I have to use winches instead of just manpower, as I could on my 25.

 

[Ross]

It all depends upon how anal you are about such things.

They are of no consequence as far as the structure of your boat is concerned but if these things just bug the hell out of you then they are labor intensive to repair and will continue to appear. If long sentences also bother you then I apologise. ;D

 

[Warren Milberg]

I may be swimming upstream

in this thread, but I would not automatically assume that hairline/stress cracks in a 1980 boat are entirely cosmetic. If they are, they are no big deal, as many posters here mention. But it is also possible that water has gotten deep into such cracks and may have compromised the core. If I were thinking about buying such a boat, I would have a professional surveyor, who is familiar with evaluating stress cracks, look the boat over carefully using a phenolic hammer, moisture meter, and applying a lot of experienced judgment.

Some years ago, I fell in love with a Newport 28. I made the common mistake of wanting to minimize a number of "issues" this boat had as I just loved the boat. Yet, its forward deck was covered with stress cracks which I thought were easy to fix. I reluctanly decided to have a friend, who is a professional surveyor, just take a "quick look" at the cracks I thought were cosmetic in what I hoped would be my next boat. The end of this long and windy tale is that the stress cracks were severe enough to totally compromise everything forward of the forepeak bulkhead, to include the bulkhead itself. I moved on and found a better boat... Best $100 I ever spent.

 

[Ross]

The opposite can also be true. My boat when I bought her

showed only very minor gelcoat cracking on the fore deck. Just the random pattern of cracks that with a little imagination could be made to look like the county lines in most eastern states. But the deck was built with a single fiberglass skin with 1/2 inch plywood pressed into the wet lay-up. The plywood had rotted and the deck felt like a trampoline. The lay-up was so thin that the flexing didn't put stress pattern cracks in the gelcoat. I bought knowingly so I was not supprized.

 

[NewportVic]

Cracks are OK unless they are over ...

balsa core ... the gel crack often also goes through the fiberglass resin to allow water into the core. But trying to figure out if there is balsa core under the crack or not ... is the problem ...

Vic
"Seven"

 

[Jim]

Agree with the yard dog

cosmetic, nothing to worry about.

Yard Dog, how is Lake Normal? I had a friend that owned a home near the yacht club. Buy, that is a pretty lake. We used to race SJ-21 there.

 

[Yard Dog]

the lake

The lake is good. Actually pretty good wind this year. The gas prices have kept alot of the power boats off the lake or anchored out, which in turn has allowed some pretty good sailing.
Water level is pretty good for this time of year.

Did you sail the Wed night races when you were here.

 

[Jim]

Re Lake

My friend that had a house on the water died and the kids sold the properity. I wish I would have got a lot down there back in 1994.