Oday 272 LE Bulkhead and bilge water

[Walther001]

Hi All,

thinking about getting an Oday 272 LE from ‘88. Boat looks really good for that old and fairly good maintained. However, 2 things that stood out.
1. It was wet on the inside floor main cabin, bilge was fully filled with water despite the owner pumping it out yday and today we went for a short sail, pumped it out again before we went and it was back half full again after less than 2 hrs. I guess this might be an easy fix with sealings or whatever or maybe something bigger? I am a bit afraid how long that water has been coming in that bilge. This might be years of water filled in the bilge. There was certainly a smell.

2. The starboard bulkhead was actually missing a couple of bolts/nuts. Picture disclosed. The current owner was not answering why that was and acted surprised it was the case. It felt that he was more careful with the boat which alarmed me a bit, however this could just be me. Not having all sails up in full with a mild breeze. Could again also be just how he sails!
No soft spots that I was able to feel on deck and it really looked pretty good.

Any ideas? It is only a $5k boat so I can take a risk, but if it is really structural I am not doing it.

Thanks!

 

[sail sfbay]

Welcome to the forum!!

1. Need to find out the source of water entrance into the bilge and stop it. Had to do that on a recently purchased boat.
2. Missing bulkhead nuts/bolts would not concern me as I recently purchased a used boat missing these on the sundeck roof attachment to the bulkhead. I just install new ones where they were missing.

Suggest obtaining quotes from qualified boat contractors to make any the necessary repairs, including stopping water entry into the bilge, before you purchase the boat so you know what the initial out of pocket expense is.

 

[StanleyJ]

I also have a 1988 272LE. I strengthened my chain plate bulkhead attachment with plates of 1/4" G-10 material on each side of the teak bulkhead and longer stainless steel bolts (I had to remove 1/4" of the teak block that the chain plate is mounted to so that the chain plate would exit the deck in the same location). I resealed the chain plate deck opening with Bed - It butyl tape a couple of years ago and haven't gotten a drop of water since.

 

[Walther001]

Thanks Gents.
I didn’t trust the guy. Weird response to my questions and I found a Beneteau first 285 with some minir work to be done and the owner was very honest about all of it. So I bought that boat.