Hello to all. I apologize for being wordy in my first post, but I am facing something of a conundrum. As background, my wife and I are returning to sailing after a several year hiatus. I grew up on power boats, and my wife grew up as a sailor. We sailed together for approximately 5 years, but kids activities etc forced us away for a time. So we have some familiarity with boats but are in no way experts. We are closing in on purchasing a 1984 O'Day 28 to use as a weekend cruiser/day sailer on the great lakes, primarily Erie. The boat is not terribly expensive for us (less than 15k), and we will not need a loan. I have been on the boat twice, once for a general look see and once again for a good couple of hours looking for problem areas. The boat was not launched this year because the current owners bought a larger boat with the intention of living aboard. The current owners are the second owners and have owned her for 8 years.
It appears to have been maintained exceptionally well, and was obviously cared for. There are a few problems we were able to discover. There were two soft spots on the cockpit sole that have been repaired by cutting out a square of plywood and replacing it (visible from the quarter berth access panel to the engine compartment). A single small soft spot (approx 1.5/2 in in diameter) exists around the stanchion closest to the pulpit on the starboard side. I was unable to discover any other deck issues, and I did some serious looking. There is evidence of some leakage down the mast (some staining on the teak and holly deck plate around the mast). One of the blocks used to control the spinnaker (about mid way up the mast) needs to be replaced, and there is some rigging the wife wants to change out (she has remained a club racer and knows far more about rigging and sails than I do). There is a rip in the UV strip on a furling 130% genoa that would have to be repaired or replaced. But pretty much that is all. I am by no means a mechanic, but the engine appears well cared for; no twisted hoses, cockeyed clamps, evidence of leakage, etc. There is no blistering of the hull, electrical and instrumentation is well cared for and laid out in an organized (honestly, somewhat compulsive) fashion.
My conundrum is that I am having the devil's own time trying to get a surveyor to even call me back, let alone come out and look at the boat. I don't know if this is a regional thing, if it is time of year issue, or if it is just that the boat is too small to justify the surveyor's time but I really didn't expect this to be a problem. I personally am confident the boat has been maintained appropriately, but I also am aware I am no marine mechanic or boat expert. I would like the piece of mind of having a survey done. So my question to those of you kind enough to read this is how confident would you be in buying a boat with out a survey, and what steps can you/would you take to increase your confidence level if a professional survey can't be performed?
Thanks in advance.
It appears to have been maintained exceptionally well, and was obviously cared for. There are a few problems we were able to discover. There were two soft spots on the cockpit sole that have been repaired by cutting out a square of plywood and replacing it (visible from the quarter berth access panel to the engine compartment). A single small soft spot (approx 1.5/2 in in diameter) exists around the stanchion closest to the pulpit on the starboard side. I was unable to discover any other deck issues, and I did some serious looking. There is evidence of some leakage down the mast (some staining on the teak and holly deck plate around the mast). One of the blocks used to control the spinnaker (about mid way up the mast) needs to be replaced, and there is some rigging the wife wants to change out (she has remained a club racer and knows far more about rigging and sails than I do). There is a rip in the UV strip on a furling 130% genoa that would have to be repaired or replaced. But pretty much that is all. I am by no means a mechanic, but the engine appears well cared for; no twisted hoses, cockeyed clamps, evidence of leakage, etc. There is no blistering of the hull, electrical and instrumentation is well cared for and laid out in an organized (honestly, somewhat compulsive) fashion.
My conundrum is that I am having the devil's own time trying to get a surveyor to even call me back, let alone come out and look at the boat. I don't know if this is a regional thing, if it is time of year issue, or if it is just that the boat is too small to justify the surveyor's time but I really didn't expect this to be a problem. I personally am confident the boat has been maintained appropriately, but I also am aware I am no marine mechanic or boat expert. I would like the piece of mind of having a survey done. So my question to those of you kind enough to read this is how confident would you be in buying a boat with out a survey, and what steps can you/would you take to increase your confidence level if a professional survey can't be performed?
Thanks in advance.