[VIEXILE]

I''ve got a couple days left to put in a bid on this Tartan 30. It''s a ''77 and I''d put the BUC fair book at about $8500.00. The yanmar 2cyl. has about 10 hours on it, and looks new (it''s a 1991). A couple of questions. First, the keel bolts are schmoo on the top, or at least have appreciable oxidation growth. Ideally, in an ideal world, I''d like to back off the keel nuts and rebed the keel. It is, however, flush to the hull and doesn''t look problematic. Are these hulls cored? The decks are what: end grain balsa? I figgered on laminating plywood with west system into the deck around the stbd chainplates. There''s a chance that the bulkhead is salvageable, but I need to do some further checking. The bulkhead itself didn''t let go, the weld on the forward chainplate broke. Some west system and new laminate might cure the problem. The rest of the boat is mostly cleaning, patching, replacing, etc. Seems like a good deal, and, while I''m tired of playing with other people''s boats in the yard, this looks like a manageable project. No serious blisters, but some serious whacks below the waterline. The topsides look great, the decks not spongy (stbd chainplate excepted). She''s clearly been in a hurricane or two, and there seems to be, I''d say, a couple hundred pounds of lead from the keel replaced with West System. I just happen to have a couple hundred pounds of lead that I could strap into the bilge if someone thought that might be prudent. The intended use is racing/cruising the BVI''s. Comments?? Thanks. KW