[Jeff_H]

To some extent, osmotic blisters were a partial result of resin reformulation that resulted from the oil crisises of the 1970''s. The worst blister problems occurred during the period from the mid 1970''s until the mid-1980''s. There were still older and newer boats than those built during that period that had blister problems but boats from that mid 1970''s until the mid-1980''s era had the most prevalent and most destructive blister problems.

When I look at your list, with the exception of the Bowman, these were moderately poorly built boats to begin with, and so if someone has not disassembled and rebuilt these boats before you it would take years and buckets of money to put one of these boats into to condition to go offshore. When you talk about rebuilding one of these old girls, you could easily dump as much into one as she cost to purchase, but perhaps only add as much as 20% to her resale value. And when you were done you would end up with a boat that had moderately poor sailing abilities and a very weak resale market value. These were mediocre boats in their day and their day was nearly 40 years ago when they were designed.

The Bowman 46 is perhaps a bit of an exception. While still not a great sailing boat in any kind of heavy going, the build quality were generally a step above that of the others on your short list. Many if not most of the Bowmans had teak decks and proprietary hardware making them very difficult and expensive to restore.

I guess if I were in your shoes with your post restoration budget, I would look for a Kelly-Peterson 44 or 46 (not a Formosa built copy) in good solid shape and go cruising.

Jeff