[evan]

Reading the descriptions on boat listings I'm not sure what to make of certain statements. What do the following statements mean:

"Bilges clean fairly dry and well maintained", It's the 'fairly dry' part I'm not sure about.
"Bulkheads secure and serviceable", would this imply that the bulkheads are good but need work?

Another boat I'm looking at I notice the bottom was freshly painted before the boat was put away for winter storage. There are autumn leaves all around, the keel is still shining from wet paint, and an open can of bottom paint is next to the keel. As a motor boat owner for many years I cant think of any reason to paint the bottom before winter storage. Are they hiding something?

After spending a weekend looking at boats in eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island with soft decks and other signs of neglect maybe I'm being paranoid. On one of the boats if I poked a little harder with my index finger I would of punctured the gelcoat on the top deck. Another one had a 3-4 inch kink in the leading edge of the keel that the owner said was from a sand bar.