[Dee4]

Greetings to the assembled sages

I’m thinking of buying a semi-completed 10.5m plywood and epoxy catamaran that is presently standing and rotting on blocks not too far from where I live. She has a covering of paint and the hulls , interior and 95% of the decking seems in reasonable shape.

The only thing that makes me more anxious than starting a project of this magnitude is the thought of buying someone else’s botchups. That said, to my untrained eye the work done so far looks solid and the hulls and cabin are just about complete.

By my estimation the asking price is about a quarter to a third of the cost that has gone into her already. That’s on the upside.

On the downside there is significant damage from standing around uncared for in all weathers with parts of the decking and the cabin roof bulging and splitting slightly from water penetration. ( A terminally bad sign in an item that should be 100% waterproof??) Even worse, the rear 1.5 metre of one hull is so water damaged that its virtually fallen off.

So the questions in order of priority are

1. Can water damaged plywood boats be safely repaired?
2. Can one tell whether the designer’s and other boatbuilding good practice has been followed by examining the work after the fact?
3. Are these questions symptoms of an already untreatable dementia on the part of the supplicant?

In fewer words "Can this boat be saved or do I need to be saved from it?"

All comments and advice gratefully awaited.