Boat Inspection - Stanchion base bent into deck

[jstark]

Hi everyone, looking for some advice from the experts here.

I just got back from a trip to check out a boat on the east coast. It is wrapped for winter but I was able to crawl around and get plenty of pictures.

On the starboard side I can see that the base around one stanchion has been patched and that another is bent inward and has popped through the deck.

The owner stated that this had been done by the yard sometime during haul-out/wrapping.

Before I get a full survey, just wondering if this is an indicator that the side deck is wet beneath the bases, or if this can happen to an otherwise ok deck.

Thanks for any input.

I've included some pictures here of each.

[k1vsk]

These pictures make me feel this is a "no-maintenance" boat, i.e., the owner does no maintenance. Looks like the bases have never been rebeded or for that matter, ever cleaned or polished and the deck looks the same. Wouldn't be surprised if they all leak and damage resulted which you don't need a surveyor to identify. It should be apparent with some knocking around.

[marianclaire]

IMHO. And NOT an expert. There is some rot here. For the base to push or pull thru the deck must be in bad shape. I think the tube would have bent first if the deck was sound. How is the deck constructed? Could you see the damage from the interior? Dan S/V Marian Claire

[jrd22]

I agree with the comments above. There's probably more of a problem there than it looks like. Unless you are looking for a big project I would look elsewhere.

[sailingdog]

This boat probably has more issues than just rotten deck under the stanchions. YOu don't say what kind of boat it is, but if it has a cored deck, and a majority of boats have some kind of core in the deck, it will have serious and expensive problems to fix.

Before committing to a survey on any boat, you really should go over the boat with a fine tooth comb, based on the information Maine Sail and I wrote about in my Boat Inspection Trip Tips thread in the Boat Buying forum.

[bljones]

The upside is that the owner cares enough about the boat to shrink wrap it. The downside is the owner doesn't know enough to properly maintain the boat.
The finishing touch is that the owner is so uninvolved that he didn't bother to remove the fenders from the stanchions before the boat was wrapped, and the fenders should not have been hanging there in the first place!
This is the tip of the iceberg. Unless it is ridiculously cheap with some features or benefits that outweight the obvious issues, I'd walk.

[Faster]

Originally Posted by bljones

Unless it is ridiculously cheap with some features or benefits that outweight the obvious issues, I'd walk.

Even then it's got to be questionable.. looks like the topside paint/finish is coming off on the fenders.. quite a few indicators here that there'll be more issues.

[jstark]

You guys did pretty well with just 3 pictures. The owner told me that he just sailed it and really didn't seem to know much about the engine, head, etc. He also hadn't been on onboard for over 2 years. The overall state of the boat seemed like it had low maintenance, some may have been from it sitting for so long as well.

Its not a really great deal, so I'll pass on it. From your advice it seems like it could quickly turn into more than I would want to get into. Thanks for the time and insight, its much appreciated.