Balboa 24, $700.00

[mtboat]

In my marina is a 70"s something Balboa 24 ft. swing keel that is fully functional on a single axle trailer. For $700 bucks. it has been sailed every year and sails now. My worries... the cabinets have been opened up to reveal the top of the keel and I notice two uneven dollar size holes that expose the keel. They are not uniform and look like damage. The owner told me that the keel probably doesn't drop, as they swim under and pull it down. The only other issues...front hatch has no hinges....pop top has comedown hard and had some repair. Might even leak a little in the pop top area when rain is blowing hard.
I have been told the sails are reasonable and and it seems to be set up nicely to solo. Any opinions on these boats or the keel issue will be most appreciated.

[deniseO30]

ls that how much they are paying you to take it? run don't walk away!

[merc2dogs]

On the keel, someone probably snugged the pivot bolt up too much in an effort to stem weeping, on trailer it's a fairly simply process to remove/replace pivot and seals. (possible crud built up in well too)

The rest depends on how much effort you'd want to put in it, I'd grab one if it was local. I like the trailer sailors in that size range.

On pop tops, I have had a couple pop top boats, and found that I seldom if ever popped them. More effort to put up than they were worth in convenience, and nearly every one I've seen only had actual standing area in the slider area anyway, much easier to simply open the hatch......
Last one, I glassed the top down, and got rid of all the props etc, which made for less head bumps, eliminated leaks, lightened the boat, and stiffened it up noticeably. Interesting development was that the ports stopped developing intermittent leaks, I assume they were from hull flex etc.