Would I be nutz to consider this?

[PGIJon]

I am considering purchasing this 1984 Pearson which apparently hit a piling with a nail sticking out that penetrated the hull. I have attached both inside and outside pictures of the damage and their repair. I going to ask the surveyor his opinion but it looks as possibly the chain plain may has sustained damage. I suppose it could be replaced as part of the repair. The surveyor sent me these picture when I asked him to do an initial walk through. Also wondering how much something like this may cost to fix... Any thoughts? Thank You and Hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving holiday.. Am I nutz to consider this vessel?

[LakeSuperiorGeezer]

How cheap can you get the boat for? I am having a problem trying to see where the problem is on the hull. If it were just a hole in the side of the boat, that is easy to fix, but this looks like a repair to an area where several curving surfaces come together and trying to form the fiberglass to the hull would be quite difficult I would think.

[PGIJon]

I agree the just a nail would be simple, but this... what's the technical term... mushed the bow right where everything comes together. the port side and the starbord and the deck are all joined and there is the chain plate there too. You can see that they patched where the nail went through.

[PaulfromNWOnt]

I'm no expert (and I don't play one on TV), but it looks to me like you could cut that out, bevel back the inside and outside, start building back up, and have a better product then the original. Doesn't look like a deal breaker to me.

[BubbleheadMd]

A friend of mine T-bone'd another sailboat with his, and made a rather large hole in his bow in a similar manner, only more severe. He, and a few fellow racers banded together and had it repaired overnight, minus the fairing and painting to make it pretty. A skilled fiberglass worker could repair this easily.

[SloopJonB]

From the appearance in the photo, that chainplate needs to come out for polishing and inspection anyway. Fixing up the glass is no big deal - the refinishing would take more skill. The only potential problem I see is the alloy moulding covering the hull/deck joint - it could get in the way of working the glass but shouldn't be more than an annoyance.

[PGIJon]

Thank you all for your input, we are going to a full survey and sea trial next Saturday.

[rugosa]

In the big picture this is a small and isolated repair. Biggest problem will be the difficult work location from inside the bow area. The current repair is certainly not professional, but managed to deal with it. True fix is removal of hull/deck joint strip and chainplate, internal & external structural and cosmetic repairs, install chainplate with new fasteners, install trim strip or replace if damaged. Most of the work should be done from inside rather than expanding the repair surface on outside. A pro should be able to execute this with no sign of repair short of a paint color difference in the forward locker.

[DouglasYoung]

Looks and sounds to me like some of the posting people here don't realize what they are looking at. This appears to be the bow, chain plate, and forestay. It appears the bow section has delaminated from the surounding area and being the main attaching area for the forestay there could be a major problem. I would recomend calling in someone very good with fiberglas to have a look.