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Possible purchase

987 views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  frscott 
#1 ·
I have a friend with a 1980?? McGregor 25 foot. The boat needs work, but the worst of it is the hull--it has thin spots in the fiberglass,no cracks or holes, but I can see light getting through the surface in places (thin spots). Would it be out of the question to get this hull repainted to where it could be a reliable boat for lake and maybe close to shore in the gulf? Or would it be too expensive to try to fix?

Scott
 
#5 ·
a) Like JonB said, fiberglass is translucent. It's also pretty surprising that the hull would have randomly developed a "thin spot" - usually if you bang on fiberglass to hard, it breaks (and looks obvious). But it's not like it dissolves or rusts away over time.

b) If you're really nervous about it, adding a few layers of epoxy and glass isn't hard. I had a hull crack in my Siren 17 early this season, about a foot forward of the transom. Took 20 minutes for a quick-n-dirty patch job (i.e. didn't worry about fairing).
 
#7 ·
That hull is fine. Roger never ever wanted to use any more resin and cloth than he had to when building a boat...but he also never used too little. Early macgregors are like the VW beetle of the sailing world- lots of people learned to sail on them, and while not the highest pointing boat, or the most luxurious boat, or the quickest sailing boat, they keep going with an absolute minimum of maintenance and care, and they are one of the very few boats that you can sail the crap out of for a couple of years and sell for damn close to the same price you paid.
 
#8 ·
Thanks for the replies! I have sailed mostly my Hobie 16, and a Rhodes 19 when I was younger. I got the opportunity to sail a 45 foot catamaran last year for a week (got re-hooked on sailing) and wanted to move to bigger boats, I thought this might be a good step???

I could re-learn some of the basics I noticed that I had forgotten while on the larger boat last year and not worry about dinging, or worse, an expensive boat, sail year round, (I'm in Texas) and be ready to then step up to a larger (pocket cruiser or something I could spend a week on) boat when I thought I was ready.

Thanks again!

Scott
 
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