Never, Ever, Never, Never Buy a Charter Boat. Ever.

01/08/13 - "Up until this past year we've been doing mostly repairs to all the stuff she had wrong with her when we bought her.  Let me tell ya, it is really rewarding to be making improvements instead of repairs".

I actually had to go and say that, didn't I?  Nothing like tempting fate.

I got a call yesterday from Hinckley.  They pulled the rudder to repair the blisters and found that the stuffing box had some damage.  Apparently Island Packet used stainless steel studs to bolt down the bronze stuffing box.  Two of the studs were badly corroded due to dissimilar metals.  One of them was just a shell with threads and was completely eaten away inside.  But there's more.  Once the rudder post was out of the way they also found that the sleeve, the metal tube the shaft runs through where it enters the hull, was cracked.  They removed the stuffing box, which includes the sleeve and a mounting plate combined, and found the area underneath the plate was leveled with several inches of epoxy and the epoxy was cracked in a number of places.  The fiberglass underneath that was totally soaked from seawater leaking in.  It was so soft you could press a nail into it.  The repair requires taking out the old epoxy and removing the mushy fiberglass, then building it back up again after it's all dried out.  Once the fiberglass is repaired we'll glass in a G10 tube that'll hold the new sleeve ("G-10/FR-4 is a thermosetting industrial laminate consisting of a continuous filament glass cloth material with an epoxy resin binder. It has characteristics of high strength, excellent electrical properties and chemical/water resistance not only at room temperature but also under humid or moist conditions.")  The epoxy will be replaced to give the plate a flat surface to bolt up to and new studs will be embedded in the epoxy but this time they'll be silicon bronze, not stainless steel.  We can build it stronger, better.

The Hinckley dudes believe that this was damage done years ago while the boat was in charter.  I'm absolutely positive it didn't happen since we've owned the boat.  It appears that when the rudder was hit it kicked the shoe, the support at the bottom of the rudder, off to the side.  This would have put quite a bit of pressure inside the sleeve from the angle of the rudder post.  The sleeve cracked, as did the epoxy.  The shoe must not have been off-center by much.  I didn't see it before it was removed but I did spend quite a bit of time around the rudder when I was inspecting the blisters.  It also wasn't noticed during the survey when we bought the boat, September '09, and I didn't see it during all the work we did that winter, January '10.  The survey did comment on a slight binding in the steering and also on the corroded condition of the stuffing box bolts.

This is a major repair and it falls right in line with the other damage (holding tank, engine heat exchanger) that wasn't noted in the survey.  We may still not be done repairing problems from this boat's life in charter.  It occurred to me that if we had bumped the rudder with the fiberglass in this condition it probably would have punched a pretty big hole in the bottom of the boat.  I think I've reached the point here where I can honestly say that buying a boat that was previously chartered is not worth it.  These boats get abused because the people who use them don't own them.  They don't care about the boat or what happens to it.  I don't think the charter boats get the care and feeding they should from the charter companies either.  Can you imagine buying a boat as an investment and putting it in charter?  After some years of service you decide it's time for your family to enjoy and you find it totally trashed.  This is how this boat was when we bought it.  All the interior teak was water stained from leaving the ports and hatches open.  The holding tank was blown out.  The heat exchanger on the engine was unserviceable, ruined from neglect.  The hanging lockers in the forward stateroom wreaked of effluent.  When we bought the boat we had a cushion in value of about $100k to make repairs, based on the selling price of other 420's versus what we paid for her.  At the time we thought we were doing OK, well within that cushion.  I can honestly say now that it wasn't worth the money, time and effort we've put into it.  What?  Me frustrated?  Nooooooo!