J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment how wet is too wet?

I spent a bit of time with the "Nemesis" owners recently.... they had the same transom problems (maybe a late 80s problem?) and ripped it off and repaired it efficiently. I referrred Teresa to them for the "horse's mouth" info...
What are you thinking re NAs???

I acquired a 1979 J-30 with the same problems about 2 years ago. I had put in a offer on the boat and backed off when the survey came in due to the moisture issue (wet on the starboard side below the waterline from the exhaust pipe to about 6 ft. back of the bow).

The owner was very distraught over the condition, realizing that the cost to repair was probably close to the value of the boat. We ended up working a deal wherein he donated the boat to a local charity and got atax write off that was bout 20% higher than I was originally goping topay for the boat. I executed a 24 month lease purchase agreement wit the charity at a greatly reduced price, that essentially was interest free financing of the as is vakue of the boat. I spent a year trying to passivel;y dry out the hull by drilling holes from the inside and applying heat and a de-humidifer -but with very limited sucess. I ended up paying to have the the transom rebuilt around the exhaust tube, re-core the starboard stern quarter (about 15 SF), had the keel joint completely rebuilt, the keel faired, and all through-hulls below the waterline re-beded - all told about $10M worth of work. I know that as time goes on I may need to do some additional re-coring on the starboard side but I'll address those issues later. In the end I will have spent about $15M on the boat but it is now in the water and sailing beautifully.

I was lucky in that even though the boat was wet it was still reasonably stiff - no inward flexing visible at the lifeline staunchens.

Also, when I drilled the holes into the hull when I was trying to dry out the core myself, most of the core though reading wet on my moisture meter was in pretty good shape, light in color and although damp to the touch, not saturated other than in the area I had recored.

The bottom line is hat the J-30 is a great boat, and there is a "right price" if the seller understands what he has and is willing to negotiate in good faith.

I am getting a little distraught about all that wetness.........

It looks like EVERY J 30 is wet and basically falling apart...... Sure enough the "yeah... sayers on SA "are touting in the same horn ... (no idea what some of them are talkin about, but everybody has an opinion, some 14 year old LAser sailors are chiming in with their expert advice ...but I digress)

Not all J 30 are wet... A lot of surveyors using moisture meters are not really sure what they are doing with a cored boat.... much easier to cry wolf than admit of having no idea what you doin ....

Having said that ,,, I was trying to say it earlier... If J/Boats would built a J 30 it would be above 140 000 grand new... If you are trying to get a boat for 20 cents on a dollar ... it might not be completely new ...

And with boat ownership comes cost of upkeep ( or with new boats a huge chunk of depreciation ) the bigger ( more expensive) the boat is, the bigger that part will be.

No matter what 25 year old boat there will be a couple thousand dollar upkeep involved on a yearly basis ... if you do not want to spent the time or the money, than maybe its time to look for a new boat. ( j 100 are supposed to be nice ....)

Otherwise J 30 is a very cool boat which is fast (but safe) has tons of room belowdecks, keeps the value ( actually might increase) ...... and on and on ...

thor

So, if not sold where is this wet project boat? I have e-mailed several owners of J30's for sale (on the cheaper end of the price range) and not recieved a reply. I figure they are sold and still listed or not really for sale. I am looking for a boat to fix up in my spare time when not sailing the Winnebago (Cal 31)
frank

There is a J 30 currently listed on e-bay that appears to be a bit of a project.

Careful with the j30 "project" boats. I just had a conversation about a guy who bought his as a "project" after hurricane Katrina ...and has as much into it now as the "low end" J30s on the market...and she still is not sea worthy. Just buy one that sails.

So the word on the street is that we have a new J/30 member.

DB
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