Another Hughes for Sale

[Sir Rondo Normal]

Hi again folks. As some of you may recall, a while back my wife and I were looking at a Hughes 38 Sloop for our first boat. Well we never bought that one, although she is still for sale.
Yesterday, I looked at a Hughes 40 Ketch. It has some serious cracking in the gelcoat almost all the way around the cabin top where the radius transitions from horizontal to vertical. These cracks are large, plentiful and have been there for a long time. They're also all around both (keel stepped) masts.
My question is... would such severe and untreated cracking necessarily lead to saturation and delamination of the deck? Also, I'm assuming that this deck would be balsa cored but can anyone here say for sure?

Thanks,

Ron

[Navicula]

survey time

[perchance]

The cracks in the radii are probably the result of excess gelcoat thickness as these areas are usually hand finished after molding. The cracking at the mast penetration points are most likely due to the mast pumping under sail and should be investigated thoroughly for deck delamination.

[Sir Rondo Normal]

uh, no it's not survey time. Surveys are expensive and if I ordered a survey for every boat I looked at I wouldn't have any money left for a boat.
Thanks perchance, ya I've read that too thick of a gelcoat will crack and I believe you are right about the masts cracks and the likelihood of delamination, as the headliner around the mast is showing water staining.
What I am most interested in though (and not just for this boat but in general), will gelcoat cracks allow water to penetrate the glass and cause delamination if the cracks are big enough and left untreated for long enough.

Thanks for the replies

[bstreep]

Originally Posted by perchance

The cracks in the radii are probably the result of excess gelcoat thickness as these areas are usually hand finished after molding. The cracking at the mast penetration points are most likely due to the mast pumping under sail and should be investigated thoroughly for deck delamination.

This is common where noted. HOWEVER, you do want to be sure that these are only thru the gelcoat. If so, they are cosmetic, but, if you are where your boat is exposed to freezing, water will get into these minute cracks and may eventually cause some damage. We chose to repair ours (grind and fill), and paint the deck.