Tayana 42 for Sale in Florida

[ShipShape]

Since there were so many comments about the deck core it is worth a separate post. Tayana changed the deck design of the V-42 in 1985 and I do not know if they also changed their coring schedule. From what I know of my boat and talking to other owners, for pre-1985 hulls the decks are balsa, and the balsa is divided into small sections that are separated by / encapsulated with resin. As far as I can tell there is no pattern or regularity to the location or amounts of resin poured between the balsa sections, and I cannot tell the size of the sections but there are a LOT of them.

Two years ago I removed the jib sheet tracks, drilled out each bolt hole, scraped out the wet core, and filled the holes with epoxy. The holes need *something* to keep the two skins apart when the jib sheets pull on the tracks, a compression fitting would work as well, but an epoxy plug keeps water from getting in the core.

Here is a picture after drilling a jib sheet track bolt hole to 3/4", you can see some of the resin between the balsa sections at about 2 o'clock.



The same hole after removing the wet core, and I put the screw back in place to show how deep the teak deck screws penetrated the deck into the core.



In August I started removing my teak decks and now know everywhere the core is damp, wet or dry. Even where the core is sopping wet, the resin encapsulating the balsa sections is intact and securely bonded to the inner and outer fiberglass skins. Here is one of the holes for my new jib sheet tracks (I am moving them), the holes are 3/8" in diameter. This hole was drilled next to one of the resin dividers, you can see that it is firmly bonded to the deck. (That is a W because the core in that hole was Wet; for all the holes I have scooped out the core over an inch in diameter to fill the holes with epoxy - 48 of 'em.)



This hole was drilled through a resin divider, some of them are substantial - this one looks about 1/4" thick, and also firmly bonded to the deck.



THIS is a nail - remember the headliner was glued to plywood that was nailed to the underside of the deck. This nail is inaccessible so I can't remove it ... but the story I wanted to share is about several nails that went COMPLETELY through the deck. Those leaks were buggers to find because the holes in the deck were just small black dots. (I finally found them all by crawling on the deck and stabbing every single black dot with a pin - the teak was bedded with black polysulfide, there were m-a-n-y black dots. Arrrgh!)



The nails were not all bad - many of them allowed water in the core to drain out.



Troy, if you are lucky you may find easy evidence of leaks like this one on that boat. This particular leak was from the jib sheet tracks (galley cabinet from other post).



Unfortunately, most of the leaks that drained through from the nails and deck hardware ran down behind the paneling (also nailed) on the walls of the cabins and could not be seen.

My deck has four large wet areas, about six or eight square feet in total, that the balsa has disintegrated and I would like to recore but I was concerned about getting the top skin off since the two skins are held together with the resin boxes. Since the layup is so thick there is no hope of bending the skin to reach under with a saw blade to cut through the resin boxes. I researched this for many hours and found nothing - if anybody knows of any information about the possibility of recoring a deck like this Please let me know. My conclusion was that it cannot be done. Where the core is wet I have drilled holes through the underside to drain out the water and help it dry, and in a few years I will inject it with CPES.

[avb3]

Originally Posted by ShipShape

My advice as a surveyor is: Do not have the boat surveyed. ........

Shipshape, you probably just convinced me and a hundred other boat buyers that buying cheap ain't cheap.

Great posts. So, you don't survey anymore, however, do you do purchaser's consulting in Florida?

[TomandAnitas34]

Cheap ! Ha ! I bought my boat for $8 K I'll only have to put in $16 K to overhaul it. Better that than to buy one on the water for $24 K. No... Wait ....

[helmanta]

Thank you very much for the advice and the photos. I am really starting to get a sense of what i need to look for and how to go about it. I still don't know exactly how I'm going evaluate the deck core though.

I did find out from a few companies that it would cost close to 2000 to get a tow to charlotte. So my contingency plan is that if I do in fact buy it, there is a marina close by that i can slip it for a few months. If in can get the engine running, great. If not I plan towing myself to open water, then sail to charlotte harbour(about 70 miles) where i can get hauled in and out for 250 and dry storage for 280/month. they allow you to live aboard the boat while working on it for 3 months out of the year and I hear they are very helpful.

Thank you again
Troy

[Sand crab]

Helmanta, are you a really good carpenter? Boats have lots of curves so the bar is set high to begin with. I've been a builder all my life and most "carpenters" couldn't do it. That's why they are called wood butchers.
It's like those shows like "Flip this House" where total novices think there going to be instant contractors with absolutely no experience ever. And they think they can keep their day jobs. Right. Boat building is alot harder.
But if you do take it on I would delete all teak from the refit. It's one of the most expensive woods, it deteriorates, and you put about a zillion holes in your brand new dry core. Anyway good luck. BOB

[helmanta]

No i am not a good carpenter. I'm a good welder/fabricator, but not too much wood. i have flipped a few houses and helped build a couple. but no, i am not what i consider a good carpenter. i agree with you that the teak decks will be a pita, but they sure look nice. there is a v42 up in MD for sale at a pretty good price, but she just doesn't do anything for me.

[helmanta]

well,

i looked at the boat. the more i dug, the more water damage i found. So I passed. Thank you all for all the advice on what to look for and what it would take to repair. It would be a good project for someone.

Thanks all
Troy

[rbeytagh]

I personally love to work on boats. I bought a Hurricane damaged V42 and am greatly enjoying restoring it. I believe the V42 and Tayanas are well built boats and are worth the effort of restoration. WRT to rust bucket engine....don't be discouraged. I thought my 4-154 was was a basket case, but after a thorough cleaning, replacing a few bits, and painting it looks as good as new. A bit of advice: if the engine works, don't be tempted to pull it out. Most times you'll cause more problems than you solve. Get down and dirty and fix it in situ.

$28k seems to be about what a boat in the condition described is going for....a word of warning, the costs of hauling, hard standing, outside labor, etc can quickly mount up so make sure you budget for this.

Do your own work where you can (you get a huge kick out of this) and negotiate like a maniac on mooring and haulout fees.

[tropicalescape]

has anyone seen the website for Compass Marine?...the guy gives really good info on how to do a lot of the work required of a boat in need..and its free and detailed with reasons why some boats are made cheap and some are not....DVC