Inspecting a '74 CD25 for purchase

[Don Kolenda]

I seriously considering my dream boat of all and I finally found her. But she's a 1974 and in need of some TLC; mostly cosmetic it appears on surface. Any thoughts on what I should closely look at before plunge (Price is reasonable thus a formal inspection / appraisal seems overkill or am I not being smart).



Don_Kolenda@msn.com

[Bruce Bett]

A couple of years ago I was looking at a Triton. I noticed very quickly that it had soft decks. I discovered later that every member of my family noticed the same thing, but none of us said anything. I had a survey done on that boat and the surveyor told us what we all ready knew. A couple of days later we bought a CD 25 without having it surveyed. To the great amusement of the broker we inspected the hull, thumping it and listening for soft spots.

A survey on a 25 foot boat will cost $200/300. It may well be worth it. If you get a good surveyor and if you are present for the survey you will learn a great deal about boats, and your boat in particular.
The CD 25 is a great little boat, and at the usual selling price a great bargain. The low price of the boat may make you feel that you can carry the risk of buying it without a survey. But if you are looking a fixing her up the couple of hundred bucks for the survey may be well spent in that you may get some good advice on where to start and how to proceed.

Good Luck
Bruce Bett
Sostenuto CD 25 #496

I seriously considering my dream boat of all and I finally found her. But she's a 1974 and in need of some TLC; mostly cosmetic it appears on surface. Any thoughts on what I should closely look at before plunge (Price is reasonable thus a formal inspection / appraisal seems overkill or am I not being smart).

BETT@smtp.munet.edu

[Dana Arenius]

I seriously considering my dream boat of all and I finally found her. But she's a 1974 and in need of some TLC; mostly cosmetic it appears on surface. Any thoughts on what I should closely look at before plunge (Price is reasonable thus a formal inspection / appraisal seems overkill or am I not being smart).

________________________________________________________________

Of course it is important to satisfy oneself about their impressions of the boat being in very good shape before you decide to use or not use a surveyer. This are pretty basic systems in the sense they do not have a lot of complicated subsystems. I would suggest the following order.

1. Hull inspection inclusive of identifying any water seepage, rudder play, blisters, repair areas.

2. Some early CD25s have had problems with the forestay and backstay backing plates which were carbon steel. They rusted as water may have gotten into the glassed in pocket they are embedded into. Need to check these as well as the shroud backing plates. Look for water markings on any thru deck fitting.

3. Soft decks indicate the balsa wood core has absorbed water. Some minor stress cracks not normally a concern on CDs.

4. What is the sail inventory and the condition of the sails, spread them out and take a look. These are $ if they need to be repaired or replaced in the short term.

5. If it's in the water, run that engine. Or perhaps make it a condition of sale until the engine can be run.

6.Check the thru hull valve operation and hoses.

7. Many boats offer electronics on the boat. Check out that radio, depth sounder, etc. if possible.

8. What's the ground tackle look like? Condition? This may be important to you no matter if you just want a lunch hook or cruising capability.

9. There should be a list of the boats inventory which is offered with the selling price. This avoids any misunderstanding between the seller and the buyer about any equipment that the seller is keeping for that next boat, etc.

Good luck....Dana



darenius@aol.com

[Jim Stull]

I seriously considering my dream boat of all and I finally found her. But she's a 1974 and in need of some TLC; mostly cosmetic it appears on surface. Any thoughts on what I should closely look at before plunge (Price is reasonable thus a formal inspection / appraisal seems overkill or am I not being smart).

Hi Don
If I might add a few more points to the already good advice posted in response to your question.
My wife and I will complete (I hope) within the next two weeks a total 10 month rebuild/upgrade of a 1975 CD25. We purchased it without a survey as the price was very reasonable, it had an excellent trailer (which was one of our requirements). It also did not have anything much in the way of extras which suited me as I wanted to install state of the art equipment during the rebuild.
Here are some additional points we found to check and maybe useful to you in the negotations.
1. The older CD25's seem to have gate valves for seacocks. When we put in new seacocks the gate valves were found to be in very poor condition.
2. When we tore out the old (British Seagull) motor we found the mounting board made of pine. It would have failed in service due to decay.
3. Check the seahood attachment to the cabin top. Ours blew of on the turnpike on the way home. During the rebuild we found that the attachment along both sides is by very short screws (maybe about 3/8 inch long) that only go into the teak rails, not into the cabin top.
4. Check best you can the mounting of the windows to the hull. We replaced ours with bronze opening ports fron NFM. During removal of the old windows we found that the flange engagement to the hull in some areas of the old aluminum jobs was almost non-existent. Only the old very dried out sealant was preventing a serious problem.
5. Take the screws out of the fuse panel and drop it down and look inside. Most likely on a boat this old, the wiring will have been fiddled with and you will find strips of decayed friction tape hanging here and there. A small Radio Shack multimeter or the like would be usefull in checking out the components. We had no trouble finding exact replacement for the fuse holders and rebuilt the panel and used the old wires to pull new.
6.Check the fit of the spreaders in their sockets. RigRite supplied us new ones in three days.
7.Look at the integrity of the lazerette lids (covers)?. On ours, any load (steping into the boat, for example) was transmitted from the hinge to the screws to the lid. This flexing opened up the holes and allowed water to enter the balsa core. This required quite a bit of work to correct. Any loading of the lids should be transmitted directly to the locker rim, not thru the hinges.
8. Pull the opening on the water tank and check inside. Ours looked like the breeding ground for the BLACK DEATH. It took quite a bit of work to clean-up. We trashed the soggy plywood top and replaced it with 3/8 inch lexan. Take a look at all the hoses.
9. Check the location of the bilge pump. I don't know if our was typical. It was mounted just inside the starboard lazerette and required keeping the the lid up to work the handle! It was also too small.
10. Lay on your back on the bunks and with a flashlite look up under the liner at the screws and bolts which hold the rubrail and genoa track in place. Ours was clean but any sign of leakage should be evident. If you are flexible or have a small friend look at the same in lazerette area.
11. Check carefully the straightness of the rails for the life lines and pulpits. We replaced a couple of ours. Ckeck the integrity of all pulpit and lifeline attachments to the hull.
12. If no objection from the seller, it is relatively easy to pull the teak plugs in the cabin and V-berth to check for the evidence of rust as per Dana's post. (Ours were OK.)
Of course none of the above are meant to be reasons for not buying a boat but obviously one which has had constant work and upgrading should be more desirable.
Best of luck.
Jim




jtstull@icubed.com