Things to look for!

frfletch wrote: I agree with the advice you have had.   Things I would look at are: 1. Are the structural members still well bonded to the hull. Mostly this refers to the structural webbing, internal beams, etc. On several of the hulls these broke lose and required bonding/glassing to the hull. 2. Most hulls upgraded hardware in specific areas that are near essential. This would include replacing the old Schaefer main sheet track and car, and upgrading the winches to Harkens. 3. If the boat still has the Buhk Diesel with sail drive, check for corrosion of the sail drive and try to get comfortable with the condition of the engine. These are big ticket items, particularly since Buhk doesn't build these anymore. 4. Personally I would also care as to what previous owners have put on the hull in terms of paint. I would prefer to start with a hull with nothing on it beyond its gelcoat, but if there is something on it, I would want it to be a two-part materials and not some form of one-pot polyurethane. Also check to see that the bottom is in good shape, without blisters, and passes the "tapping" test with no delam problems. 5. The Laser hull was very well constructed and other than the structural members separating from the hull, I have heard of few real problems with them. One would do his best to inspect that there were no soft spots in the coach top, as some of the hulls reported problems around the mast step and in the area of the fore sail tracks. This is pretty typical of any boat of this age.

I agree with you!




Edited by athurart09 - 01 September 2010 at 5:11am

I agree with the advice you have had.   Things I would look at are:
1. Are the structural members still well bonded to the hull. Mostly this refers to the structural webbing, internal beams, etc. On several of the hulls these broke lose and required bonding/glassing to the hull.
2. Most hulls upgraded hardware in specific areas that are near essential. This would include replacing the old Schaefer main sheet track and car, and upgrading the winches to Harkens.
3. If the boat still has the Buhk Diesel with sail drive, check for corrosion of the sail drive and try to get comfortable with the condition of the engine. These are big ticket items, particularly since Buhk doesn't build these anymore.
4. Personally I would also care as to what previous owners have put on the hull in terms of paint. I would prefer to start with a hull with nothing on it beyond its gelcoat, but if there is something on it, I would want it to be a two-part materials and not some form of one-pot polyurethane. Also check to see that the bottom is in good shape, without blisters, and passes the "tapping" test with no delam problems.

5. The Laser hull was very well constructed and other than the structural members separating from the hull, I have heard of few real problems with them. One would do his best to inspect that there were no soft spots in the coach top, as some of the hulls reported problems around the mast step and in the area of the fore sail tracks. This is pretty typical of any boat of this age.

I would suggest you read everything on this web site site at least twice. To the best of my knowledge most if not all of the issues associated with the boat are discussed in some detail on these pages. Note there are currently 277 topics in the Forum. Read them all, along with the Class Rules, and then ask questions if you don't understand something or have a question that was not previously asked. This is the only way to really understand these boats. There is no quick and easy answer to your request.

Hope this helps,

Bill