school me on second hand boats

[bad_religion_au]

At the moment, looking at a 15-18 foot trailer boat for around 10 grand. pretty sure the mechanical (outboard) side of things will be ok for me to check, being fairly mechanically minded, but i have NFI what to look for in the hull side of things. most likely will be a fibreglass boat due to availability,

i take it transoms are something worth checking, with the number of boats advertised listing the fact it had a new one put in. how/what am i checking for? are all transom repairs created equal? as in, if there is a reciept for the work done, should i rest easy, or is there more investigating to do?

Are pre purchase inspections worth the coin, or are they as much of a waste as an RACV check on a car...

what else needs checking. is there a sea worthy procedure in vic to transfer the boat into my name?

is there a road worthy type inspection for the trailer rego?

had plenty of experience on the water with boats, just none buying one. cheers in advance for any suggestions.

[AFeral]

Try a boat Forum, might be a good start.

[GBC]

Pre purchase inspections are well worth the coin - esp in the price/size bracket you're in. Stringers and floors should also be checked for rot. Check the fibreglass hasn't had osmosis is its been in the water for any period of time etc etc.

[bad_religion_au]

can't find any boat forums that i can sign up for without a isp issued email address.. something i don't have

[MattGU]

What GBC has said is on the money. In an older glass boat stringers and floor will need a good check as well as the transom. You will need a torch to look inside any access points you can find. A quick check that you can try for transom rot is with the outboard trimmed all the way up and any travel lock on. Stand on the ground and push down on the end of the outboard leg. When you do this you may notice some flex in the transom that would warrant further looking. If you push too hard on a dodgy boat and the transom flexes heaps walk away especially if you think the outboard is about to end up on the ground.

Cheers Matt

[hokey]

what exaclty is fibre glass rot? is it a visual thing or something that happens from the inside out?

in a similar boat (sorry) to bad religion same price bracket etc

[GBC]

The transom is fibreglass laid up on plywood, and the stringers are fibreglass laid up on timber. It is the wooden components of each that 'rot'. Quite often the stringers are laid up, then the floor (raw ply) screwed down then flow coated, which leaves a raw untreated face of the ply in the bilge. If a boat has had fresh water sitting in the bilge for any amount of time (leaks in rain etc) the floor will not last very long at all.
The above method of boatbuilding will be fairly typical of the era the OP will be looking at. Some have moved away from ply to board like klegecell, but it has its own issues, and there are completely different ways of doing glass.
I'm not saying glass boats are bad (I've got an 18' signature), just know what to look for in the older ones which have been mistreated.

[MattGU]

Have a read here http://westsystem.com/ss/assets/HowTo-P ... enance.pdf

Just out of interest what size, type of boat are you looking at and what is your intended use? Also you should think about how far you will need to tow it to your regular launch site, if it is any distance make sure the trailer is OK.

Matt