Hello Steve: I have been looking for an affordable cruising boat. This weekend I looked at an Allmand 31. I really liked it and am thinking about putting an offer on her. As I was checking the hull, I noticed that the place in the boat yard where she is stored had some erosion from a rain storm, and the logs under the keel had sunk in, which has caused two of the aft jack stands to cause the hull to deflect. It looks like they were moved when this was noticed, but you can see the two spots port and starboard where there is a slight concave deflection. In your experience, will this come out?
I asked the broker to call the owner and have someone put new blocks under the boat and reposition the jack stands to structural stringers. But don’t know much about hulls when they have been flexed like that. Any information you might know about similar situations would be greatly appreciated. I want to make an offer, but I also know how important the hull is to the seaworthiness of a vessel.
Tough question to answer at a distance. Best to have a survey done. If the laminate is solid, you can probably repair it as long as access is not an issue. If it is cored, the job may be exponentially bigger. But get a structural survey done. Good Luck–Steve.
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
