What to look for in a Eventide24

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Fullblown
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun September 7th, 2014, 1:30 pm
Location: Scarborough / Australia

What to look for in a Eventide24

Post by Fullblown »

Hi, I am a new member to your site and I hope you can give me some sage advice. I hope to buy a Eventide24, but have not gone to look at it yet. Yes, I am a novice when it comes to wooden boats, so here goes. Are all Eventide's home made and what do I look for as far as problems with a Eventide design. I guess the most pressing problem I should be looking for is wood rot as this can affect boats hull integrity. What signs do I look for and where do I look for it. I am not a boat builder and have little experience with wood, but I have good handyman skills and am a welder by trade. I love the Bilge Keel concept and here in Australia, apart from large and expensive steel yachts, the only other option is to get a used Eventide yacht if and only when they become available, and that's nearly like finding a hens tooth. Also, this yacht that I am going to look at is 10mts long, but so far I have only seen mentioned as Eventide's are 24 and 26ft
designs. So is this a one off, and if not I would love to see photo's of other Eventides this length. I hope fellow Eventiders can give me good advice. Cheers.
Pieter H
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat September 13th, 2014, 8:48 am
Location: South Africa

Re: What to look for in a Eventide24

Post by Pieter H »

Hi Fullblown,

I'm in South Africa and the climate here is very hard on wooden boats, especially if the paintwork is not maintained well. I suspect its the same in Australia. The sun gets the paint, freshwater gets into the wood and rot starts. I did a repair on a plywood Stadt a few years back where one guardrail stanchion had had the screws wrenched loose, and the side panel, good mahogany Bruynzeel ply, was rotten almost down to the chine - so check for soft spots in the ply, everywhere. Hull, deck, cabintop, cockpit, anywhere that rainwater might have gotten in, especially anywhere that things have been screwed on to the deck, or where paint might have gotten rubbed off by mooring lines or such. This is so with all plywood boats - I can't comment on Eventides specific vulnerable spots.
Knocking on wood with one's knuckles or a metal object is a good method. I use my pocketknife. (closed!)
Inside, inspect every bit of the boat. Lift the floorboards, look in every locker, crawl into every possible corner, inspect every sincle piece of wood in every nook and cranny: frames, deck frames, everything, working from one end of the boat to the other. Look for soft spots in the wood, cracked paint, dark marks on the paint or under varnish, rusty fastenings, signs of water having leaked in. If the boat is afloat, borrow a dingy and work your way around the outsides, the whole hull surface paying special attention to the deck edges.
What I can tell you is that at every weak spot, the actual damage will be three times as much as one can see at first.
This is not said to discourage you, its just something one needs to do to judge the condition of a wooden boat. Old steel and fibreglass boats have their problems too, and are less simple to repair! Some parts on a wooden boat are relatively simple to fix, and not all damage affects the structural integrity or safety of the vessel.
Once you know what you are looking at, the next step is to figure out what steps are needed to fix it - and that is a whole big subject in itself, many books available, stuff on the web.

Fixing the wooden boats takes some material and quite a bit of work, but as long as it is well above the waterline mostly what you put in is time, with a wooden boat. The sails,running and standing rigging, electrics, motor, and general inventory are just as important, and there its not cheap to remedy shortcomings. So, in my book, if a boat is equipped well in these areas, it can easily make up for having to replace some deck beams and a few pieces of plywood.

A little anecdote: That Stadt I worked on, it had lots of other areas that were not good. The owner had had it refurbished by someone who knew fibreglass, but not wood. Lots of filler and paint over rotten wood. He'd gotten a brand new diesel motor, navigation stuff, brand new sails, winches, heads, everything. Wanted to do a race to St. Helena in the middle of the Atlantic. I told him not to go anywhere where he can't phone the rescue services! The boat was sound enough underneath though. Anyway, a few months later they hit a whale, and to cut a long story short the boat was eventually scrapped. Now someone with all the bits is apparently means to build a Waterwitch hull. He'll have gotten brilliant kit for it, for a song. So even a basketcase wooden boat can perhaps be a good buy.

Lastly: If the boat you are looking at is around 10m, it may well not be an Eventide but one of the larger Griffiths designs - perhaps a Waterwitch, Riptide or Noontide. There's lots of pics on this site that you could look at to compare, and some measurements in the Designs section. (All these can be built in steel, too.)

Take some pics and post them!

I don't know if this qualifies as sage advice - its just what I know. So I look forward as much as you to what others have to contribute.

Cheers,

Pieter.
Fullblown
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun September 7th, 2014, 1:30 pm
Location: Scarborough / Australia

Re: What to look for in a Eventide24

Post by Fullblown »

HI Pieter, thanks for your good advice. I went and looked at the boat and many things were wrong, so where do I start. First, the boats length was wrong, as it was a eventide and was 24ft not the 10mts advertised. Plenty of rot found, such as about 3sq feet of it right at the nose, some more in cockpit seat which would be easily repaired and some more under one stanchion and this was just a quick look. The yacht had about 6ins of water through out bilges, freshwater, and I do not know how long water had been there. Owner did not accompany me to boat which allowed me to have a good look, but as I do not have any wood working skills I decided to give this boat a miss. I am not sure of this eventides future but hope it survives. Will keep looking. Cheers Mate.
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