An almost ner Reinell owner

Shear Delight

Recruit
Joined
Apr 20, 2010
Messages
1
Hello

I'm considering buying a 1977 30' Reinell. I like many things about this design; flybridge, good size cockpit, sleeping capacity etc. I have been involved in boating all my life (age: 79), however I have no experience with Reinell boats and I was wondering if there are any known problem areas to check , such as wood rot in stringers, fiberglass problems etc. If my initial examination proves OK I'll get a regular survey. Any information or comments would be very helpful. The boat will be used in San Francisco Bay.

Thank you, Jim Shear
 

gugie

Cadet
Joined
Jun 29, 2005
Messages
25
Re: An almost ner Reinell owner

Jim,
Not sure if you bought this boat or not but I can talk as I bought one about 7 years ago.
After looking for a good 4 months for this type of boat and after looking at many 30' Reinell's we finally found one that had rebuilt engines and a new interior and seemed to be in pretty good shape. There was an obvious transom issue because where the rudder comes through the transom is a weak spot for this design as in all cases of the Reinell's that we looked at there was transom rot in this area. We went ahead and had a survey done with the results being there was a need for a transom rebuild, one small hull blister and a few minor other things that needed to be fixed. All in all the surveyor told us it was a pretty solid boat other than the transom. We bought the boat knowing we were going to have to do some rebuilding of the transom which we felt was do-able. We had a custom-built trailer built and after having fun that summer put it on the trailer and started working on the transom. Everything was going great till I noticed some water in the forward section when looking through an access panel below the lower helm console. I turned the forward bilge pump on and climbed out to make sure the water was being pumped out. After a few minutes I started smelling gas fumes. Yep I was pumping gas & water out of my forward bilge. I quickly shut everything off and came to the conclusion that the gas tanks were leaking. Since the tanks are enclosed there was no way of checking these. I ended up having to cut the flooring out of the lower cabin by hand, had to dig both 100 gallon aluminum tanks out as they were encased with foam. (The reason for the corrosion) I also found out at this point that the bulkheads on both fron and back of the tanks were also rotted. (Again due to the faom). This boat went from a one summer project to multiple years in the fixing.
So in summary here are the weak points of this boat that you should carefully inspect:
1) Transom rot around the rudder arms and brackets
2) Moisture in the gas tank area. (There is an access panel right above the gas tank sending units) By looking and smelling you might be able to see if there is moisture or the smell of gas.
3) By looking through the forward inspection hatch (Hatch right below the lower steering helm) you should see if there is any water in this area and with a flashlight, see if you can see the bulkheads and their condition.
Other than this we still like the boat as it's very stable on the water, handles rough water pretty well, has lots of interior room and the hull is built like a brick. Like any other boat if you have water in your hull and wood on the inside expect rotting for a boat this age.
 

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Phil Steigleder

Recruit
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
1
Re: An almost ner Reinell owner

I have a 1977 26' and had the same problem with the fuel tank rotting. It also rotted the stringer as a result of the foam. As the other person said, I had to destroy the cabin area of the boat to get the tank out and the new one installed. had to rebuild the cabin area. It will be nice when done but a lot of time and $$$$.
 
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