Buying any old Jboat presents challanges. For starters, these boats are old, really old. Old enough that no matter how well maintained the boats may have been, they're tired. Just like today, when these boats were built, they tried to make them as light as they could. To achieve that, the decks and hull are almost entirely balsa cored. By that I mean the typical section consists of a 3/4" end grain balsa sandwiched between two skins each consisting of several layers of glass. If (when) water makes it into the core through any of the multitude of holes through the deck, bottom, or transom, the balsa core eventually turns to mush (think peat moss), and thats bad. The whole strength of the assembly relies on the two very stiff fiberglass skins being separated by stiff end grain balsa. Once the balsa rots out, there is no strength to the assembly and it will crush and no longer support load. True story - a couple years ago I was racing at Key West Race Week on a J109 and we were fighting it out with an old J35. On the last beat, they were getting away from us during a fierce taking dual. But about half way up the leg we starting catching them and finally passed them. We were quite proud of ourselves until they crossed the line behind us - holding their port winch in the air! Apparently it ripped out of the deck about half way up the leg so they completed the top half of the beat with one winch. That's what happens when the core rots out.
But the truth of the matter is all Jboats (and pretty much all other race boats) have some level of moisture in them. But how much is acceptable? Truth is I have no idea. But I have cut holes in decks and bottoms of Jboats and replaced core trying to rid them of moisture. Its a lot of work, and is very much a case of diminishing returns. Basically when I'm looking at these boats, I'm looknig for minimal cracks/crazing and no delamination. Once the fiberglass laminate loses its bond to the core, the assembly loses its strength. If you can take a hard object and sound out (tap) the entire hull and deck and hear nice crisps "taps" like a snar drum rather than "thuds" like a base drum, chances are you've got a pretty good boat. If you hear a bunch of "thuds" WALK AWAY. There are plenty other boats out there. The most likely areas that will be bad are under the stoppers, the winches, the stanchions and handrails. In my opinion, topsides can easily be painted, bottoms easily faired and barrier coated, but repairing decks is a pain in the rear. Either you repair them from below, fighting gravity the whole way, to maintain the look of the nonskid above, or you repair them from above which will tyically lead to removing all the deck hardware, and sanding and painting the whole deck. A lot of work.
As I mentioned before, I've had a lot of boats, and if there is one thing I have learned its that you should buy the nicest, most well-equipped boat you can afford. When it come time to sell your boat, chances are you will be lucky to get back your original purchase price no matter how much time, money, and "sweat equity" you put into the boat. Buy the nicest boat you can, period.
