8
SVN Solovelanet Global
S t o r i e d i v e l a
Can I feel safe on a
30 year old boat?
This is the question
asked by all buyers
of boats from the
1980s.
H o w
i m p o r t a n t
i s b o a t
a g e ?
M
ost of those who intend to buy a 30+
year old boat spend a lot of time trying
to figure out if such an old boat is safe
or not. What happens to the hull after
30 years of sea, sun and wind?
The answer is simple: if the boat has been well main
-
tained and has not undergone major damage, she is
safe even after 40 years, as proven by many boats
from the Sixties and Seventies that are still sailing.
Consider for example the Arpege designed by Mi
-
cheal Dufour, the Carter 37 by Dick Carter, or the
Alpa 12,70 by S&S. All of them were launched 50 or
60 years ago and nowadays are still sailing safely.
Of course a 30+ year old boat is more delicate than
a newer one. If a modern boat hit rocks at a speed
of a couple of knots, in all likelihood there would be
no consequence, whereas if the same thing happe
-
ned to a 30 year old boat, some small superficial
cracks would appear in front of and behind the bulb.
The problem of old age lies in two main factors:
a) In the Seventies, fibreglass processing was in its
infancy. It was not clear how it worked and the cor-
rect proportions had not yet been found, so if you
take the coring of an Alpa as an example, you will
find an incredible quantity of resin in comparison
with what would be found in the laminate of a boat
of the same size built in the latest ten years.
by
Maurizio
Anzillotti
The arpege designed by Micheal
Dufour at the end of the 1960s
