Normal baseplate corrosion?

[josh.s]

Hi all,

New boater-to-be here and after the advice of those who have seen more baseplates than I.

 

The boat I am in the process of buying has just had its survey. Still awaiting the report itself but my chat with the surveyor didn't bring up anything concerning. After the fact, while perusing some photos I took, I've become a little alarmed by the image below of the baseplate. Clearly it's been unprotected and the boat is 25 years old so it's hardly going to look pristine but to my untrained eye it does look a little concerning.

 

Does anyone have a better idea of what I'm looking at here? Normal corrosion, MIC, alien life? Essentially, anything I should be worried about?

 

[Tony Brooks]

Not enough detail to guess how deep any pits are, but the rusty blisters are, I think, fairly normal.  If you scrape a few off, I expect that you will find pits. What matters is how deep they are and the nominal thickness of the baseplate, so you can estimate how close to leaking it is.

 

Despite the paint the hull sides look very pitted, but it is the depth that matters.

Edited March 27 by Tony Brooks

[David Mack]

A boat that hasn't moved much, judging by the absence of longitudinal scrapes along the bottom.

[Lady M]

Perhaps it is shallow drafted.

[Tracy D'arth]

Looks average for 25 years.

If you are having any welding done, get the worst pits filled up. Time to give it some tlc.

The extensive pitting on the sides need to be attended to with a good grit blast and epoxy 2 pack, same with the baseplate.

[Bee]

Depends on its original thickness but I reckon that if you examined it carefully you would find some deep pits. If you can lift floorboards it would be an idea to have a look, especially along the side to bottom joint - might be perfect but its best to know. Shotblasting would be great but failing that then hours with every tool in the box might be enough, Epoxy is the current best treatment and you might have caught it just in time - fingers crossed!

[josh.s]

Thanks for the responses, all much appreciated. As the hull sides have been mentioned a couple of times, here they are in all their glory:

 

When I say glory I of course mean (to my eye) the most pitted section of the hull. This is just forward of the spot the surveyor picked to grind down to the steel. Personally wouldn't be able to eyeball the depth of the pitting but the survey report will, I hope, give a more accurate idea of this.

 

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

A boat that hasn't moved much, judging by the absence of longitudinal scrapes along the bottom.

 

I believe this is an accurate assessment and I suspect being sat in a marina hasn't helped the corrosion. Also likely explains why it's been fitted with 12 anodes!

 

Sounds like I'll need to have a good read of the survey report once it comes through. Interesting that the surveyor didn't seem concerned about the hull (beyond suggesting some protection is welded on within a couple years for a small section of the chine and some blacking is put on the baseplate at the same time) though perhaps I should reserve judgement until I have the report itself.

[Dav and Pen]

I never had a survey on any of my narrow boats but did on my Dutch barge in fact whilst in my ownership had 3 surveys for insurance purposes as boat was 100 years old. The surveyor cleaned to bare metal a number of places on the sides and across the bottom so as to get a reading on his ultra  sound machine. I can’t see any evidence of this on the ops photo so I wonder how the surveyor could give an opinion about the state of the base plate. Maybe narrow boat surveyors have magic powers unlike the professional in Belgium.

[Tracy D'arth]

1 hour ago, josh.s said:

Thanks for the responses, all much appreciated. As the hull sides have been mentioned a couple of times, here they are in all their glory:

 

When I say glory I of course mean (to my eye) the most pitted section of the hull. This is just forward of the spot the surveyor picked to grind down to the steel. Personally wouldn't be able to eyeball the depth of the pitting but the survey report will, I hope, give a more accurate idea of this.

 

 

 

There is a very deep double pit above and forward of the chalked mark, how the surveyor can say that there is nothing of note is beyond me.

The pitting is extensive.

A tyre tread depth gauge is the easy way to measure pit depth.

Think very long & hard before buying this boat on the strength of the surveyor's opinion.

[josh.s]

2 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

There is a very deep double pit above and forward of the chalked mark, how the surveyor can say that there is nothing of note is beyond me.

The pitting is extensive.

A tyre tread depth gauge is the easy way to measure pit depth.

Think very long & hard before buying this boat on the strength of the surveyor's opinion.

Thanks for taking a look, alarming to say the least but really value the input.

 

Will be thoroughly questioning the reported depth of these with the surveyor once armed with the report.

[manxmike]

Throwing in my two penneth, looking at the pitting and blistering I would (like the pig) get up and slowly walk away. That looks like it's going to need over plating sides and base plate before long. Unless of course you can get the price reduced by about £15k to cover the expected costs!

[Peanut]

This surveyor, were they recommended to you by any chance?