How does one properly survey a steel hull Roamer??

[Don Ayers]

How to and what if it is in the water. Does the boat have to be hauled?

Is it stupid to think that a 1960 hull would still have some life?

I'm totally out of my element

Thanks for any help

[Wood Commander]

Don, I don't have any experience in Roamer ownership, but I have been around them in various marinas and boatyards for many years. Steel ones that is, no aluminum.

The small amount that I have heard about them is that many of them had a coating inside the bilge resembling automotive rustproofing. Down deep by the keel water often gets trapped under the coating and they can rust along what would be the garboard strake.
But they can be fairly easily repaired. It does cost money and involves the haulout and associated costs I talked about earlier.
And especially in salt water, electrical corrosion is a factor. I believe that most models came from the factory with a system with a control box that managed the minute electrical charges to address the problem.

And I also wanted to add my 2 cents about weight. I recently looked at a somewhat rundown but potentially beautiful 37 Roamer with twin 427 Ford's, which is a sweet running setup.
And while fiberglass Commanders might weigh nearly as much as a similiarily sized Roamer, this boat weighed approaching TWICE what my 35' Mahogany Commander with twin MLR's weighs.
Great for cutting through the waves, but imagine the fuel burn.

And I always wondered about sinking. A Roamer would have to sink like a stone. I've seen many wooden cruisers towed in by salvage companies over the years and they will sometimes ride with the water level at the main deck or with it slightly below the surface with more area underwater aft where the engines are. So some of them will actually "float" with a breached hull,if you can call it that. At least it would give you something to hang on to until help arrived.

Oh well, we're not supposed to be sinking them anyway!

[Don Ayers]

Bret;

thanks for your comments and insight.

Lots of things to think about with cruiser ownership

[Wood Commander]

Don, I forgot, I've also seen Roamers have rust issues around the exhaust pipe/transom penetration areas. And that one I was looking at had a small problem on the chine area forward where the chine comes up out of the water and folds into the hull sides. It was causing a small leak when the boat was run at speed and made a bow wave. That's the only time I ever heard of that particular problem.

I have seen some great looking Roamers. Many of them from the 60's had very similar styling to the Constellations from that same era.

[Bill Foley]

Don I owned 40 foot steel hulled sedan cruise in the late 70s. The boat was built in Portland OR in 1955 by Jensen Marine. The biggest problem was the hole that a small piece to driftwood poked in the hull above the propeller (singe screw). Look carefully in this area as the turblence of the water erodes much quicker here than other areas of the hull. This boat was in saltwater it's whole life. I ended up replacing 4 feet with new steel. Nice thing about steel it is easy to repair. One New Years day I even broke ice for the boat club when leaving Olympia WA. A fresh water lake flows into Budd Inlet right where the guest moorage is in Olympia. If you have other concerns please contact me.

[rchay]

don, i have the 38' steel hulled commodore in the owners group page..i pull my boat about every year and just about always replace some steel..you can inspect a lot of the area from inside but most will still be hid due to iterior layout. the boat would have to be pulled if you want to view everything and even then you won't know what your getting due to the epoxy that cc used over the bottom..the repairs are simple for a good stick welder..grind off the epoxy,scab patch on outside and flare back in with epoxy..i don't double weld inside,but i am repowered with small perkins diesels and cruise wide open at 8.5 kt's..i get out in the gulf of mex on occasion and she takes the pounding o.k.'but at 8 kt's..any steel thats been around as long as these boats have is going to require continous attention and repair.but it can be done without breaking you..email me if you want more..rchay

[Doug P]

A liittle late but,
http://www.metalboatsociety.com/