Finally found a 22 Cruiser (2013) and hoping for advice

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BenCarney

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Long-time lurker finally posting — first, thank you all. I've been tracking C-Dorys here for over a decade and have learned an enormous amount from this forum.

I may have found my boat and I'd be grateful for any input before I commit.

**The boat:** 2013 22 Cruiser, twin Honda BF50s, 480 hours on the pair. Shore power, heater, rooftop AC, Garmin plotter, VHF, rear bimini, galvanized trailer. It's on consignment at a dealer in Vancouver, WA that doesn't carry C-Dory — they're a Duckworth/Yamaha shop — which may be why it hasn't come up here. Link to the listing:

2013 C-Dory 22' Classic Cruiser | Pacific Boatland

Pacific Boatland is a marine dealership located in Vancouver, WA. We sell new and pre-owned Boats and Snowmobiles from Duckworth, Yamaha, RH Boats, Arctic Cat, and Lowe Boats with excellent financing and pricing options. Pacific Boatland offers service and parts, and proudly serves the areas of...
www.pacificboatland.com www.pacificboatland.com

I've got a refundable deposit down pending inspection and sea trial. I'll be driving down tomorrow and it's a bit of a haul so I'd like to make the trip count.

**What little I know of the history:** an older couple owned it for about two years. Which means they weren't the original owners, and there's roughly a decade before them that I know nothing about. I should have the HIN tomorrow and I'm happy to post it if that helps anyone place the boat. It isn't named and I don't even see any fading from previous name in the photos.

**Compression from the dealer** — port 207 / 204 / 206, starboard 228 / 206 / 210.

Questions, numbered for easy replies:

1. Does anyone recognize this boat, or know it from before the current owners? A 2013 with twin 50s seems unusual enough that someone might. Any history at all would be welcome.

2. Anything I should know in general about this vintage? I've read a lot of the core and rot threads here, but nearly all of them involve 80s and 90s boats. I'd love to hear what actually goes wrong on the newer ones, and what changed in construction between the mid-2000s and 2013.

3. There's an old thread where Harvey mentioned the factory was still fitting the smaller aft hatch covers that aren't meant for horizontal application, as recently as George's "Kerri On" in 2011. Did that carry into 2013? I plan to open the lazarettes and look hard at the gaskets.

4. Is the pilothouse overhead on a 2013 solid glass or cored? I've seen it stated both ways. There's an AC unit up there that I intend to remove eventually, and I'd like to know what I'll find at the cut edge.

5. Twin BF50s versus a single — anything specific to watch for beyond the obvious doubled maintenance? Timing belt history is unknown so I'm budgeting for both regardless.

6. Sanity check on the compression numbers? Port is dead even. The starboard 228 is my only question mark, and my read is that a high cylinder points to carbon from 37 hours a year of light-duty running rather than anything structural. Happy to be told otherwise.

**My inspection plan,** and I'd welcome pushback here: I've owned several boats and I'm planning to percuss the hull thoroughly — transom top edge under the cap, cockpit sole around the fuel tank brackets, engine bolt clusters, foredeck and anchor locker — plus back out a handful of fasteners and check the threads. I'm honestly not convinced a full survey with a moisture meter is warranted on a boat this new, given that most of the documented rot here traces to fastener practices the factory changed years before this hull was laid up. But I'd rather be told I'm wrong now than find out later, so if you think I'm being naive about it, please say so.

Thanks in advance. I've gotten a lot out of this place over the years and I appreciate the time.
 
Good morning,

I have checked out this boat at Pacific Boatland. Make sure to check out the port side transom repair. This boat looks like it has spent a great amount of time outside uncovered. Lots of deep scratches in the gel coat stripe. I would ask lots of questions about the transom. You will see it when you look at the back of the boat. Make sure to check around the roof where they installed the AC unit. If I were to grade this boat it would be fair condition at best. Just my 2 cents worth. As Dr. Bob says…always says get a marine surveyor to check out every inch of the C-Dory.
 
Twin 50s is a reasonable setup for twin powered CD22s. There are also twin 40s and twin 60s.
The listing says the boat has heat. If it is from the AC unit (combo AC and heat?) I'd leave it in for that function. There is no evidence in the available images of another source of heat. Even in the PNW, there are days that AC is nice to have (if nothing else, to cool the cabin when it is closed up due to wildfire smoke).
It looks like this boat has the better hatch covers on the aft quarter storage compartments.
 
Xtraplus18 said:
Good morning,

I have checked out this boat at Pacific Boatland. Make sure to check out the port side transom repair. This boat looks like it has spent a great amount of time outside uncovered. Lots of deep scratches in the gel coat stripe. I would ask lots of questions about the transom. You will see it when you look at the back of the boat. Make sure to check around the roof where they installed the AC unit. If I were to grade this boat it would be fair condition at best. Just my 2 cents worth. As Dr. Bob says…always says get a marine surveyor to check out every inch of the C-Dory.
Click to expand...
@Xtraplus18 Thanks for the reply — this is exactly why I posted.

I'll call the dealer about the transom repair and ask for photos of the scratches. How extensive was the repair?

And were you looking at buying it yourself, or helping someone else decide?


ssobol said:
Twin 50s is a reasonable setup for twin powered CD22s. There are also twin 40s and twin 60s.
The listing says the boat has heat. If it is from the AC unit (combo AC and heat?) I'd leave it in for that function. There is no evidence in the available images of another source of heat. Even in the PNW, there are days that AC is nice to have (if nothing else, to cool the cabin when it is closed up due to wildfire smoke).
It looks like this boat has the better hatch covers on the aft quarter storage compartments.
Click to expand...
The heat does indeed come from the AC unit, but only works with shore power. I would definitely install a diesel heater after removing the AC. I've had them on past boats and wouldn't want to live without one again.
 
Hi Ben,

I have a C-dory 2005 22’ Cruiser. I am not in the market for a new one since I love mine and I’m the process of finishing a boat garage for it.

I like to check out their boats once in a while. I saw this one and was kind of surprised that a 2013 would be in not as good condition than my 2005. (Mine is in very good shape.) typical C-Dory owners seem to take very good care of these boats

I also sent them a message via Craigslist Seattle to not mention excellent condition (if they classify this boat as excellent condition, I would hate to see what they say is fair or good condition.)

Have them send you a picture of the port side transom ,and both port, and starboard side color stripes. The port side transom is two colors of white instead of one color. I would also ask if this was sourced, or spent a great deal if it’s life in the southern United States.

If I remember it might have sun bleached interior as well. The pictures do hide some of the condition issues.

Good luck in your search.
 
I can only address the scratches on the dark blue stripe. Those are easily filled and painted to match the rest of the blue. They are probably related to a mooring post rugging or even fenders with wet sand. Does not look real good, but does not affect the quality of the rest of the boat. I have seen a lot of C Dory 22's which look far wrose.

It looks almost that a full metal trim is on the side where the rub rail stops at the begining of the covering of the transom splashwell--down over the top and between the motors. That might be something covering a defect?? How the boat runs, and looks otherwise would be important. but I don't see anything to disqualify this boat based only on scratches. I bought a C Dory with the cockpit floor busted out, the forward bunk tabing broken from abuse on the water (Pounding). All of these are repairable, even new cushions etc. It just depends on the price, and if you want to do some work.

The roof AC is usually a 14" square area-the Marine hatches are usually 12" square. You can fit a simple RV hatch there, even one you can open in the rain, or run 12 volt a fan in the frame.

The scratches are not that bad and other fiberglass issues can be fixed for about $2000, (Always budget more). In general from what I can see the boat is not that bad---I have seen worse. I would not let what you see put you off. Do check the electrical panel. Be sure that there are no short cuts there. I would be offering less than the posted price. We don't know if it was a trade in, if the dealer owns it ,or it is on consignment. Let the dealer know you are willling to work--don't let your emotions, "fall in love" with the boat. Get that survey--money well spent if you can negotiate all of the rest to your satisfaction.
 
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It looks like the dealer took the ad down. Did the OP make the deal ??
 
Hey all, Sorry for the radio silence. We did make the deal, but it has been a bit hectic! We had to drive through Everette, Seattle and Tacoma twice (once with a boat), spent two days at the dealer, two sea trials and all while working! Phew!

So, I stared and stared and stared at the port side transom and could not find any evidence of a repair. Sellers had no knowledge of one either. No gel coat color difference, no seams, bulges, etc. If there was one, they did such a good job, I don't think I care. Moisture meter readings were near identical on like for like areas of the transom and I measured every two square inches of the entire thing. I did the same for cockpit (closer spacing) and much of the hull.

There hull certainly has a couple cosmetic issues like the boot stripe scratch and some small repairs. It is obvious some "operational errors" have been made, but it's a 13 year old boat. My standards may not be as high as some others, but IMHO the boat is _overall_ in really good condition. The cockpit, cabin, cushions and cabinets are extremely clean and show almost no wear.

One of my goals was to have a clean platform I could customize to my boating style. I liked that this one has almost zero (looking at you AC) owner modifications. No downrigger mounts, holes drilled though cabinetry/bulkheads or experimental wiring of untold gadgets. It's all super stock.

Looking at the outboards it was immediately obvious they had found the bottom. One fairly bent skeg and super rough prop edges, but the good news is the shafts are perfectly straight. Gear oil was good. Solas props are about $100, so no big deal there. Bent skeg, we'll see. Maybe it can be straightened, might chop them off, might not worry about it. I had the dealer pull the ECU data and DTC history. Nothing alarming or unexpected there. Port engine overheat alarm went off several times, but history showed close succession and stopped at some point. It was fine on sea trial. Owner said that they had wasp nest or something blocking the intake and things returned to normal after cleaning it. They seemed like good people and not all things are knowable anyway.

Boat was originally from great lakes area and sellers only put it in salt twice. No corrosion anywhere to speak of.

All of the negative points above became negotiation levers and based on what I've seen other boats sell for recently I believe we got an extremely fair deal.

Thanks so much to everyone that chimed in here and sent PMs (you know who you are)! This is such a great community.

See you on the water!
 
Boat comes pretreated with dock rash. Makes it less painful when you add to it.
 
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