wrote in message
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I've recently bought a steel hulled houseboat in an area I want to
move to, with the hopes of later selling it and getting one with an
aluminum hull. I got a great deal on it, but feel sure that the bottom
is in bad shape. The previous owner said it was pulled and inspected
5 years ago,


I hope you got a REALLY good deal on it. The recommended procedure in
buying such a boat is to have it hauled out and a survey done before you
conclude the deal. If it has been sitting for 5 years, the bottom could be
in terrible shape.

It is common for a steel hull to get pin holes. If the surrounding
material is good, these can be welded up and the hull is fine. It is also
possible that an entire area to be corroded away such that all the material
is thin. It might be fine as long as it is tied up in the slip, but get the
boat out and work it and the thin area can fail. This isn't just welding up
a pin hole, it is replacing a section of steel. If that "section" is the
entire bottom it can quickly become too expensive.

In my area, it costs about $10 a foot of boat length to have the boat hauled
out. It costs about that much again for the bottom paint. A lot of this
stuff they work with is toxic so they tend to throw all sorts of additional
"environmental" fees on top of that. If there is repair work to do you will
be paying by the hour. Depending on the type of paint and weather the boat
may need to sit for a few days before it is put back into the water. Some
yards also charge a daily storage fee while your boat sits in the yard,
although most give you a few days as part of the haulout.

On a fiberglass boat, the bottom paint is primarialy for anti-fouling
purposes. It will last a year or two and then it needs to be reapplied.
Houseboats tend to use a really thick tar like coating that is also meant to
prevent rust. I am not aware of there being any correlation between an alge
growth and accelerated rusting other than having alge is a sure sign that
any antifouling paint that used to be there is no longer effective.

Are pulling and re-launching likely to result in leaks?

YES!

Sitting in the water, the weight of the boat is distributed along the entire
bottom. The process of getting it out of the water and setting it on blocks
will concentrate the weight in just a couple of spots. This will tend to
flex the boat in a way it hasn't been flexed in 5 years. This may cause all
sorts of things. It is not unusual to have the hull flex and cause issues
inside the cabin.

The pressure wash will obviously blast away at the hull. If there is a weak
spot, this could cause it to rupture.

I would fully expect the repair yard to inspect the hull. The way you
inspect a hull is you get a hammer and start banging on it (it is a bit
un-nerving the fist time you see someone beating on your pride and joy with
a hammer!). As he goes along, you hear BANG-BANG-BANG.. This is good. If
it goes BANG- BANG - thud...... this is a bad thing. The process of
inspecting a hull can turn a number of weak spots into holes.

My suggestion is to NOT pull the boat out if you are not ready/able to
complete the necessary work.


Rod