"Rich Hampel" wrote in message
...
The 'metallurgy' on taiwanese boats leaves very much to be desired.

I ran into most of these inferior metal problems on my '76 Cheoy Lee.
However between the previous owner and my ownership. We collectively
replaced those items that effected the overall safety of the boat.. It was
12 years old when I got it so some of these problems were already becoming
evident and were picked up in the survey.

I would estimate that I spent about 5% of the purchase price in hardware and
equipment upgrades because of the chinese crap or knock-offs.

The only thing I couldn't really do much about without spending a fortune,
was the teak decks.. All I could do there was try to refill any seams or
plug holes that opened up.

All that said, I really liked the boat, she had an excellent hull layup, was
of a good design (Luder) and was a great boat in open water or single
handing in close quarters.

Bottom line. There only two US production boat I would want to own for
passage making, Shannon and Pacific Seacraft. If I couldn't get into one of
them then I would do like I have done, Build my own..

For everyone else.. If they are careful and get a good surveyor working for
them, they can have a fine boat from Tiawan and then fix everything that the
surveyor finds wrong.. He/She would still have a better boat than a Hunter
or orther US production boats.


--
My opinion and experience. FWIW

Steve
s/v Good Intentions