I'd give it a light sanding and wipe it with denatured alcohol. instead. It's safer.

Checking for a straight, fair and square hull with no twists needs tools, but very simple ones. A tape measure, level and a pair of straight sticks will let you do it by eye. Look in the Shop Tips for how to do it. They should have an explanation with pictures and videos. If you still have questions, come back here.

Tap the wood (everywhere) and listen for sudden changes in sound that may indicate rot. Look for black stains that may indicate water instrusion and rot. Look everywhere that you can, use mirrors, strong lights, a video camera on a stick, etc. The place you don't inspect is where the rot will be.

Look carefully at all the joints. Be on the lookout for sloppy fillets, glass tape that has pulled away from the putty, bubbles and poorly wet-out glass (glass that is white instead of clear).

Make sure that the deck is securely seated on the sheer clamps, bulkheads and deckbeam. If it's nailed, make sure that all the nails are completely in the sheer clamps and not poking through the sides. No open holes in the sheer clamps. Any missed nail holes should have been filled with epoxy/woodflour putty.

The deck should be securely sealed to the hull by the glue. If there are any openings, check them for water intrusion.

Get the boat out in direct sunlight and look inside with a mirror or camera, looking for sunlight coming through unplugged holes. Note that a well-made joint can be translucent, that's not a problem. What you're looking for are cracks and holes that need to be sealed. if you find any, check for water intrusion.

If you do find any problems but still like the boat, keep in mind that this style of construction makes fixing problems reasonable. You can still get the boat, but you may want to adjust your offer to reflect the extra time and materials you'll need.

Good luck,

Laszlo

snap a couple pictures and post it.  lazlo's right on ideas.  that said, a couple pictures and we can probably give you some insight about what you might be in for if you are not particularly familiar with this kind of assessment.

   Thanks, Laslo and hspira. 

Regarding acetone, it was intented to only be used to clean the thin fiberglass interfaces at shear strip, between older hull glass and new deck.

a couple other thoughts you may find useful...as i have built several 'rescue boats' -- these are projects that somebody started and then adbandons and tries to sell...often times having sat there for a number of years.

first, i would make sure i have a complete inventory of all the parts needed and begin with the assumption that anything in the 10 year old category....you cannot count on the epoxy being still good...and epoxy is expensive.

in addition to epoxy, on a boat like the 17LT if the deck is on but the hatches and coaming are not complete there are a number of parts that need to be accounted for.  For example, you may need the coaming risers, coaming, and doublers for the hatches, hatch lips and hatch covers and hatch forms.   also, depending on the vintage of the kit, it may include fibreglass for the deck if it is a newer kit, and the hatch lips were added for newer kits as well.  

in addition to the wood, glass, epoxy peices, there is a fitting kit that includes foot-braces, seat back, screws, nylon strapping material etc.    

fwiw, in my experience CLC is usually good about making a parts list available to you so you know what to look for.   get a list from them and check-off each part as accounted for or missing and know the price of replacement....clc can provide that information.

even a few missing parts can add up quickly if you have to order a replacements.  so in general when i have bought 'rescue' boats my compensation to the seller has been limited to cleaning out their garage at no cost (maybe a bit aggressive....but when its old stuff....you are taking all the risk and costs of bringing it to completion and it doesn't take a lot of misses to end up putting more money then you expected into it).

rescue boats, also often have some element to them that needs to be corrected becuase it wasn't done right...nothing that can't be fixed.... but it can use up a lot of time and effort.  so heed lazlos points on a good inspection.   i have three rescue boats under my belt and all of them were 10 plus years old has some story to them that contributed to my suggestions above.

all the best, 

h

My suggestion is to look for spiders and other things that might have taken up residence.    

   Thanks so very much. I am very grateful for your suggestions, particularly as you are sharing info based on experience. Now to get to work.

Show stoppers are cost to complete and non-reparable items due to effort to fix. 

Chris 

Kind commentators, does my plan seem sound?

The C17 required a new deck. Instead I just picked up a 2004 50 lbs. Chesapeake 16,   which was sitting in a storage rack in Conn. covered for perhaps 10 years. Since this is my first sea kayak, I’m eager to get the feel of her. The latest C16 my 2 side panels have been relaced by one wider panel, so my kayak has a more rounded hull. I was unable to add photos, could use instructions.​

There are large areas of delamination on the deck in the cockpit area but none is cracked or nor appears wet or moldy. The deck surfaces are solid to touch, no significant springiness when pressed. I’ll leave as is.

My plan is to do a quick seal of the bottom 4 panels with resin as that’s where scratches and abraded areas are located. There are several localized areas of exposed fiberglass 2” by 2”. I’ll putty up damage in the bow and stern stems due to rubbing on rocks or sand, with epoxy resin thickened with West system 404 high density filler, leave several delaminated bubbles untouched as there’s no evidence of black mold or wetness. Then cover bow and stern areas with 3ft of Keel Easy protective strips. 

I have wiped down hull with alcohol, and then followed with acetone.   The rags were a little blackened, but not much. I’ll try turpentine next.

Here’s what’s damaged:

Bottom panels are covered with many short scratches which expose the glass weave but do not extend to the plywood. The varnish is very thin to none along many portions of panel edges so the glass weave can be seen. There’s about 4 bubbles about 1” by 4”, and two delaminated areas about 4” by 4”.

Plan to reseal:

Sand to clean areas around exposed glass  and reseal with epoxy resin, leave delaminated bubbles untouched,  cover entire 4 panels with one layer of resin

some pictures would be very helpful.

the link below will show you how to post them:

https://www.clcboats.com/various/posting-photos-forums.html

my initial comment in do not use turpentine with epoxy.  it's for paints and can contaminate the epoxy surface making it such that any new epoxy will not bond or even cure properly.

other than that, its very hard to comment without seeing what you are looking at.  in general, if you have any delamination or big bubbles, you should address them even if they are not a problem now.  they are just problems waiting to happen.

recoating with epoxy is really not particularly important if the old epoxy is in place unless you are trying to build it up for later sanding so that you don't sand into the glass/wood.  

all the best, 

h

   Hi,

I can't figure out how to create/locate a link address with ,jpg extention. in Flickr.

I am selecting my photos and right clicking on my mouse. The resulting pop up menu has several link  options : open and copy   When I select "copy link address", and then paste here's what I get:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/184335705@N06/48700400761/in/dateposted-public/

Chris

flickr is seriously annoying that way, but it can be worked.

First, open that link you posted above in a new tab.

Next, click on the image that you want to post here.

Right-click and select "Inspect Element(Q)". That brings up the developer's inspector window at the bottom of the screen. (There's an X in the top right corner of the developer's window for closing it.) In that window, there should be a highlighted line. Above and below that line should be the links to the large and small jpg files, with the following form or something very similar:

<img src="//live.staticflickr.com/65535/48700400761_1eb1ca9bb6_b.jpg" class="zoom-small">

Right-click on the name of the jpg file and select "Copy Link Adress". You should get a URL like:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48700400761_1eb1ca9bb6_b.jpg

That is the URL of the photo, then finish up with the rest of the directions and get this:

Congratulations! You're now a website hacker! With a little more work you can be a website developer and make lots of money.

Laszlo