Quality of Tayana V 42 Rigging/Metal

[Marty McOmber]

Hi all,

We have an offer on a 1981 Tayana Vancouver 42 that has spent most of its life in the Bay Area. If we were to buy the boat, we would plan to replace the standing rigging and chainplates.

I've heard that the metalurgy should be considered suspect, given the this was build in Taiwan.

Wanted to see if anyone on this forum has experience with this boat and can offer any advice -- espeically with its' "cow-catcher" ring that is supposed to prevent the need for running backs.

[Brion Toss]

Hello,
The bad news is that the metallurgy on just about everything is not trustworthy by this time. The good news is that it will be obvious if it is bad. If the boat is still in the Bay Area, call up Guy Stevens to have him inspect it (and everything else). He'll be able to give you a realistic, reasonable assessment of condition, and what it might take to replace things.
Even with bad metallurgy it can take many years for things to get scary. But many years have passed. And it is possible that your boat got a good batch, or was in a window of time where they used great hardware, well-bedded. Not likely, but possible.
We have worked on several of those boats. Wonderful boats, with that Achilles heel. Really spectacular failures at times.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss