2002 Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 43 (unnamed in listing), San Diego, CA 92101

Which keel is on this boat — the 2.00m/6.56ft standard fin or the 1.60m/5.25ft shoal keel? Do not accept the spec sheet: measure it at the survey haulout, keel bottom to waterline, and photograph the tape.

The standard keel is one inch over your hard 6.5ft gate on the manufacturer figure and the listing's 6.5ft is a rounding, not a measurement. This single answer either disqualifies the boat outright or gives you fifteen inches of margin, and it also changes the righting moment on a hull whose capsize screening formula is already 2.01.

Produce the rigger's invoice for the January 2026 standing rigging replacement. Who did it, was the mast unstepped, what wire grade and diameter, and were chainplates, tangs, toggles and turnbuckles replaced or reused?

This claim is worth $12,000-$20,000 on a boat this size and is the main reason the ask is $129,900 rather than five figures — but as written it is a broker's sentence, and reused chainplates under new wire is the worst possible combination for an ocean passage.

Run the HIN (IRI00162B202) through a documentation search and produce the USCG abstract of title, all prior surveys and any insurance condition reports. How many owners, and was this boat ever in charter — including as a Moorings 43?

A prior survey is the cheapest information in this whole process, and the charter question is live: sailboatdata records this model was also sold as the Moorings 43, and a charter history is a completely different maintenance story on everything from the engine to the keel.

Will the seller permit a full moisture-meter survey of the entire deck — coachroof, side decks, every stanchion base, every winch and cleat, every hatch frame — with the boat hauled?

The deck is balsa-cored, it is 24 years old, and no fitting has been rebedded in the recorded history; wet core is the largest single financial unknown here and it is the one thing a proper out-of-water survey settles outright.

Pull at least two chainplates — one shroud, one forward — and inspect the fastenings, the wood beds and the backing. Are the original washers still the backing, and is any of the wood soft?

Practical Sailor recorded this model's deck hardware as bolted through wood and backed with washers; wood beds rot once a fitting leaks, and a chainplate failure at sea is a dismasting, not a repair bill.

Has the boat ever been grounded, when were the keel bolts last inspected or torqued, and can the seller produce photographs of the bare iron keel and the keel-hull joint from the August 2025 haulout?

This is a cast iron keel, not lead — a different and worse ageing story — and a keel drop with the rig out is a five-figure job that would also stack on top of every other yard cost in the refit.

Will an underwriter quote a San Francisco to Brisbane passage on this hull with a two-person crew, and what will they require — rigging documentation, liferaft specification, EPIRB, minimum crew experience, storm sails?

The insurer's conditions frequently set the real refit scope and can make items non-negotiable regardless of measured condition; on a boat with a CSF of 2.01 and a screwed hull-deck joint, it is worth knowing before you make an offer rather than after.

Does the boat leak anywhere in rain, and has any part of the hull-deck joint ever been rebedded, resealed or through-bolted? Why was a bilge heater fitted in San Diego in February 2020?

The joint is Sikaflex and self-tapping screws on 10cm centres by design, and a working joint is both the route water takes into the deck core and the thing that is genuinely hard to fix once it starts.

Is the mainsail an in-mast furling sail or a full-batten slab-reefed sail? Send one photograph of the mast section at deck level and one of the boom. The listing says both.

The cheapest question in the file and one of the most consequential: it decides a cost item, retires or activates the furler-jam risk, and determines whether reefing downwind in a squall is routine or a trip up the mast at sea.

What year was each sail built — mainsail, genoa and asymmetric spinnaker? Which sailmaker, and what were the 'small repairs' recommended on the main?

Not one sail on this boat has a stated age, and the two things the listing does say about sails are both the language of patching rather than renewing; the answer moves roughly fifteen thousand dollars of required-offshore work.

Is there measurable play at the rudder stock, does the blade sound solid when tapped along its lower third, and have the bearings ever been inspected or replaced?

Unsupported spade rudder on twin wheels with no recorded work in 24 years — the bearing and stock are the entire safety case, and a wet blade discovered in the Marquesas ends the voyage rather than costing money.

Settle the engine: is it a 4JH3-TE (75hp turbo) or a 4JH3E (56hp naturally aspirated)? Photograph the serial number plate and the turbo if there is one. Then produce every service record that exists.

The listing claims both, and they are different engines with different fuel burn against a 56-gallon tank, different service scope, and — critically — one has a turbocharger a two-person crew cannot fix at sea and the other does not.

At the engine survey: pull and inspect the mixing elbow and the turbo for exhaust-side corrosion and shaft play, pull the heat exchanger and inspect the casing sealing faces, run an oil analysis and a compression test.

671 hours in 24 years means a life of short runs, which is exactly the pattern that corrodes turbos and elbows, and Yanmar no longer sells the heat exchanger casing separately — so finding it in Papeete means a whole assembly on a shipping delay.

Decide early: refit in San Diego where the boat lies, or deliver to the Bay Area first? Get two delivery quotes, compare San Diego yard rates against Bay Area rates, and establish where the boat would be berthed and registered during the fifteen-month refit — San Diego County's district use-tax rate or a Bay Area one.

This is the one cost in the file entirely within your control and it moves in several directions at once: delivery is four to eight thousand dollars, San Diego labour is likely cheaper than Sausalito, and California use tax is assessed on where the vessel is berthed and registered, where the district rates differ materially. That last point is why I left useTaxPctOverride null.

What make, model and specification is the 6-person liferaft, when was it last serviced, and is there a current certificate? Is it an offshore or coastal raft, valise or canister?

I have deliberately not credited this against your catalogue because a raft out of certification is not a raft and a coastal raft is not an offshore one; a current offshore certificate zeroes a whole catalogue line, and no answer means the line stands in full.

Which autopilot is fitted — make, model, course computer, and above all which drive unit and where is it mounted? Does it drive a quadrant below decks or a wheel?

Drive capacity is what determines whether any pilot can hold 20,500 lb of beamy hull downwind in a following sea, and on a twin-wheel boat the mechanical arrangement decides how much of your generic autopilot budget actually applies.

On sea trial: what RPM does it reach at wide-open throttle, what is the coolant temperature after twenty minutes at cruise, what boost does the turbo make, is there smoke at load, and does it hit the 8.6 knots at 2,500rpm the model made when new?

The cheapest possible test of the turbo, the heat exchanger and the general state of a 24-year-old engine, and it costs nothing beyond the sea trial you were doing anyway — with a published performance benchmark to measure against.

Is there a dodger at all? If not, has one ever been fitted, and is there a frame? What condition is the August 2020 bimini in, and are the three flexible solar panels mounted on it?

No dodger is mentioned anywhere, which on a twin-wheel cockpit is a real gap for night watches — and if the panels live on the bimini then rebuilding one drags the other with it, so the two jobs must be sequenced together.

Is there an emergency tiller aboard, does it physically fit, and can it be shipped with the cockpit table and the walkthrough transom arrangement in place? Separately, when were the steering cables, sheaves and the linkage between the two pedestals last serviced?

Twin wheels double the failure points in the one system that must not fail, and an emergency tiller that does not fit is discovered at precisely the wrong moment — this is required-offshore kit that the listing never mentions.

Photograph the battery compartment and the charging installation. Is there a DC-DC charger or an external alternator regulator protecting the 2002 alternator from the lithium bank? Are the charger and inverter lithium-profile? What make are the cells and what BMS?

A lithium bank retrofitted to a 2002 charging system is a common and commonly incomplete job, and the failure mode is a cooked alternator or a bank that never charges properly — cheap to find now, expensive at sea.

How many through-hulls does the boat have, what are the valves made of, are any of them gate valves, have any been replaced since 2002, and does every one still turn?

A total blind spot in the listing on a two-head boat with a watermaker, which means more penetrations than usual; cheap to resolve at the haulout and the difference between servicing what is there and replacing everything.

Is this the two-cabin or the four-cabin layout? Photograph every berth and the engine access with the companionway steps out. How many usable sea berths does it give a two-person watch system, and are there lee cloths?

Two heads suggests the charter-oriented layout, which trades the stowage and sail locker you need for cabins you do not, and where the off-watch actually sleeps on a twenty-day passage is a habitability question no refit budget fixes cheaply.

List every electronic device aboard by make, model and year — the radar, the plotter, the VHF, the instruments — and say whether any of it is NMEA2000 or all SeaTalk. Is there AIS of any class? Which Starlink model, and on what plan?

'Raymarine/Furuno package' could mean anything from a serviceable 2015 refit to a 2002 magnetron radome and a dead plotter, and the answer decides whether your generic electronics budget is a plotter swap or a complete rewire.

What make and model is the windlass and what size gypsy does it take — imperial or metric? What anchor is the 'Box Anchor' exactly, what chain size and length is aboard, and is there a second anchor and rode?

A gypsy that does not match 5/16in G4 turns a chain purchase into a windlass replacement, and a box anchor is not the ground tackle most cruisers choose for Tuamotu coral — chain ordered in Papeete takes months, so this must be settled before you leave.

Is there a trysail, a trysail track, a storm jib or any storm canvas aboard? And is there a whisker pole as well as the spinnaker pole, with a mast track and topping lift?

If the main turns out to be in-mast, a trysail on its own track is the only reliable answer to a jammed furler at sea — and twin poled-out headsails is the standard trade-wind rig this voyage will spend weeks in.

How many hatches and opening ports are there, has any been rebedded or re-gasketed, and are the saloon windows fixed or opening? Are the acrylics crazed?

Never mentioned once in the listing, and hatch leaks are the mechanism by which the balsa deck core gets wet — so the answer bears on the largest risk line as well as its own repair cost.

How old are the water tanks, the potable hose and the sanitation hose on both heads? Are there holding tanks on both, and when were they last serviced? What make are the heads?

Two heads means twice the sanitation hose, and permeated hose is one of the few jobs that gets dramatically worse in tropical heat — a nuisance in San Diego, a genuine problem a thousand miles from a chandlery.

Is the tank 53 or 56 gallons, what is it made of, does it have an inspection port, and when was the fuel last polished or the tank last opened? How much does the engine actually burn at cruise?

Sources disagree on capacity and either figure is thin behind a possible 75hp turbo; the true number plus a real burn rate sets how many jerry cans your generic catalogue has to carry for the doldrums.

Is the Achilles tender hypalon or PVC, what year is it, and what make and year is the 2hp outboard? Are there chocks, davits or any lifting tackle aboard?

I have not credited either against your catalogue because an 8ft roll-up with 2hp is a harbour tender rather than a cruising dinghy — but if it is hypalon it is a genuinely useful stowable second tender, and if it is PVC it will not survive a tropical year.

When was the cutless bearing last replaced and the shaft alignment last checked? Is the propeller still the original fixed three-blade, and what did the August 2025 shaft seal replacement involve?

The shaft seal being recent is a real positive worth confirming, and whether the prop is fixed or feathering is worth a knot of passage speed over 6,000 miles — but it is an upgrade rather than a defect, so it belongs in your decision rather than in a discount.