Eldest daughter is looking at RS200s'.. She want's a competitive boat to do open meetings and such. What advice is there on buying used ? How long do the hulls stay comeptitive? Should we get he boat weighed before we buy? I hear talk of a poor batch of boats from Brazil at some point? If this is true what numbers/build dates should we avoid?

 

Thanks Dave

As for Brazilian cracks- the overseas production in question was around 2006 and 2007 iirc.  The problem stem from a sub-standard bonding paste between the hull and deck join being used by RMW marine (who were contracted to make them).  The bonds gave way and then there were hull and/or deck stresses and cracks. RS did handle all the issues with affected boats, sometimes by bonding good decks with good hulls in their own workshop.  Some of us received full refunds, so I'd say it's dealt with by now; but given the wide spread of boats usually available I'd avoid this era personally.  

The 200 is basically quite a strong boat and old boats are competitive.  RS have always been good at resolving any warranty issues, so any boats that have had problems will almost certainly have been replaced by RS.

As always there is a bit more risk buying an older boat, but that is balanced by the lower purchase cost.  If you can afford it I'd go for one of the Synthesize boats or a Thai boat, but there really isn't anything wrong with the older boats.  You can pretty much tell whether a boat has been looked after properly when you inspect it.