Hi Paul,
All the Moodys up to the 44 were built with solid, hand laid-up grp hulls, by Marine Projects in Plymouth, now trading as Princess Yachts and building only motor cruisers. Some of the later, bigger ones had cored hulls above the waterline. Floors frames and stringers, for the most part are cored to get the strength without too much weight The decks were cored, mostly with end grain balsa, replaced with marine ply in way of deck fittings. MP were one of the earlier builders to adopt isophthalic resins rather than orthophthalic and their build shop was temperature and humidity controlled delivering a high quality grp hull and deck. They were generous in the hull thickness and the gel coat thickness making the hulls strong and able to withstand a lot of polishing. When we fitted a bow thruster to Wild Thyme, the cut outs were 34mm thick.
If you have a deck sweeping genoa, you won't see under it wherever the cockpit is, if it's cut high enough you will. Moodys are cruising yachts, not racing, so the genoa furling drum is spaced up off the stemhead to make room for anchor handling - this already gives you more space under the genoa. A boat of that age shouldn't have her original sails, so the cut of the genoa is whatever the owner asked for when last replaced. The designer of these boats, Bill Dixon, has a reputation for fast passage makers which don't heel too much and are light on the helm - if the lee rail gets down to the water to windward, you will find tucking a reef in increases speed. I know no yacht where you can see under the genoa when she's heeled that far and haven't found centre cockpit Moodys any different to other boats in this respect.
Centre cockpits in general have less motion in the cockpit because you are much nearer the boat's centre of gravity than in an aft cockpit boat, they also enable the wonderful aft cabin. However, the cockpit will be smaller than a comparable aft cockpit boat. In changing from aft to centre cockpit, it can take a while to get used to how much boat there is behind you for close quarters manoeuvring.
It's masthead rigged with transverse (i.e, not swept back) spreaders so the sheeting angle for the genoa is greater than a more modern rig. If you tweak everything, you may just get her to rack through 80 degrees in a decent breeze, but you will make better VMG to weather tacking through 90 or more in a seaway.
The potential for leaks at the chainplates that Marc described is important. These deck penetrations are sealed by small stainless steel plates screwed onto the deck. With time, the sealant breaks down allowing water to get in which you don't notice because all this is hidden behind the cabinetry below. Lifting and rebedding, as Marc describes is simple but, if it is neglected, the water can get into the marine ply part bulkheads to which the chainplates are bolted and start rot. If the rot is allowed to go too far, the chainplate bolts can pull through the wood and it has been known for the side deck to crack, detensioning the rig (one example I am aware of). I have never heard of a mast being lost through this, but it must be a possibility. When viewing a boat with chainplates penetrating the decks, it's worth asking when the penetrations were last resealed, inspecting the state of the sealant as far as practicable and checking the deck around the penetration with a straight edge (a steel rule) - any bulges are a bad sign.
I don't recall the material for the water tanks on the M35 - Moody changed from aluminium to plastic at some point. If aluminium, that's a possible problem. The fuel tank is, I think, mild steel so there may be a rust problem, either inside or outside.
Remember, this is a boat 24 - 30 years old, her condition today is more about how well she has been maintained than how well she was built.
Peter
