Moody 40 (70s & 80s) Thinking off buying

[Jan P Altenberg]

Hello everybody, I just visitied a Moody 40 from 1981 for a first impression and have some general questions.
I have never sailed one before so I would like to know about the sailing characteristics? Are there explicit week parts that I should pay special attention to when inspecting the boat?
Thank you!

 

[Rob Whelton]

Shame you didn't get a reply to this.
We have the 39, which is almost identical to the 40 and I would think has the same sailing characteristics.

We find her to be a very dependable passagemaker. On paper the SA is a bit low, but the waterline is long and overall we make what we think are very good passage speeds unless the winds are very light. We also find it is worth reefing a bit earlier than we expected, the boat does not lose much speed. Note this is all by way of comparison with our previous boat which was only 33ft so being able to reliably passage plan at 6kt+ rather than 5kt is a big bonus for us.

Fully powered up and on a close reach she will hold 8kt, which was a surprise. I don't think she's the closest-winded boat in the world, though.

The two main things I wanted my surveyor to pay particular attention to were the babystay chainplate, which can be at risk of lifting, and the skeg. On the 39 and to a slightly lesser extent the 40, the skeg is not as strong as on other Moodys, and there is at least one recorded incident of a boat being lost after skeg failure. So make sure the skeg is well attached without any signs of cracks or movement.

 

[Jan P Altenberg]

Thank you for your reply!
Bought it...

 

[Jan P Altenberg]