The Cape Dory 30 is a genuinely sound Alberg full-keeler with a short, predictable problem list, most of it age rather than design sin. The survey is really an audit of bedding, one aging diesel, and the consumable parts any forty-to-fifty-year-old boat has quietly used up.
Rebedding is near-certain on any un-refit CD30, so check the interior below every port and fitting for water staining, and be glad if a prior owner used butyl or polysulfide rather than silicone, which corrodes the bronze.
The Spartan tapered-plug seacocks are excellent but seize when the grease dries out between haulouts, and a seacock you cannot close, or a rotten wooden backing pad under one, is a sinking risk.
Water enters at chainplates, stanchion bases, and winch and cleat pads on boats that were never rebedded, so expect localized wet readings there, though end-grain balsa tends to keep the damage contained to the offending fitting.
The shrouds land on bronze lugs at the hull-to-deck flange with a concealed steel or plate backing below, so look for rust weeping at the exits, movement under rig load, and wet core around the plates, because a failed chainplate drops the rig.
The lead ballast is boltless and low-worry when dry, but a hard grounding breaches the glass shell, so look for cracks along the sole and leading edge, a 'smile' at the keel-to-hull transition, and fresh fairing hiding a repair.
CD30 rudders have been known to saturate and delaminate, and owners report the fiberglass blade working loose from its internal stock, so meter the blade, check the seams for weep, and feel for any independent movement between blade and stock.
Read the data plate: avoid the tiny single-cylinder Yanmar, prize a Universal or an already-done repower, and know that the out-of-production Volvo MD7A means parts scarcity plus brutal under-cockpit V-drive access on every service job.
The icebox and the head sink and shower drain into the bilge rather than a closed sump, fouling the pump and leaving a smelly bilge, so check for odor and whether a prior owner retrofitted a proper gray-water sump.
The joint is not through-bolted along its full length, only where chainplates and stanchions pass through, so after forty-plus years the original sealant can fail and weep water at the underside of the toerail.
Wire and swage terminals are consumables replaced roughly every ten to fifteen years, and many CD30s are well past that on original wire, so inspect the swages for rust weep and hairline cracks and expect insurers to want a rigger's inspection.
The full Cape Dory 30 volume walks every point in depth, with the fix costs, the service data, and the parts sources. Leave your email for the printable checklist and word the moment the doors open.