I signed up for this.
It's true, I like older boats that are kind of needy. I was hoping the boat I recently bought might be a little less needy than it appears to be, but for a boat that has been out there, first on the right coast and then later on the left coast always getting its heart pounded out racing around the buoys it stands to reason that it now needs a little heart surgery to get it into its next life. There are parts of this boat that are totally up to date, winches, traveler, 1600 watts of amplifier for the tunes, but there is a long list of items that have been horribly ignored. The part that I and likely many other owners of similar aged boats get to deal with is saturated balsa core in the hull and decks. On my boat the biggest problem is in the hull and for the faint of heart it might be actually fatal. If you were paying someone to do this work it would never make economic sense for a boat this age. But I rarely pay anyone to do anything, so this project fits right in with the other insane projects I am always working on.
I was not unrealistic about the costs of ownership of an older boat. The purchase price on this boat was $13,000. I don't know yet if the sails are totally consumed, or if they still have some useful life in them. I do know the cost of their replacements if that is required and it likely is. I have no expectations of a free ride here. I bought this boat for the very purpose of learning the ins and outs of a fast monohull. I could have bought a newer boat with fewer issues, but I wouldn't have learned the anatomy of the boat in any detail. Nothing I plan to do to this boat will likely make it go any faster, but the things I do should make the boat go much further in time.
What I do want to do is give some others that are thinking about older boats an idea of the work and the expense involved in bringing an older boat back to its full glory might be. I will attempt to explain all of the expenditures I encounter both in dollars and effort. The expenses so far include the boat itself, the trailer, the haul out and various supplies and components. Just so you know that there is no "great deal" here, the following are some of the big ticket items so far:
Boat $13,000
Trailer $ 5,000
1st Haul out $ 650
Survey $ 600
Misc. supplies $ 300
Combined licensing
Titles, documents,
plates $ 250
This year's repair $9,000+
budget
I had planned on replacing the standing rigging and several other items, but may need to wait on that. For sure I will replace the old tired life lines and sort out some repairs to the pulpits and stanchions. I have a little war chest for this year's boat repairs and upgrades and getting the boat back into the water that nearly equals the boat purchase price. So now I get to sort out the replacement of a big bunch of soggy boat hull. Right now I am leaning towards doing the recore work from the outside of the boat because it offers the unobstructed work. I think I have some ideas on how to manage the overhead work and since all the joints I plan to make will end up being covered in new glass with epoxy resin I can get a two fer. My plan is to test this work approach from outside and if I can sort it out proceed that way, if it turns out to be impractical then a bunch of stuff will have to be removed from the interior to provide all the access needed to complete the work.
Here is a video of what I am seeing, what I'm doing now and where I am going.
I signed up for this
