How to get a boat home. Need advice

[2xcrash]

I posted the new (to me ) 73 27' Catalina sailboat. I'm a Nu-be and was hoping to have a friend help me get her back to King harbor from Dana Point. I have only been able to get an hour sailing on her and it looks like I won't be able to make me and my friends schedule work out. I got hit with a bunch extra hours at work and only have about a week left to get the boat out of Dana.
Can anyone recommend a towing or hauling service? Or some kind of transport service?
The bottom of the boat is good and the thru hulls are good so I'm not worried about her tanking on water, I wouldn't bet my luck motor sailing her by myself and my sailing skills are limited.
Thanks for any advice in advance!!!

[ryon]

It's not that big a trip, though it is uphill. Is the boat seaworthy? Does the engine work? I'm at Dana Point. PM me if I can help.

[2xcrash]

Boat is sea worthy. I haven't ran the motor for more than an hour. But it starts right up from cold and purrs. Atomic 4.
For me it's fear of the unknown. I have no problem taking a car or motorcycle out untested but when you're out in the ocean it's hard to pull over and wait for AAA. I'm going to get the gold coverage for boats us. That had 100 mile coverage.
Boats at Dana point shipyard getting a thru hull replaced and bottom paint. But I got a whole Landry list of things they want to do too at $4000+ on top of my original quote.

[ryon]

Hi. I've since looked at your earlier posts, and your boat looks nice! Check my profile, and talk to the people at the Ocean Institute for my bona fides. I'm free this week, but not the next. What's your schedule?

[2xcrash]

Free Friday but I'll need to see if the boat will be back in the water by then.

[ryon]

After Saturday would be too late for my schedule, but I'm sure you're getting PMs from others who would like to make the transit. Find someone you trust and go!

[Sea Painter]

Fly me from Florida to CA and I'll do it if boat is functional, safe, and you have appropiate hear.

[bsurvey]

that's a really easy trip I would drain the fuel tank or use a separate tank as the gasoline is most certainly full of water dam that alcohol fuel. change the fuel filter and water pump impeller and leave at 5 AM youll be in king before the wind comes up

[bruce v]

I suggested on an earlier post that this is an easy trip but it is uphill. Even if you find a buddy to go with, it is wise to invest in tow insurance just in case. Sea tow, and boatUS have said insurance for under $200 a year and vessel assist for slightly higher. If you end up needing them and don't have one, it runs about $400 an hour. The choice is yours but as the saying goes "Don't leave home without it". Besides the fees you are intending to spend are, or should be part of your sailing budget. It would certainly assuage your fears of being "stuck on the big blue. I am not affiliated with any insurance company but my own experiences have provided me with good understanding as to why the expenditures are a necessary evil.

[reed1v]

Originally Posted by bruce v

I suggested on an earlier post that this is an easy trip but it is uphill. Even if you find a buddy to go with, it is wise to invest in tow insurance just in case. Sea tow, and boatUS have said insurance for under $200 a year and vessel assist for slightly higher. If you end up needing them and don't have one, it runs about $400 an hour. The choice is yours but as the saying goes "Don't leave home without it". Besides the fees you are intending to spend are, or should be part of your sailing budget. It would certainly assuage your fears of being "stuck on the big blue. I am not affiliated with any insurance company but my own experiences have provided me with good understanding as to why the expenditures are a necessary evil.

Good advice. Sea Tow is cheap insurance if you ever need a tow; and you never know. Even the Coast Guard nowadays ignores calls for help and refers boaters in distress to private salvage companies. Of course you could always claim you are an illegal immigrant and then the government will send all sorts of free help to you.

[roberthowell]

make sure you invest in sea tow or boatus tow on my move the boat story i ended up being towed for 8 hours and the insurance covered all of it otherwise it would have cost thousands check the impeller and filters to the engine and go for it fear is exciting when you survive the trip plus your first good sea story

[2xcrash]

Thank for all the advice. She made it to King Harbor, but it wasn't the smooth sailing trip I had in my head.

My buddy that talked me into getting a boat came along.

We got on the boat and everything started right up, It was fairly still so we were going to motor out. We made it a whole 100 yards before the motor went out. I got a quick lessen on how to use the rudder for power.

I had kinked an O-ring on the fuel filter and we loss suction. I had a spare but we decided to get a basic 5/16 as a spare just incase.

Off we go again. 8am. About an hour and a half into the trip and I get sea sick. FML! I had used a couple different bands but that didn't do anything.
Then about 45 min later the motor makes a squealing noise like a belt was failing, it also felt like the trans was really hot. The motor never went over 160 deg. So we shut it down and started sailing.
Mind you I'm down I'm not learning anything except that the next time I go out I'll have a patch on. we were making around 3-4 knots.

About the time we got to the derricks off of Huntington we lost all wind. Down to about a mile an hour. It's 2:30 and I say were calling a tow. We are concerned about crossing the Long beach and LA harbor shipping lanes and making it around PV.

I'm soooo glad I sprung for the Gold tow package. We called and within an hour and a half we were hooked up. in that time we had gone about a mile.

As soon as we start getting towed we start taking on water. We cant find where it's coming from. We have a small drip coming from the exhaust water line but not enough to be filling the boat at the rate of a 5 gal bucket every 5 min. Guess what else we found out. The bilge pump doesn't work. My buddy's bailing water cause I'm holding the tiller and barfing.
If anyone has any ideas where this water could be coming from let me know. Most of my thru hulls are plugged except for the inlet, outlet to the motor and the bilge. I might be missing something, I'm a nube. Once we stopped being towed we stopped tanking on water. Thank God cause we we're spent. Today I checked to oil for water but it was good. Ill pull the plugs tomorrow since I didn't have a plug wrench or the energy to work on her.

So at 9pm we get her into the slip. Ill say this The Captain that got us home was impressive getting her into the slip. Supper smooth and accurate.

So I have been humbled. I'm going to get her set up for living a couple nights a week and then start working on the motor. I won't be taking her out for a while. I plan on getting some lessons, if anyone has any recommendations around Redondo beach let me know.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Talk to a few of the sail lofts, in person. They tend to be crew hubs, as well as rallying points for wayard paid/semi-paid crew & skippers. Plus guys who''re working up to becoming pro's, that'll sail for beer & food, pretty much.
Ditto on any local sailing schools, like J-world, etc. And find out where these kinds of guys congregate after calling it a day on the water.

You can also post notices in all of the same locales, bulletin boards, & on other forums also.

[Pete7]

So, you got to your destination, the boat didn't sink and no one died, so that's a successful voyage

[Stumble]

Off hand my guess is that you were being towed by the forward cleats? If so there is a pretty good chance that you have a drain line for the anchor locker that sits just above LWL in the bow. The tow not only pulled you forward, it also pulled the bow down and submerged this drain line, allowing water to flow back into locker, over a small coffer dam, and flood the bilge.

This is not a hugely uncommon problem, and there isn't really a fix for it, but you can mitigate it by putting a clam shell over what I am guessing is a strait hole drilled in the boat. But since this typically only happen under a fast tow (all tows for small sailboats are fast) it isn't a huge worry.


If my guess is wrong, I would start looking for the leak a sap and figure out what's going on. If the tow was loading a thru hull it could indicate a bigger problem.